9 May 2026

How Hawaiʻi rose in 8th-grade reading without raising its score.

Hawaiʻi’s 8th-graders jumped nineteen spots in NAEP reading rankings, from #45 in 2011 to #26 in 2024. The score? It moved 0.09 points. Statistically, it didn’t move at all.

So how did the rank rise? Because scores fell in 48 of 50 states, mostly by five to fifteen points. Hawaiʻi didn’t surge. The country fell.

Only Hawaiʻi and Louisiana came out without losing ground. Louisiana rose before COVID and fell during it. Hawaiʻi just held steady.

Pandemic learning loss hit the US hard. Between 2019 and 2022, the US median 8th-grade reading score dropped 3.7 points. Hawaiʻi was one of only three states whose score didn’t fall in those three years. By 2024, Hawaiʻi was tied with the US median for the first time.

Hawaiʻi’s ranking improved. But not because its score rose. It improved because Hawaiʻi held steady while the nation fell. That is progress worth noticing, but not a reason to declare victory.