- Utah education board assessments show modest improvements for K-12 students in core subjects.
- While reading and math scores are closer to pre-pandemic levels, many students are still performing below proficiency.
- Science scores for Utah kids are higher in 2026 than those prior to the Covid pandemic.
For K-12 educators in Utah and across the country, assessing student academic growth could aptly be placed in two categories: BP (Before the Pandemic) and AP (After the Pandemic).
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Those two groupings — BP and AP — are key elements of 2025-2026 statewide assessments of core subjects recently released by the Utah State Board of Education.
And while there’s plenty of room for improvement, there’s also some good news — particularly in a year when policy makers and educators across Utah are calling for early literacy growth. The statewide assessments show improvement in English Language Arts (ELA) and math, with science results reaching record highs.
Still, proficiency levels suggest many Utah students are still struggling to reach needed skill levels in core subjects.
Those local figures are happening even as educators across the country grapple with how to improve and sustain reading and math proficiency levels for American kids.
The Nation’s Report Card released in June revealed higher reading and math scores for 9-year-old students than students that were the same age in 2022, shortly after the pandemic. But 13-year-old American students were stagnant in both reading and math proficiencies, according to the Nation’s Report Card.
Less than 60% from that age group scored at or above “Level 250” in reading in 2025, which is reportedly not significantly different from the percentage in 2023 or 1971.
While June’s National Report Card did not provide state-level assessment, fairly recent National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data revealed Utah kids are faring better than most — but there was still cause for reading concern among early adolescents.
Meanwhile, according to data released by the NCES last year, Beehive State students performed “significantly higher” in math than the national average for both fourth and eighth graders in 2024.
Now the recent state assessments released by the USBE point to continued multi-year growth for Utah students following disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Across all core subjects, student performance increased year-over-year, reflecting sustained multi-year gains,” according to a USBE release. “Most notably, science performance has exceeded pre-pandemic baseline levels, while English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics are closing in on full recovery.”
Detailed assessment results can be found at the USBE’s data dashboard.
2025-2026 Utah student assessments: By the numbers
The assessments cited by USBE are not school specific, instead focusing on overall student learning and achievement levels.
Single-year growth of 1.2% to 2.6% in subject categories “reflect sustained, healthy progress rather than statistical noise — providing a strong indicator of systemic academic recovery statewide,” according to USBE.
In the most recent statewide assessments, 45.4% of Utah’s K-12 students reached “proficiency” ELA levels. That’s up 1.5% from last year and 2.3% higher than the pandemic “trough” year in 2021.
But it’s still more than a full percentage point less than the ELA proficiency baseline number of 46.8% when USBE began administering the Readiness Improvement Success Empowerment (RISE) and Utah Aspire Plus Assessments in 2019.
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Meanwhile, 42.5% of Utah students recorded proficiency marks in math — up 1.2% from 2025 and 3.5% from the trough year. The most recent math proficiency figure is still more than two percentage points below the 2019 baseline figure.
But science scores in 2026 marked a positive milestone. Almost half of Utah students (49.8%) reached proficiency standards — a record high since the baseline of 47% was established in 2019.
So how are Utah kids doing across grade levels?
Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature passed a bill increasing the statewide goal for 80% of Utah third graders to be reading at proficiency levels.
But according to a June Legislative audit, unfilled “reading gaps” could undermine the state’s updated goal of 80% of Utah third-graders meeting reading benchmarks by 2030.
The Legislative audit acknowledged that Utah performs well on reading assessment compared to other states — but there’s been no sustained statewide improvement in the percentage of students meeting the benchmark in at least nine years.
“When looking at data grouped by each cohort of students across the state, it is apparent that first grade has the fewest students meeting grade-level reading requirements,” added the audit.
“We believe the gap in performance on first grade reading tests contributes to the state’s lack of movement in third grade, due to more students entering second grade needing interventions”
The recent USBE assessment revealed that 70.6% of K-3 students scored “at or above benchmark” on end-of-year assessments. And 65.1% of K-3 kids scored at or above benchmarks on the early numeracy assessment measuring foundational math skills.
But English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency numbers for Utah students in grades 3-8 are sure to amplify the call for early literacy training. Less than half from that age group (45.3%) were ELA proficient.
The math proficiency numbers for grades 3-8 students — 45.4% — are almost identical to the reading numbers, although more than half of Utah students in grades 3-4 were performing at proficiency levels.
And 52.3% of students in the grades 3-8 category are proficient in science, with sixth-grade students reaching almost 60%.
More than half of Utah high school students taking the computerized Utah Aspire Plus assessment test scored below proficiency in ELA, math and science, with the lowest number — 34.5% — recorded in math.
Meanwhile, about 62% of 11th graders who took the standardized ACT college entrance exam scored an 18 or higher.
The national ACT composite score for the graduating class of 2025 was 19.4. But it must be noted that every Utah high school junior has the option to take the ACT test once for free, regardless of their college plans.
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