Trump Education Secretary Linda McMahon delivered an unambiguous assessment of American students’ academic performance on Fox News Thursday, saying the nation’s schools are “doing terribly” and citing National Assessment of Educational Progress figures that show only about 30% of eighth and high school students scoring at proficient levels in reading and math.
Asked by Harris Faulkner to sum up “where we are with what kids are doing just scholastically in the country,” McMahon pointed to the “latest NAEP scores,” which she said were released “just after the president took office.” “Only about 30% of high school and eighth graders can read proficiently or do math proficiently,” she said. “Think about that. Public schools across the country only about 30%. Some places, 35%. But, it’s just terrible.”
The stark diagnosis came amid a separate line of questioning about a Trump administration–backed civics quiz and traveling history program that McMahon said the administration is taking to all 50 states as part of the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations. Faulkner described the event as nonpartisan, involving speeches and a “history quiz” that she characterized as “a bit of a game show.” McMahon defended the program as a straightforward civics lesson focused on the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and state history.
Despite her bleak reading of standardized test performance, McMahon said students have fared well on the administration’s quiz stops. “They are doing very well with those questions,” she told Faulkner, adding that one possible explanation for high scores was that participants “could be they get them ahead of time. I don’t know.” The secretary also said at least four planned stops had been canceled — in Massachusetts, Alabama and Connecticut — and that events in Wisconsin, New Jersey and Illinois were met with protests.
McMahon framed the quiz tour as apolitical and upbeat, saying protesters had misconceived its purpose. “If they come in and listen to the questions, they are about the Constitution, about the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers. It is learning about our country in civics, and a lot of the questions are relative to U.S. History,” she said.
Her comments juxtapose two competing narratives advanced by the administration: a dire portrayal of nationwide academic outcomes based on NAEP results, and a more positive account of student civic knowledge demonstrated on the administration’s own quiz. The NAEP, commonly known as the nation’s “report card,” is widely used by educators and policymakers to assess student achievement across states; McMahon’s remarks cast the recent data as evidence of systemic failure while the quiz tour is presented as a corrective civic-education initiative.
The cancellations and protests at several planned stops underscore how education — particularly efforts to promote specific civic perspectives or programs — has become a flashpoint in local communities. McMahon did not provide additional detail about locations where scores were higher or the specific NAEP releases she cited; she also did not specify whether the tour’s questions are distributed to participants in advance.