A new national report from researchers at Harvard and Stanford offers a timely and sobering assessment of where American students stand and what is beginning to work. The 2026 Education Scorecard, From Learning Recession to Learning Recovery, draws on state test results for roughly 35 million grade 3–8 students to track district-level trends in math and reading across the country. Its picture is mixed: post-pandemic math recovery has been real, but reading scores remain at historic lows.
The report’s headline finding is that the “learning recession” did not start with COVID-19. It started in 2013, when student progress in math and reading stalled and began to decline, years before the pandemic arrived. But the Scorecard also delivers an early signal of hope: states that adopted comprehensive, evidence-based literacy reforms are beginning to see results. Every state that improved in reading between 2022 and 2025 was implementing science-of-reading reforms. The data is pointing toward a clear message that early literacy intervention, done right, makes a difference.
That message resonates deeply with what governors across the country have been saying and doing. In 2026 State of the State addresses, academic supports, led by literacy and math, were the number one education priority raised by governors, according to NGA analysis. From Alaska’s READS Act to Maryland’s Academic Excellence Program, governors from both parties are investing in evidence-based approaches to reading and moving with urgency. NGA Chair Colorado Gov. Jared Polis put it plainly in saying that ensuring students graduate with the skills they need for success should be the chief focus, and his Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success NGA Chair’s initiative helped catalyze a national conversation about connecting what students learn to what they need.
Governors are working to develop a holistic picture of student readiness one that captures leading and lagging indicators across academics, workforce preparation, and well-being. NGA’s ongoing Policy Academy to Advance Data Dashboards, with participating states and territories, now underway following a spring kickoff convening, is building exactly that kind of measurement infrastructure at the state level.
These threads come together at NGA’s Governors’ Education Policy Advisors Institute, taking place later this month. Governors’ advisors will examine the latest on early literacy strategies, including a preview of NGA’s forthcoming updated Pocket Guide to Early Literacy, alongside sessions on academic supports, K–12 finance, and the full spectrum of student well-being and a lifetime of success. The Scorecard tells us recovery is possible and that state leadership matters. The Institute is where governors’ teams do the work to make it real.
