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
In August, the Mississippi Department of Education released the annual 2026 ELA and math results from the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) for students in grades 3-8. Note that the state results often include high school end-of-course exams in overall numbers; those are excluded here.
In 2026, MAAP results for students in Mississippi show little change in overall ELA scores, with a slight drop in math for students in grades 3-8. Both subjects are below their 2024 peaks of 48.1% and 54.4%, respectively.
ELA: Approximately 47.1% of students in grades 3-8 reached proficiency on the MAAP assessment in 2026, unchanged from 2025. No individual grade level changed more than 1.3 points in either direction; Grade 6 improved by 1.3 percentage points; Grade 7 is the lowest performing grade level at 36.7%.
A note on ELA & writing: MDE’s executive summary (which you can find here) notes that “2026 should be considered a transition year for ELA” because 2026 did not include writing in the ELA assessment (the press release does not mention this, however). The executive summary also states that a scoring approach was used “that maintains performance expectations comparable to previous years.”
Math: Approximately 51.9% of students reached proficiency on the grade 3-8 MAAP assessment in 2026, the second year of a dip in math scores. This year, the drop was concentrated in Grade 4 with a drop of 5 points (56.6% to 51.6%) and Grade 3 with a drop of 4.5 points (53.3% to 48.8%), while Grade 7 and 8 each saw gains of over 2 points.
Of the 129 school districts with comparable data in both 2025 and 2026 and in both subjects, approximately one-third showed growth in both ELA and math (34%) while nearly 30% declined in both areas.
The state’s press release notes that MDE:
“...continues to work with districts on strategies to improve student proficiency, including expanding the number of literacy and math coaches to support educators, encouraging the adoption of high-quality instructional materials, and supporting full implementation of literacy instruction based on the science of reading (SOR).”
For an in-depth look at (Grade 4) literacy gains on a different assessment - the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) - between 2019 and 2024 in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama, a rise now known as the “Southern Surge,” Karen Vaites provides an excellent overview in "The Southern Surge: Understanding the Bright Spots in the Literacy Landscape." Of course, this is a different assessment from the MAAP, but Karen’s insight provides some helpful context for the broader ELA changes in the state and region.
Outcomes disaggregated by student subgroup have not been provided by the Mississippi Department of Education at this time. We include subgroups through 2025 in the figures below for reference.
Results by Achievement Level
A Closer Look at 2026
State Assessment Background
Assessment Name: Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP)
Additional Information:
General MAAP assessment resources can be found here: https://mdek12.org/studentassessment/maap/
MAAP 2026 results are available from MDE here: https://mdek12.org/publicreporting/2025-26/
The MDE 2026 press release can be found here: https://mdek12.org/communications/2026/08/20/2025-26-mississippi-academic-assessment-program-scores-show-mixed-results-with-continued-gains-in-science/
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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