“Heart-wrenching.” “Catastrophic.” “Scary as all get-out.”

Those were the words experts used on Monday as they weighed in on the severity of the first post-pandemic results of the main Nation’s Report Card, which from 2019 to 2022 showed the largest deterioration in math achievement on record in the assessment—5 points in grade 4 and 8 points in grade 8—and a smaller but still severe 3-point reading slump in the same grades.