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US Test Scores Hit Damning New Lows in Math, Reading Since COVID School Closures, ‘Nation’s Report Card’ Shows
The writing’s on the wall — if you can read it. Sobering national test results show more high school seniors are struggling with math and reading than at any point in recent decades, with Education Secretary Linda McMahon calling out a “devastating trend” Tuesday. The National Assessment of Educational Progress — commonly referred to as the Nation’s Report Card — showed just 35% of high school seniors were proficient in reading, the lowest score since the assessment began in 1992.
The math score for 12th-graders was even worse, with just 22% achieving proficiency, the lowest point since the current test began in 2005. “American students are testing at historic lows across all of K-12,” McMahon said in response to the scores, which were extracted from tests administered to thousands of students in early 2024. “Nearly half of America’s high school seniors are testing at below basic levels in math and reading,” she went on.
“The achievement gap is widening, and more high school seniors are performing below the basic benchmark in math and reading.” The average score on the 12th-grade math and reading assessments dropped three points from 2019. Among fourth-graders, the average math score was also three points lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic, while eight-graders saw their average decline eight points from five years earlier.
Average scores on the fourth- and eighth-grade reading exam dropped by five points between 2019 and 2024.
Minn. Attorney General Sues TikTok Over Addictive Algorithms Targeting Children, Teens
The state of Minnesota has launched a legal battle against TikTok, accusing the social media platform of exploiting young users with addictive algorithms. The Minnesota TikTok lawsuit, filed in state court, claims TikTok’s practices violate Minnesota’s consumer protection laws by promoting compulsive use among children and teenagers.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed the lawsuit Aug. 19 in Hennepin County District Court.
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok’s design features, such as its ‘recommendation engine’ and infinite scroll, are intentionally crafted to trap young users in cycles of excessive use. These features exploit the neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities of young people, according to the TikTok addiction lawsuit. “Simply put, the more people TikTok can get addicted to its app, the more money they make, and the more their users’ mental health suffers,” Ellison said in a statement.
Minnesota’s lawsuit follows a series of similar actions by other states, bringing the total to about 24 states. The state’s investigation into TikTok revealed that its features, like TikTok LIVE and virtual currencies, have led to instances of financial and sexual exploitation of minors.
Large Jump in Poison Center Calls Tied to Self-Harm in Preteens
Exposures to medications, dietary supplements, or psychoactive substances increased among children from 2000 to 2023, particularly exposures associated with suspected self-harm or suicidal intent, according to data from U.S. poison centers.
Among children ages six to 12 years, the overall rate of exposure increased non-linearly by 53.8% over this time period, while the exposure rate associated with suspected self-harm or suicidal intent increased by 311%, reported Gary A. Smith, M.D., DrPH, of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and colleagues.
Notably, therapeutic errors accounted for 48.6% of exposures, they explained in Pediatrics.
While most cases had minimal medical consequences, 3.5% of children were medically admitted, 4% experienced moderate effects, 0.3% had major effects, and there were 95 reported deaths. Cases of exposures associated with suspected self-harm or suicidal intent were more likely to be medically admitted (risk ratio [RR] 14.32, 95% CI 14.10-14.56) or experience a serious medical outcome (RR 8.04, 95% CI 7.91-8.17) compared with other reasons for exposure.
Meta Suppressed Research on Child Safety, Employees Say
At her home in western Germany, a woman told a team of visiting researchers from Meta that she did not allow her sons to interact with strangers on the social media giant’s virtual reality headsets. Then her teenage son interjected, according to two of the researchers: He frequently encountered strangers, and adults had sexually propositioned his little brother, who was younger than 10, numerous times.
“I felt this deep sadness watching the mother’s response,” one of the researchers, Jason Sattizahn, told The Washington Post regarding the April 2023 conversation. “Her face in real time displayed her realization that what she thought she knew of Meta’s technology was completely wrong.”
Meta had publicly committed to making child safety a top priority across its platforms. But Sattizahn and the second researcher, who specializes in studying youths and technology, said that after the interview, their boss ordered the recording of the teen’s claims deleted, along with all written records of his comments. An internal Meta report on the research said that in general, German parents and teens feared grooming by strangers in virtual reality — but the report did not include the teen’s assertion that his younger sibling actually had been targeted.
The report is part of a trove of documents from inside Meta that was recently disclosed to Congress by two current and two former employees who allege that Meta suppressed research that might have illuminated potential safety risks to children and teens on the company’s virtual reality devices and apps — an allegation the company has vehemently denied.
