Students with disabilities and students of color made gains in math and lost ground in reading, mirroring the overall pattern for New York City students in grades 3 to 8, according to state test score data.

The scores, which the city Department of Education released in late August, show that more than half of city students in grades 3–8 were at or above proficiency in math — increasing to 53.4%, up from 49.9% the previous year.

While children of all races and ethnicities showed improvement in math, significant disparities persist. Nearly 80% of Asian students and 72.4% of white students were deemed proficient, compared with 38.4% (up from 34.3%) of Black students and 39.7% (up from 35.7%) of Hispanic children. For students with disabilities, the overall proficiency rate was 27.4%, a 3 percentage-point increase from 2023.

Reading proficiency rates dipped for students overall and for all subgroups as the city overhauled its approach to teaching students how to read. The DOE required elementary schools in 15 community school districts last school year to use one of three reading programs grounded in the science of reading. The new programs will be implemented in the remaining 19 districts this fall.

“Change is difficult and takes time. That is why providing sustained support to schools is essential during this transition,” said Mary Vaccaro, the UFT vice president for education and head of the UFT Teacher Center. “We believe the best professional development is school-based and includes a cadre of educators who are experienced in the curriculum and able to go into classrooms to model lessons and answer questions in real time for their colleagues.”

Schools Chancellor David C. Banks said the decrease in reading proficiency reflected “a transitional period” and follows the same pattern as other states that have introduced new literacy strategies and programs.

The overall percentage of students who performed at grade level or above in reading was 49.1%, down from 51.7% in 2023. The wide achievement gap between white students and students who are Black or Hispanic continued in reading, too. The proficiency rate was highest among Asian students at 70%, down from 72.3%, and it was 65.8% for white students, down from 69.5%. The overall proficiency rate for Black students was 38.6%, down from 40.3%; for Hispanic students, the mastery rate dropped from 39.4% to 36.4%.

For students with disabilities, the reading proficiency level dipped from 21.7% last year to 21.1% in 2024 — except for those in the 7th grade, whose reading proficiency level rose from 20.1% to 25.2%.

All grades, except the 7th grade, saw a decline in the percentage of students deemed proficient in reading. The percentage of 7th graders who tested as proficient increased from 51.7% to 55.1%.

DOE officials said they did not release the math or reading test results for English language learners because they were still verifying the state data.