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 grades three through eight exceeded the state's expectations, a decline of two percentage points from 2025. In 2019, 52% of students had met or exceeded expectations.
Rob Curtin, deputy commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said the third graders who took the 2026 MCAS were the first class to not have experienced any sort of remote learning.
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."
Curtin said that motivation has also been considered a factor in low scores among tenth graders, specifically since MCAS was eliminated as a graduation requirement in 2024.
"Particularly in ELA, there's more writing and it takes a little longer," he said during the department's board meeting on Tuesday. "But I also think it's important to not dismiss the results completely. When they [these students] were in grade seven and grade eight a couple of years ago, they were at the 40% level then, and now, they're at the 45% level."
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.
Curtin 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."
Curtin adds that despite lower scores, roughly 69% of schools in Massachusetts have MCAS scores that are either stable or improving.
"What this does is it gives us hope that we are at the point now where we have stabilized a little bit coming out of the pandemic, understanding everything that's happened and we really can think about acceleration," he said.
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."
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