Merry Measurement 2025

The Top Ten Trends Shaping Learning & Edtech This Year

Plus One Bright Light to Watch in 2026

As we close out another year of innovation and change across education, MetaMetrics is honored to work alongside educators, policymakers, publishers, researchers, and technology partners who share a commitment to improving literacy and numeracy for all learners.

Our annual Merry Measurement report brings together the major insights and developments that shaped 2025, spanning classrooms, assessment systems, statehouses, and emerging technologies.

1. Career-Connected Learning Becomes a National Priority

States are aligning K–12 learning with real-world pathways, businesses are embracing skills-based hiring, and districts are integrating career exploration across grades, a shift widely documented throughout 2025. The National Conference of State Legislatures reported that career-connected learning is now a central pillar of many state education agendas, while District Administration highlighted states leading the way in work-based learning and industry alignment. Edmentum’s 2025 analysis characterized this moment as a full “reimagination of secondary education,” with governors and state agencies treating career pathways and durable skills as core components of readiness rather than optional enhancements.

Keep reading: How Career-Connected Literacy Inspires Students, Supports Educators, and Improves Outcomes

2. The Education Ecosystem Balances Guardrails and Innovation in AI Adoption

The conversation shifted from “Can AI help?” to “How do we adopt AI responsibly?” Districts spent much of 2025 building policies “on the fly” to govern AI use in classrooms, according to Education Week. Meanwhile, states are forming task forces, drafting statewide guidance, and considering new regulatory frameworks to manage the rise of AI in teaching and learning. Analysis from EdPolicy in California emphasized guardrails around data privacy and academic integrity. This is set against a backdrop of rapid development of helpful AI-based tools for educators that streamline scoring, align curriculum, and support content creation at the right levels of complexity for every learner. AI in education is firmly here to stay; now we just need to develop and implement responsibly. 

Keep reading: Fuel for Literacy Growth: How Can We Ensure GenAI Always Hits the Right Level for Reading Ability?

3. Early Identification of Off-Track Students Becomes Essential

Pressure mounted to detect reading and math gaps sooner using interims, screeners, and growth forecasting tools to provide vital early insight. Last year, Education Week reported that most schools already have early-warning systems but not all students benefit from them consistently or equitably. The good news is that well-designed early-warning dashboards improve intervention timing and accuracy and a recent study by CEPR/Harvard demonstrated the measurable impact of early-warning systems on improving attendance and reducing course failures. Urgency is mounting to identify students at risk long before high-stakes testing reveals a crisis and the good news is systems exist to do just that. One key issue to track is that earlier intervention also supports better mental health for students as well as improved lifetime income. 

Keep reading: The Hidden Cost of Catching Up: How Forecasting Academic Growth Saves Time, Money, and Futures

4. Lower Proficiency Standards Spark National Debate

Some states adjusted cut scores or adopted more lenient definitions of proficiency, raising questions about long-term readiness and comparability across states. The Hill called lowering proficiency bars the “latest fad in public education,” challenging whether such changes genuinely help students or simply mask persistent gaps. Illinois lowered state test proficiency cut scores in math and English language arts in 2025, raising concerns that lowered standards artificially inflate proficiency rates. In Kansas, policymakers debated whether new standards accurately reflect student learning, and national commentary in New York Magazine (subscription required) criticized a broader trend of redefining proficiency in ways that understate the severity of unfinished learning.

Keep reading: The Hill – Lowering the Bar on Proficiency is the Latest Fad in Public Education

5. Growing Adoption of Universal, Comparable Measures

Policymakers and practitioners increasingly view cross-state comparability as essential for equity, mobility, and postsecondary preparation. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s 2025 Wonkathon essay argued that transparent, Lexile-based reporting provides the clearest pathway to ensuring students, families, and educators understand progress relative to grade-level expectations. Recent analyses of NAEP-adjusted state performance further underscore how widely proficiency varies across states, and the National Academy of Education’s work on comparability highlights the need for shared frameworks that allow policymakers to understand learning consistently across systems. These insights reaffirm something we feel deeply here at MetaMetrics—the importance of universal measurement in a fragmented education landscape.

Keep reading: Response to The Atlantic’s “America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy

6. Math Recovery Efforts Accelerate

Recently, the Plain English Podcast spotlighted America’s “math crisis,” giving national visibility to declining math performance (we have all been very focused on the reading crisis, but alas, student proficiency in math is also at an all-time low, and unnervingly, the slide began pre-pandemic). So, what are we doing about it? States passed new math initiatives, invested in tutoring, and explored digital supports that emphasize conceptual reasoning and real-world problem solving. Education Commission of the States reported four major policy takeaways for addressing math recovery in 2025, ranging from teacher preparation to instructional materials. Some states are pursuing innovative approaches to improve K–12 math achievement and at least seven states now require specialized support for struggling math learners. While there does appear to be a national effort to restore student confidence and competence in mathematics, we need to recognize the dire consequences of continuing to fall behind, from life outcomes for students to lack of global competitiveness for the nation.

