Preliminary New York State test results for the 2025-26 school year show a steep decline in reading proficiency across New York City, with third-grade proficiency dropping nearly 14 percentage points. Among students in grades 3 through 8, roughly half were proficient in reading, a decline of about 6 percentage points that nearly erased the 7-point gain recorded the prior year. Math proficiency held flat at 57 percent.
The decline comes as the city enters its fourth year of NYC Reads, a mandated science-of-reading curriculum overhaul affecting all elementary schools. Under the policy, every K-5 school must use one of three pre-approved curricula: Into Reading, Wit and Wisdom, or EL Education. Schools must also use an approved foundational phonics program in grades K through 2. Phase 1 launched in 15 districts in 2023-24, and Phase 2 covered the remaining districts in 2024-25.
The 2025-26 results reverse the direction of the previous year's data, which the Mayor's office had celebrated as evidence the curriculum overhaul was working. In 2024-25, overall English language arts proficiency in the city rose 7.2 points, from 49.1 percent to 56.3 percent. Third grade rose 12.9 points, from 45.0 percent to 58.0 percent, and fifth grade rose 15.0 points. The city also reported that Phase 1 schools, which had two years of implementation, posted an 11.6-point gain in grades 3 through 5, compared with 10.4 points for Phase 2 schools.
A statewide pattern, not only a city one
The decline was not limited to New York City. Statewide, about 48 percent of students in grades 3 through 8 were proficient in reading in 2025-26, down 5 percentage points. Fifth grade posted the largest drop of any grade statewide, falling 14 percentage points. The shared downturn suggests the pattern is not unique to the city's curriculum changes, but may reflect a broader assessment or testing phenomenon.
For context, the 2024-25 New York State Education Department report card data showed grade 3 English language arts proficiency at 54 percent, grade 4 at 54 percent, grade 5 at 57 percent, and grades 3 through 8 combined at 53 percent. Those figures serve as the baseline against which the 2025-26 declines are measured.
Experts question the volatility
Multiple testing experts have flagged the year-over-year swings as unusual. Aaron Pallas, a Teachers College professor who has studied school performance, told Chalkbeat that the statewide pattern raised concern about something unusual in how the 2024 test was scored, and that without the 2024 data, the results would look fairly stable. Andrew Ho, a Harvard professor who serves on a panel advising New York on its assessment system, cautioned against overreaction, saying the safe assumption is that there was a real gain and a real decline, but neither is probably as large as the numbers suggest. He urged triangulating data from multiple sources, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The questions about volatility follow a 2024 change in which state officials reduced the number of questions students needed to answer correctly to be marked proficient. Some observers said that raised questions about whether the test had become easier. State officials said the scoring changes were standard adjustments to account for question difficulty and did not make the exam easier. A state Education Department spokesperson said the state conducts two independent audits of its assessments each year and those reviews have not flagged any problems, and that cut scores, scale scores, and performance levels remained consistent and were not manipulated.
City officials point to internal assessments
Chancellor Kamar Samuels said in a statement that school leaders are seeing dramatic swings in literacy proficiency reflected in this year's state assessment results, that the results raise important questions and deserve careful, rigorous analysis, and that the city would conduct that analysis. City officials also noted that the state exam results diverged from the city's own periodic internal assessments, which generally showed improvements in reading. The divergence complicates any straightforward conclusion about whether the science-of-reading curriculum changes are working, as the two measures disagree.
EdTrust-New York, an advocacy group, has called for an independent audit of the last three years of state testing data, citing concerns about dramatic swings in proficiency rates. The NYC Department of Education's test results portal, which provides English language arts and math results at the city, borough, district, and school levels, had not yet posted the 2025-26 preliminary data as of the reporting.