Fairfax County Public Schools superintendent makes excuses for low nationwide NAEP scores

On February 6, 2025, Fairfax County Public Schools held a board meeting where Superintendent Michelle Reid dismissed the “antiquated” National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores during her “Academic Matters” presentation. [Time Stamp: 2:58:20] She appeared to excuse students receiving lower test scores nationwide because the report used data from “only 466 FCPS students.” She also stated that the district “does NOT receive student, school, or division results for NAEP.” She further uses the excuse that NAEP scoring “has been minimally revised since 1990.” The superintendent at one point appears to blame other states such as California and Mississippi for lower scores.

The recent NAEP scores, which released January 29, 2025, have been an important source of data for evaluating the success of academic achievement for American students. NAEP scores declined in the new report by four points in both math and reading for Virginia’s eighth-grade students. The reading score for eighth-grade students was below the national average. This has occurred as schools, such as the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in FCPS, have dropped their merit-based admissions process and replaced it with an equity-based admissions process.