Keep reading: Three Big Ideas to Solve America’s Math Problem

7. The Reawakening of Student Curiosity and Joy

We are facing a crisis of attention span among our students. How do we begin to repair this? Amid recovery efforts, districts are rediscovering the importance of cultivating curiosity, not just compliance. Research published by Tereasa Cremin and Laura Scholes last year examined how reading for pleasure, especially when aligned to students’ interests, improves both motivation and comprehension. A 2025 youth survey revealed that students are increasingly disconnected from math because it feels irrelevant, underscoring the need for meaningful, real-world application. There is strong evidence that project-based math learning boosts engagement by empowering students to investigate authentic problems. We are seeing evidence of a renewed commitment to joyful learning experiences across subjects, which is a critical component of engaging students (this is why we offer “interest”-based searches in Lexile Find a Book!). 

Keep reading: Swipe, Scroll, Struggle: 5 Strategies to Prevent a Reading Recession

8. Evidence of Efficacy Becomes an EdTech Imperative

While this isn’t new, districts are increasingly requiring proof-of-impact, especially as ESSA funds decline, when evaluating vendors. Evidence-based decision-making is more important than ever, particularly as districts face tighter budgets and higher expectations for measurable outcomes. Tech & Learning’s 2025 guidance detailed the data points districts now demand, from usage analytics to growth indicators. The Stanford Social Innovation Review argued that an “impact-driven ed-tech ecosystem” requires providers to engage in meaningful research partnerships with educators and students and without this unique collaborative model, impact on learning suffers. We know a little bit about how to show the effectiveness of edtech tools and help our partners do this through our universal scales for reading and mathematics. 

Keep reading: Breaking through in edtech: Proven tools to help startups thrive 

9. Balancing Personalization With Privacy

It wouldn’t be 2025 if we didn’t circle back to AI. One of the challenges posed by adaptive and AI-driven systems is how schools, districts, and states handle transparency and student-data expectations. New America’s 2025 report described how increased monitoring and data collection in schools raise critical concerns about surveillance and student rights. Recent survey findings show that nearly 70% of parents oppose sharing student data with AI systems, signaling widespread public concern. Districts are responding by integrating generative AI into policy frameworks and resources exist that offer practical guidance for balancing personalized learning. One thing is clear: personalization must be paired with trust, clarity, and robust safeguards.

Keep reading: Digital Promise – How School Districts are Integrating Generative AI into their Policies

10. Students’ Sense of Belonging and Ability to See Progress Are Powerful Motivators

Research continues to show that belonging and visible progress are powerful levers for engagement. A recent brief by New Leaders argues that belonging “goes beyond inclusion” and is vital for well-being, academic success, and community building, outlining concrete strategies schools can adopt. In addition, students who track their academic progress independently demonstrate higher self-motivation and confidence. (Seeing incremental improvement is motivating for all of us.) And Skyward’s 2025 analysis explained how shared access to data, goal-setting tools, and progress monitoring strengthens student agency and helps learners connect effort with improvement. When paired together, belonging and progress create the conditions for resilience, persistence, and deeper learning.

Keep watching: Eduptopia – Encouraging Students to Own Their Academic Growth (YouTube)

One Bright Light for 2026: We Can Future-Proof Our Students. Really.

Despite continued concerns about historic lows in foundational literacy and numeracy, there is growing clarity, and growing consensus, about what it truly takes to prepare students for long-term success. We are beginning to understand how deeply early reading and math skills shape life outcomes. See our Reading and Math for Lifelong Success infographic for examples or watch this authentic, teacher-led viral explainer reel from Mindful Teacher Rachel explaining how literacy impacts confidence, opportunity, and mobility. The message is unmistakable: strong foundational skills remain the gateway to everything that comes next, and everything we want our kids to achieve.

The bright light ahead is this: we now have the knowledge, tools, policy momentum, and collective will to future-proof our students. For real. By grounding instruction in strong literacy and numeracy while cultivating durable skills that prepare students for a rapidly changing world, 2026 can be a turning point. A year when we rebuild not only the academic foundations students have lost, but the confidence, curiosity, and capacity they need to thrive in whatever future awaits.

Keep reading: Careers of the Future: How to Prepare Students for Jobs That Don’t Exist Yet

From all of us at MetaMetrics, we wish you joyful reading, brain-tickling problem-solving, and merry measurement. Happy holidays!