Fewer than half of Utah students scored proficient in English, math or science on the 2025-2026 state tests, according to results the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) released Monday, Sept. 14.

The numbers matter for Canyons District families because the district outpaced state averages by up to 15 percentage points on last year's exams. District-level scores for 2025-2026 have not yet been published, but the statewide baseline sets the bar Canyons will be measured against.

Where the state stands

Statewide ELA proficiency hit 45.4%, up 1.5 percentage points from 2025. Math reached 42.5%, up 1.2 points. Science reached a record 49.8%, up 2.6 points, making it the first core subject to top its pre-pandemic baseline of 47% set in 2019.

ELA and math have not fully recovered from pandemic-era losses. ELA still trails the 2019 mark of 46.8%, and math remains below its 44.6% baseline. Statewide testing was paused in spring 2020 because of COVID-19 school closures, and 2019 figures serve as the benchmark.

The USBE said the year-over-year gains across all three subjects indicate sustained academic recovery statewide rather than statistical noise.

High school and early grades

High school students fared worse in math. On the Aspire Plus exam for grades 9 and 10, only 34.5% reached math proficiency. ELA proficiency for those grades was 46.7%, and science was 44.6%.

Younger students showed stronger footing. Among K-3 students, 70.6% met the end-of-year reading benchmark and 65.1% met the early numeracy benchmark. Third and fourth graders posted math proficiency above 50%.

On the 11th-grade ACT, 62.3% of Utah juniors scored a composite 18 or higher, the Deseret News reported. Every Utah high school junior can take the ACT once for free.

What it means for Canyons

At the Sept. 16, 2025, board meeting, then-Superintendent Rick Robins identified math and science proficiency as among the "big rocks" Canyons must address to raise graduation rates and learning levels. McKay Robinson succeeded Robins as superintendent on June 30, 2026.

In December 2024, Canyons Research and Assessment Director Hal Sanderson told the board that district students "mostly outpaced their peers on year-end assessments and on the ACT," while urging members to consider growth trajectories over multiple years.

Board member Karen Pedersen reported at the Aug. 18 board meeting that she attended a breakfast focused on early-literacy efforts tied to a statewide goal of every child reading at grade level by 2030. A June 2026 legislative audit found that unfilled reading gaps could undermine that target and noted no sustained statewide improvement in the benchmark rate in at least nine years.

Canyons enrolled 32,364 students as of September 2025, with 29% classified as economically disadvantaged.

How to check scores

Parents in the Canyons District can look up individual results through the USBE's data dashboard at datagateway.schools.utah.gov. Alpine School District families on the Utah County side of Draper can access scores through the Skyward student information system under the Portfolio tab.