CHICAGO (WLS) — A local former education leader and college professor are weighing in, after American high schoolers got a bad report card Tuesday.

Many of the nation’s high schoolers are not making the grade. They’re falling behind in math and reading.

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The National Assessment of Education Progress just released its report, known as the Nation’s Report Card.

It recorded its lowest average score ever in reading since testing began in 1992.

Thirty two percent of high school seniors scored below the “basic” level.

In math, the average score last year was the lowest since 2005.

The numbers drew from a national sample. While they don’t look good, some education experts says low reading and math scores are not unique to the current times. They have been a few points from each other for decades.

Reading skills are far from an American high school senior’s strength.

“It means that well over a third of American high school seniors cannot reliably explain the main point of a passage or define a key word used in the sentence, despite billions in federal spending and countless well-intentioned programs,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.

McMahon says the decline is proof federal dollars don’t work, even though 90% of education is funded locally.

Paul Vallas, who has been in charge of several school systems, including Chicago Public Schools, says teachers unions have played a big role in low test scores.

“There’s been a systematic abandonment of standards because the unions have not given the schools the flexibility they need to spend their money in ways that improves student achievement because it requires more work. It requires more instructional time; it requires more accountability,” Vallas said.

Former teacher and DePaul University education professor Roxanne Owen says the education system will never improve in the United States as long as stakeholders continue to blame each other.

“Everybody keeps looking for one magic solution, and there just isn’t. Everybody needs to work together, and we have to stop fighting with each other,” Owen said.

While COVID and social media play big roles in the decline, Owen says the reading scores are not much lower than they were decades ago. She says school districts must keep kids interested in learning with current curriculums.

“The things that kids are getting in terms of materials, it’s not incentivizing them. It’s not motivating them to want to read, and that’s a huge problem from fifth grade on up,” Owens said.