Midwest Safety News

Education

State-level Grade 4 reading scores from NAEP — the Nation's Report Card. Two bars per state show the score vs. the U.S. national average and the change since the prior NAEP administration. Higher score = stronger. NAEP is administered every two years and is the only assessment with a consistent national methodology, so state-to-state comparisons here are apples-to-apples.

Updated June 8, 2026Source: NAEP, the Nation's Report Card

United States

215
mean scale score · 2024
-2.5 pts
vs. 2022
Achievement bands
Basic 208 · Proficient 238 · Advanced 268
Grading
Rank each state against the others. Top performers green, worst red.
Focus
Color by the average of every metric (current state + trend together).
Score vs U.S.Change since prior NAEPgood directionbad direction

Across the country

Where do 4th graders read the best?

NAEP Grade 4 reading mean scale score (2024)

  1. Massachusetts225
  2. Wyoming222
  3. New Jersey222
  4. New Hampshire222
  5. Colorado221
  6. Indiana220
  7. Utah219
  8. Connecticut219
  9. Mississippi219
  10. Florida218

Highest state-level NAEP Grade 4 reading score in the most recent administration.

Where is reading struggling the most?

NAEP Grade 4 reading mean scale score (2024)

  1. New Mexico201
  2. Alaska202
  3. West Virginia206
  4. Oregon207
  5. Oklahoma207
  6. Arizona208
  7. Michigan209
  8. District of Columbia209
  9. Delaware210
  10. Maine210

Lowest state-level NAEP Grade 4 reading score in the most recent administration.

Where are scores rising the fastest?

Change since prior NAEP administration

  1. Louisiana+3.7 pts
  2. Maryland+3.1 pts
  3. Indiana+2.7 pts
  4. District of Columbia+2.4 pts
  5. Nevada+1.6 pts
  6. Kentucky+1.4 pts
  7. Mississippi+1.3 pts
  8. Delaware+1.2 pts
  9. Tennessee+1.1 pts
  10. New York+1.0 pts

Largest gain in NAEP Grade 4 reading between the prior administration and the most recent (2024).

Where are scores falling the fastest?

Change since prior NAEP administration

  1. Arizona-7.4 pts
  2. Nebraska-6.9 pts
  3. Florida-6.5 pts
  4. Vermont-4.3 pts
  5. South Dakota-4.0 pts
  6. Illinois-3.6 pts
  7. Iowa-3.4 pts
  8. Oregon-3.3 pts
  9. Maine-3.2 pts
  10. Pennsylvania-3.1 pts

Largest decline in NAEP Grade 4 reading between the prior administration and the most recent (2024).

All states · highest score first

Methodology

Source: NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), the assessment program run by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. NAEP is the only assessment with a single methodology applied uniformly across all 50 states + DC, which makes its state-to-state numbers cleaner than any state-built test.

Subject: Grade 4 reading. Metric: mean scale score, 0-500. Most state scores cluster between 200 and 230. The NCES achievement-level cuts on the same scale are Basic 208, Proficient 238, Advanced 268, so most states currently sit in the Basic band.

Trend window: 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2024 — the six most-recent administrations. NAEP runs every two years. "Change since prior NAEP" compares the most-recent two administrations; for the 2024 data shipped here, that's 2024 vs. 2022.

Cells with insufficient sample size are suppressed by NAEP and render as "—" here. That rarely affects state-level Grade 4 reading reporting.

Sources