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
Yesterday (Sep 2), the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI) released the annual 2026 ELA and math results from the End-of-Grade (EOG) assessments for students in grades 3-8. The state announced this with the headline “2026 Graduation Rate Reaches Historic High, Accountability Results Continue Positive Trend for North Carolina Public School Students.”
Before diving into the assessment results, a quick note on “proficiency” here: North Carolina publishes two proficiency rates, each of which provides slightly different information. The state effectively has 4 achievement levels, but they are labeled Not Proficient, Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5, which is a holdover from legacy assessments. Grade Level Proficiency includes the state’s top three achievement levels, while College-and-Career Ready includes the state’s top two achievement levels. In 2026, 56% of students in Grades 3-8 met Grade Level Proficiency, vs. 33.2% under CCR. Math was 59.8% and 40.6%, respectively. In our review below, we report assessment results using the College-and-Career Ready proficiency results.
In 2026, EOG results continue an upward trend in both ELA and math in North Carolina. In fact, this is the fifth year of gains in math.
ELA: Approximately 33.2% of students in grades 3-8 reached (CCR) proficiency on the EOG assessment in 2026, up from 31.8% 2025. All grade levels showed at least some improvement in ELA except Grade 4 (-1.9pp compared to 2025). Grade 3 stands out for the greatest share of students moving out of the lowest achievement level, dropping nearly 9 points (from 53% in Level 1 to 44%).
Math: Approximately 40.6% of students reached (CCR) proficiency on the grade 3-8 EOG assessment in 2026, up from 37.9% in 2025 and the fifth year of growth in math. An important aspect here is that the current math assessment began in 2019, allowing for a degree of understanding about post-pandemic recovery: students are not yet back to the pre-pandemic math proficiency level of 41.3%, but they’re getting closer. In contrast to ELA, all grade levels between 3 and 8 improved, by between 1.3 and 4.6 percentage points.
Results by Achievement Level
A Closer Look at 2026
State Assessment Background
Assessment Name: North Carolina End-of-Grade (EOG) Tests - Edition 5
Additional Information:
General End-of-Grade assessment resources can be found here: https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/accountability-and-testing/state-tests/end-grade-eog
2026 results are available from NC DPI here: https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/accountability-and-testing/school-accountability-and-reporting/accountability-data-sets-and-reports
The NC DPI 2026 press release can be found here: https://www.dpi.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2026/09/02/2026-graduation-rate-reaches-historic-high-accountability-results-continue-positive-trend-north
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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