A Think Twice Review of:

Review of Testing Theories of Why: Four Keys to Interpreting US Student Achievement Trends

Think Twice - Apr 24, 2025

Publisher/Think Tank - American Enterprise Institute

Author(s) - Nat Malkus

A recent American Enterprise Institute report does a good job of identifying and describing long-term trends in student performance using national and international assessment data. However, a review finds that the report then falls short in its attempts to analyze and understand the factors driving these trends.

Reviewer(s) - Chris Domaleski, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment

In his review of Testing Theories of Why: Four Keys to Interpreting US Student Achievement Trends, Chris Domaleski of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment explains that the report identifies four major trends: (1) student performance peaked in the early 2010s before declining, (2) lower-performing students have seen the sharpest declines, (3) achievement gaps in the U.S. are widening more than in other countries, and (4) similar declines appear in adult literacy and numeracy scores. The report also attempts to challenge implicit theories, such as the idea that recent declines are solely due to the pandemic or that all students are affected uniformly.