PRESS RELEASE
May 13, 2026
Contact: Sam Stockwell
samuel_stockwell@gse.harvard.edu
617.495.0342
Nebraska Ranks 37th in Math and 33rd in Reading Recovery Among States, with Scores Declining in Both Subjects Since 2022
Math and reading scores have fallen further since 2022, leaving Nebraska students nearly .9 grade equivalents below 2019 levels in reading.
Chronic absenteeism remains almost 7 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.
Westside Community Schools is outperforming its peers in both math and reading, demonstrating that better outcomes are achievable.
(May 13, 2026) In its fourth year, the Education Scorecard (a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, and faculty at Dartmouth College) is issuing its annual report on district-level student growth in math and reading.
The latest report provides a high-resolution picture of where Nebraska students’ academic recovery stands, combining state test results for roughly 35 million grade 3–8 students nationwide with national assessment data to describe changes in local communities. Here’s what we found:
Nebraska:
- Nebraska ranks 37th out of 38 states in academic growth in math and 33rd out of 35 states in reading between 2022 and 2025.
- In math, the average student is performing about .19 grade equivalents below their 2022 level, and .53 grade equivalents below 2019 levels. Some districts like Lincoln, Columbus, and Omaha continue to lag behind 2019 levels.
- In reading, the average student is performing almost half a grade equivalent below their 2022 level, and about .87 grade equivalents below 2019 levels. A number of districts like Columbus, Lincoln, Hastings, and Grand Island continue to slip and remain more than a full grade equivalent behind their 2019 levels.
- Several Nebraska districts are emerging as Districts on the Rise. These districts have shown unusual progress relative to similar districts in their own state. One district is excelling in both math and reading, with Westside Community Schools outperforming its peers.
- Several other districts are rising relative to their peers in one subject. Kearney, Norfolk, and Scottsbluff are leading the way in math performance.
- Statewide, there is some good news on chronic absenteeism (students missing more than 10% of a school year), which has fallen from 23.8% in 2022 to 21% in 2025. However, chronic absence rates still remain almost 7 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.
- Nebraska received about $854 million in federal pandemic relief for K–12 schools—roughly $2,600 per student. Our analysis finds the gains in many high-poverty districts were driven by this federal support. Unfortunately, many middle-poverty districts (those with 30 to 70 percent of students receiving federal lunch subsidies) received little federal aid. Now that the federal relief is gone, Nebraska should focus school improvement dollars on the middle and higher poverty districts that remain behind their pre-pandemic levels.
“The pandemic was the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion in student achievement,” said Professor Tom Kane, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. “The ‘learning recession’ started a decade ago, after policymakers switched off the early warning system of test-based accountability and social media took over children’s lives. In this report, we highlight the work of a small group of state leaders who have started digging out by changing how students learn to read, and 108 local school districts that are finding ways to get students learning again. The recovery of U.S. education has begun. But it’s up to the rest of us to spread it.”
