Mississippi Learning

Saving education in Mississippi:

While many Americans were lamenting the national 'report card' scores overall, Mississippi officials were celebrating major improvements, including the following: Highest-ever rate of students scoring proficient or advanced in all four tests: 4th and 8th grade reading and math No. 1 in the nation for achieving highest score increases in 4th grade reading and math since 2013 No. 9 in the nation for overall 4th grade reading scores and No. 16 for 4th grade math scores (up from No. 49 and No. 50 in 2013) Mississippi is one of only 13 states with gains in 4th grade math, which is the only subject and grade nationally that showed statistically significant improvements since 2022 There's this nugget, too: Notably, African American, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged Mississippi 4th graders outperform their peers nationally. African American students rank No. 3 in the nation for reading and math scores, Hispanic students rank No. 1 for reading and No. 2 for math, and economically disadvantaged 4th graders rank No. 1 in reading and No. 2 for math. So what happened? How has Mississippi gotten from being a national punchline with truly abysmal results to rising through the ranks and up the charts? Mississippi enacted three major education reform laws in 2013 that established the state’s first state-funded pre-K program, made reading instruction a major focus in pre-K through grade 3, and mandated that schools and districts earn annual A-F grades based on their students’ progress and achievement. At that time, Mississippi 4th graders ranked No. 49 in the nation for NAEP reading scores and No. 50 for NAEP math. Today, NAEP’s unrounded rankings show Mississippi 4th grade reading scores rank No. 9 in the nation and 4th grade math scores rank No. 16. Literacy coaches were deployed to underperforming and failing schools. New policy also allowed "up to 15 charter schools a year to start in low-performing, D- and F-rated districts, without local school board approval." Here is a more in-depth summary from 2023, when the upticks in performance were already highly noticeable: Much of Mississippi’s legislation was based on a 2002 law in Florida that saw the Sunshine State achieve some of the country’s highest reading scores. The states also still have far to go to make sure every child can read. But the country has taken notice of what some have called the Mississippi miracle...[Mississippi and other states] have trained thousands of teachers in the so-called science of reading, which refers to the most proven, research-backed methods of teaching reading. They’ve dispatched literacy coaches to help teachers implement that training, especially in low-performing schools. They also aim to catch problems early. That means screening for signs of reading deficiencies or dyslexia as early as kindergarten, informing parents if a problem is found and giving those kids extra support. The states have consequences in place if schools don’t teach kids how to read, but also offer help to keep kids on track. Mississippi, for one, holds students back in third grade if they cannot pass a reading test but also gives them multiple chances to pass after intensive tutoring and summer literacy camps. Alabama will adopt a similar retention policy next school year. It also sent over 30,000 struggling readers to summer literacy camps last year. Half of those students tested at grade level by the end of the summer. The state requires every K-3 teacher, elementary principal and assistant principal to take a 55-hour training course in the science of reading...During a recent session with four second-grade girls, Brown had the girls spell “crib,” asking, “What are the sounds you hear?” Like a choir, they chanted back four individual sounds, counting them with their fingers: “c-rrr-i-buh.” This was one of the techniques Brown had learned in the training; counting four sounds, or phonemes, gave students a clue that the word had four letters. Increased screening also helped the school identify these girls as needing extra help. “Are y’all ready for a challenge word?” Brown asked, and the girls shouted, “Yeah!” Their faces fell when Brown revealed the word: bedbug. They had no idea what the word even meant. But with Brown’s gentle guidance, the girls broke down the word into six phonemes. They were even ready for another challenge. The genius of our system is that states serve as laboratories of democracy. If something is working, other states can follow, and that has been the case down South, with Mississippi following Florida's lead (Florida just ranked number one in education, per US News), then other nearby states chasing Mississippi's example.

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