2026 State Test Score Results Data Series
The 2026 State Test Score Results Data Series is published by the Education Data Center and is designed to provide updates on 2026 state assessment data.
What to expect: Our goal is to provide high-level insights on ELA and math state summative assessment outcomes for students in grades 3-8. We will publish overviews as State Education Agencies (SEAs) publicly release assessment results and/or as we receive aggregate results via public records requests.
For additional information about each state assessment, please see the end of this post. All available 2026 assessment data used for this data series will be published by the EDC in December.
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Let us know at info@eddatacenter.org!
Trends Over Time
This week, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released the 2026 results from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). DESE has administered the “next generation” MCAS since 2017, with four achievement levels: Not Meeting, Partially Meeting, Meeting, and Exceeding Expectations. There have been some changes with the ELA assessment during that time, but no changes to cut scores. Next spring (2027), the ELA assessment for Grades 3-8 will be revised (see FAQs here); it has not yet been determined if the results will be comparable to prior years.
In 2026, MA scores moved up slightly in math, while ELA dipped compared to 2025:
ELA: Approximately 40% of students in grades 3-8 reached proficiency on the assessment, down from 41.5% in 2025 (-1.5pp) and down from 52.2% in 2019 (-12.2pp). All student subgroups declined in overall ELA proficiency in 2026. In addition, drops were seen across five of six grade levels: Grade 4 saw the largest drop (-3.01pp), while Grade 3 was the only level to see a small improvement (+0.31pp). The share of students in the lowest performance level in ELA (Level 1) increased by 1 point; the share in Level 4 held steady. No district that tests all six grades improved across all grade levels in ELA, though Shutesbury improved in all grades it tests.
Math: Approximately 41.1% of students in grades 3-8 reached proficiency in 2026, up from 40.7% in 2025 (+0.4pp), but still down from 48.8% in 2019 (-7.7pp). Half of the grade levels saw gains; these were led by Grade 8, which improved by about 3.4pp. The share of students in the lowest performance level dropped by 1 point. In 2017, girls outperformed boys by about 1.7pp; after the pandemic, boys pulled ahead, and boys now outperform girls by 3.8pp. Everett Public School District improved across all six grade levels.
The state’s recent press release reports that 14 districts have met or exceeded their pre-pandemic rates in both ELA and math, but these are not listed. The 14 districts include Arlington, Central Berkshire, Farmington River, Hawlemont, Petersham, Shutesbury, Southbridge, Wakefield, Williamsburg, and the Greater Commonwealth Virtual District, as well as the four charter districts of Benjamin Banneker, Excel Academy, Libertas Academy and New Heights.
Results by Achievement Level
A Closer Look at 2026
State Assessment Background
Assessment Name: Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS)
Additional Information:
General assessment resources can be found here: https://www.doe.mass.edu/assessment/default.html
Assessment results are available from the Massachusetts Education-to-Career (E2C) Research and Data Hub here: https://educationtocareer.data.mass.gov/Assessment-and-Accountability/MCAS-Achievement-Results/i9w6-niyt/about_data
The state’s 2026 press release can be found here: https://www.mass.gov/news/massachusetts-releases-2026-mcas-results-highlighting-areas-of-progress-and-new-supports-for-students
Data presented here are specific to this state’s assessment and are not comparable to assessments administered by other states. For questions, please reach out to info@eddatacenter.org.
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