Policy Backgrounders

The 2022 NAEP Scores in US History and Civics

May 12, 2023

New assessment data of US students reveal too few students are knowledgeable about significant historical events, the function of government, and civic participation, raising further concerns about K-12 learning deficiencies and loss, as well as more broad-reaching concerns about the long-term health of our democracy. On May 3, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the 2022 results for the US history and civics assessment of eighth-grade students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP):

• Only 14 percent of students scored proficient or higher in US history and 22 percent scored at the level of proficiency or advanced in civics.

• These results mark the first decline in civics and a continued decline in history, adding concern to the alarm raised last fall when NCES data revealed historic declines in reading and math.

• The NAEP US history and civics assessment was administered to a nationally representative sample of eighth-grade students across 410 schools.

• NAEP US history scores continued in a downward trajectory and now sit 9 points below the average score in 2014, when the decline began, and 1 point below the 1994 average, when the assessment was first given.

• Average NAEP civics results for 2022 matched 1998 scores, when the assessment was first administered, and decreased by 2 points since the prior assessment in 2018.

• On both exams, lower- and middle-performing students experienced a decline. Students at the 75th percentile experienced a decline in history but not in civics and eighth graders in the 90th percentile held steady on both exams.