New Maine state assessment scores show a “creep upward” in math and reading proficiency, according to data released by the Department of Education on Monday.

The 2026 Maine Through Year Assessment data, first shared with the Portland Press Herald, shows that half of students are now at or above state expectations on math, while the other half are below, according to preliminary numbers. In reading, 66% of students are at or exceeding state expectations, while 34% fall below.

Those represent a 1.3 percentage-point improvement in math, and a 0.4 percentage point improvement in reading, compared to 2023, when the state changed its way of assessing achievement levels.

In an interview, Education Commissioner Pender Makin characterized the new data as slow, steady progress.

“They continue to creep upward, which is a great direction,” she said.

But standardized test scores aren’t what experts, or the people of Maine, consider the best measure of student success, she said.

“The state assessment data contribute to a bigger picture that gives me reason to be very optimistic for the future, for our students, and for how they’re doing,” Makin said.

The announcement comes a year and a half after results from a national assessment, know as the Nation’s Report Card, showed Maine student proficiency in math and reading was among the lowest in the country, and fourth graders had seen the biggest drops of any state compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Maine’s scores on that test, called the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have been steadily declining since 2013.

State officials have continued to characterize that test as a single point in time and an assessment with “key limitations” that does not reflect modern educational practices or the state’s innovative curricula.

NAEP tests only a sample of 1,700 students every other year, while the Through Year Assessment evaluates 85,000 students twice a year.

Overall, the commissioner argued, test scores are easy data points, but they don’t demonstrate what many people believe they do.

“Things that are easy to measure over the past 20 years or so have gained inflated importance, but we all know that there is so much that happens in school that is deeply important, but hard or impossible to measure,” Makin said. Those include things like media literacy and hands-on learning.

While experts agree that standardized tests are not the sole measure of success, researchers say they still provide important benchmarks, and test scores corelate to positive outcomes like earnings later in life.

An official who oversees the federal testing program pushed back on the state’s criticism of NAEP last year, and said there is a vast amount of research supporting the accuracy of its scores, and the validity of its sampling method.

In 2024, the department rolled out a campaign called Measure What Matters, a statewide interview tour founded on the idea that standardized tests “no longer tell the full story” of student success. The department spoke to more than 100 students, educators and other stakeholders about how the department could report student achievement that “reflects a more holistic view of student development.”

The department published a report earlier this year, and Makin said it showed Mainers want to see outcomes like confidence, the ability for students to develop relationships, to think on their feet, to evaluate the veracity of information and to be entrepreneurial.

“We know what the people of Maine value in our education system, and test scores were not a priority,” Makin said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Aug. 10 with corrected numbers from the Maine Department of Education.