Credit: By Karen Jowers, Tuesday, Feb 4, 2025

Photo Caption: Students at DOD schools scored an average of 14 to 25 points higher in their 2024 math and reading assessments than their peers in the nation’s public school system. (Airman 1st Class Samantha White/Air Force)

Students at Department of Defense schools continued their ride at the top of the nation in 4th and 8th grade math and reading scores, according to results released Jan. 29.

The average scores of students in Department of Defense Education Activity schools ranged from 14 to 25 points higher than the national averages in math and reading in the two grades of students who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests. DODEA students were ranked at the top of the states in each of the tests.

The NAEP tests were administered across the country between January and March 2024. The NAEP is the only nationally representative assessment of what American students know and can do in various subject areas, and they’re conducted periodically.

Not all students take the NAEP. In most cases, it’s a representative sample of students, but in DODEA schools, all the students in the designated grades take the test that particular year.

With scores increasing or decreasing by one point – or remaining the same – in each of the tests, students in DOD schools held their own in comparison to their scores in 2022, the last time the tests were administered. That year, DOD schools also led the nation in reading and math scores for 4th and 8th graders.

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