Last week, President Trump did what conservatives have wanted to do since the 1980s: He signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. Although the president will need Congress to eliminate the agency altogether, Education Secretary Linda McMahon is tasked with implementing the order, called “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities.”

The administration is right to put student outcomes front and center, because at the end of the day, whether students can read, understand and apply what they’ve read, do high-level math and be ready to succeed in college or a career is what matters when it comes to K-12 education. To be perfectly clear, greater focus on student outcomes is long overdue.

In making its case for ending what it called the “federal education bureaucracy” that “is not working,” the White House cited student learning data from the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to prove the president’s point. The NAEP data, often called the “Nation’s Report Card,” has shown that K-12 student outcomes are not at the level they must be for America to retain its leadership in the world. NAEP is a critical tool to understanding whether we, as a country, are producing student outcomes that will deliver the educated citizenry we need for the future. 

Think of it this way. NAEP is the education equivalent of the canary in the coal mine, warning us of deficiencies in K-12 education when there is still time to act. Without this data, the entire education system would be at risk, with states, teachers, administrators and, most important, parents left in the dark when it comes to students’ actual achievement at the state and national level.  

There are reasonable arguments to be made about the size of the federal government and whether certain crucial programs the Department of Education administers would be better housed at another agency. But whatever the ultimate fate of the Department of Education, we must preserve NAEP, the data and assessment arm, which is widely regarded as the gold standard of educational testing. Although individual state testing has its merits and applicability, NAEP’s objective, rigorous, nonpartisan methodology is critical to ensuring the nation’s education system is on track and doing what it needs to do.  

And what the recent NAEP data shows is an education system that is failing too many students at an alarming scale. Layer on the learning loss sustained during the pandemic and the problem grows exponentially. Based on data from the 2024 test, 40 percent of our nation’s fourth graders are considered “below basic” in reading. Almost the same share (39 percent) of eighth graders are “below basic” in math. 

Data from international testing also shows our education system is not producing the student outcomes it should. “American students’ math skills slide down world rankings,” announced the Wall Street Journal after the release of data from the latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) at the end of 2024. Like NAEP, TIMSS assesses fourth and eighth graders. In eighth grade math, the U.S. ranked 24th. 

A year earlier, when the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results were released, Axios summed it up in a headline: “U.S. students’ math scores plunge in global education assessment.” In that test, which looks at the academic performance of 15-year-olds, the U.S. ranked 34th in math. 

At 39 percent “below basic” in math and 34th internationally, we are clearly not producing the kind of top-flight students we need to innovate in the future. Ultimately, this means that we are becoming home to the world’s “C” students. Our K-12 system is allowing the country to fall behind our allies and our adversaries and needs a command focus on student outcomes.  

NAEP provides a critical function by serving as a common yardstick against which states can measure the rigor of their own standards and the accuracy of their assessment results. And it’s a reality check for those within a state who might be inclined to paint a more optimistic picture of student achievement than their data actually shows. 

“If we believe that NAEP is indeed the Nation’s Report Record on student proficiency, then we would hope there is little difference between the outcomes on the two tests. … But that’s not the case,” Jim Cowen, executive director of the Collaborative for Student Success, wrote in the release for the latest Honesty Gap analysis, which looks at the differences between the shares of students reported proficient on NAEP and on the state tests. 

“In many states, the gaps suggest that parents simply aren’t getting the full picture of how prepared their kids are for college or the workforce,” Cowen continued. 

For example, in Iowa, 72 percent of eighth graders are considered proficient on the state math test, but only 27 percent are considered proficient on NAEP, a difference of 45 points. Michigan saw 65 percent of its eighth graders proficient on its state English Language Arts test, but on NAEP, only 24 percent were considered proficient, a difference of 41 points. In Nebraska, 62 percent of eighth graders were found to be proficient in ELA, but only 27 percent proficient on NAEP, a difference of 35 points. 

Virginia has some of the largest gaps between NAEP and state proficiency (their gaps range from 31 points to 43 points on the math and reading/ELA tests for fourth and eighth grade). To its credit, the state, under Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera, has made a strong and public commitment to raise its standards to align with those at the national level. But none of this would be happening without NAEP to show us where and how large the gaps are. 

Without NAEP, we are flying blind. That means less accountability and less transparency for parents when it comes to their child’s education. 

The American K-12 system of education is in crisis. The Trump administration now has the opportunity to turn the downward trends around if they keep their eye on the ball: improving student outcomes. NAEP is the critical tool to help them gauge progress as they work to ensure high standards, accountability and a good education for every child.  

David Winston is the president of The Winston Group and a longtime adviser to congressional Republicans. He previously served as the director of planning for Speaker Newt Gingrich. He advises Fortune 100 companies, foundations and nonprofit organizations on strategic planning and public policy issues, as well as serving as an election analyst for CBS News.