From the brief: "As parents, communities, educators, and policymakers continue to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning in America, many have turned to recently released results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). NAEP measures what students know and what they can do in several tested subjects, including reading, mathematics, and science. Large urban school districts often use NAEP to understand their performance and progress in relation to the nation as a whole. The purpose of this brief is to understand differences in student performance between large cities and students nationally over the last 20 years, from 2002 through 2022, as well as after the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also detail the possibilities of large city performance in the years to come."