More than six years after the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts students continue to lag behind pre-pandemic levels in both English language arts and math, according to the latest MCAS results released Tuesday.
State education officials also point out that while chronic absenteeism has decreased slightly, rates remain high.
“We’re still not where we want to be in terms of our results. In literacy, we didn’t see the stabilization, especially at the high school level,” said Pedro Martinez, the state commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in a virtual press conference before results were made public. “Part of that is motivation … We also have seen less of our students meeting our standards through our middle school, from third through eighth grade.”
In English language arts, 40% of students in third through grades through 8 exceeded the state’s expectations, a decline of two percentage points from 2025. In 2019, 52% of students had met or exceeded expectations.
Roughly 45% of 10th graders met or exceeded expectations on the exam’s English portion, which represents a 6% decline from last year.
The drop in scores comes more than two months after after Gov. Maura Healey awarded nearly $24.7 million to 71 districts to strengthen literacy instruction across the state, while also funding high-dosage tutoring for more than 8,000 students in kindergarten through third grade.
“What makes me optimistic is the fact that … the administration already started seeing this, and that’s why we launched our literacy grants,” said Martinez. “What we know is the right solutions, making sure that our teachers have access to strong content, that they’re supported with strong instructional practices, and then just more supports for our students in general.”
Math MCAS scores flat
Math scores remained stable, with 41% of students in grades three through eight meeting or exceeding expectations, the same as 2025. Among 10th graders, 44% met or exceeded expectations, a slight decline from last year but 15% below 2019 scores.
Rob Curtin, deputy commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said there’s still a few “bright spots.”
“In grade six and in grade eight, we did see meaningful increases in our performance, up to 43% and 42%, respectively,” he said. “Both of those represented meaningful change from 2025.”
Martinez said the state plans to launch a “strategic plan that sets a North Star” for Massachusetts students in grades three through eight to reach higher proficiency levels by 2031.
“We also want to be on a track to eliminate students being in our lowest level of not meeting standards,” he said. “In addition to that, we want all of our high school students to not only meet all of our new grad standards, but also, we want to keep our record levels of graduation.”
While chronic absenteeism across the state is improving, it still remains higher than it was before the pandemic, said State Secretary of Education Stephen Zrike.
“New data from the 2025-2026 school year shows that the statewide chronic absentee rate improved by 1.6% percentage points over the previous year, from just under 19% in June 2025 to 17.1% in June 2026,” he said.
Curtin said these MCAS scores show the importance of attendance.
“Our students who are not chronically absent … are really close to being at that meeting expectations level,” he said. “However, students who are chronically absent and who are missing at least 10% of the school days in the year — that means on average about 18 school days a year — have a 14 scaled-score point difference.”
The state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is expected to discuss the scores at its board meeting on Tuesday morning.
