PRESS RELEASE
May 13, 2026
Contact: Sam Stockwell
samuel_stockwell@gse.harvard.edu
617.495.0342
Texas Ranks 28th in Math and 25th in Reading Recovery Among States, with Districts on the Rise Emerging Across the State
Reading scores have continued to fall since 2022, and students remain nearly half a grade level below 2019 levels in math.
Chronic absenteeism remains almost 8 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.
Spring Branch ISD, Castleberry ISD, and Alice ISD are outperforming their peers in both math and reading.
(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 Texas 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 in Texas:
- Texas ranks 28th out of 38 states in academic growth in math and 25th out of 35 states in reading between 2022 and 2025.
- In math, the average student is performing .05 grade equivalents above their 2022 level, but .46 grade equivalents below 2019 levels. Still, some districts like Killeen, Northside, and Aldine continue to lag behind 2019 levels.
- In reading, the average student is performing about .17 grade equivalents below their 2022 level, and about .27 grade equivalents below 2019 levels. A number of districts like Arlington, Northside, and Fort Worth continue to slip and remain behind their 2019 levels.
- Several Texas districts are emerging as Districts on the Rise. These districts have shown unusual progress relative to similar districts in their own state. A core group of districts is excelling in both math and reading, with districts like Spring Branch ISD, Castleberry ISD, and Alice ISD outperforming their peers.
- Several other districts are rising relative to their peers in one subject—either math or reading. Zapata County ISD, Brownwood ISD, and Beaumont ISD are leading the way in math performance, while Stafford MSD, Terrell ISD, and San Felipe-Del Rio CISD are leading the way in reading.
- Statewide, there is some good news on chronic absenteeism (students missing more than 10% of a school year), which has fallen from over 25% in 2022 to 19% in 2024. However, chronic absence rates still remain almost 8 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.
- Texas received about $19.23 billion in federal pandemic relief for K–12 schools—roughly $3,500 per student. Our analysis finds that 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, Texas 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.”
District on the Rise: Spring Branch ISD
Among Texas’s Districts on the Rise, Spring Branch ISD stands out for anchoring its entire instructional system to a clear, long-term vision: T-2-4, the district’s commitment that every graduate will attain a technical certificate, military training, or a two- or four-year degree. That vision is made operational through six core graduate characteristics, each tracked by defined milestones at fifth, eighth, and twelfth grade, with academic preparedness—including strong literacy and numeracy skills—as the foundation. District-developed Priority Standard Assessments (PSAs) in math, ELA, science, and social studies track student progress against grade-level standards on a regular cycle, with teacher teams and principals conducting structured data conversations to inform instruction. In early literacy, the district launched the ReadSBISD Reading Buddies Program in 2019, pairing second graders with trained volunteer tutors for 30 minutes per week throughout the year; 88% of participating students showed gains in oral reading fluency, and over 60% of the 340 volunteers have served for at least two years, many recruited from the area’s large 65+ community. ESSER funds were used to staff every kindergarten classroom with a paraprofessional trained in evidence-based instruction—not to pull students, but to help deliver instruction to the entire class—resulting in kindergarten readiness scores more than 10 percentage points above state and regional averages. On numeracy, data-driven math instruction begins in pre-kindergarten, and the SBISD Counts! Math Parent Guide equips families from pre-K through second grade with strategies to support learning at home in both English and Spanish. For the full case study, click here.
“Our T-2-4 vision is more than a graduation goal; it is a promise that every student who walks through our doors will be academically prepared for the complexities of a technical certificate, military service, or a college degree,” said Dr. Jennifer Blaine, Superintendent of Spring Branch ISD. “By defining clear literacy and numeracy milestones, we ensure that rigor is embedded in the student experience from the very beginning. We believe that foundational literacy is a community-wide responsibility, which is why we’ve bridged the gap between our classrooms and our neighborhoods through initiatives like the Reading Buddies Program. This intentional focus on the early years allows us to use sophisticated data to catch gaps before they widen, ensuring every child is on a trajectory toward success.”
