The state still has problems, but parts of its strategy on schools and reading hold lessons.
The last place in America you might expect to find a model for education is Mississippi. It's the state with the highest levels of child poverty, notorious for poor performance on almost every standard of well-being — yet hold on! |
Over the last decade, Mississippi has risen from near the bottom in many education outcomes to about the middle, and by some measures even higher. Among children living in poverty, Mississippi fourth-graders tie for first place in reading performance nationwide and rank second in math. High school graduation rates there are now above average. |
In my latest column, I look at how the state accomplished this by making an all-out effort to get kids reading by third grade using the "science of reading" approach that has been gaining ground nationwide. Children who don't pass a reading test at the end of third grade are held back for a year (about 9 percent of students). This created accountability for all, and it turns out that when kids succeed in reading, they also do better in math. |
"Mississippi is a huge success story and very exciting," David Deming, a Harvard economist and education expert, told me as I was reporting the piece. What's so significant, he said, is that while Mississippi hasn't overcome poverty or racism, it still manages to get kids to read and excel. "You cannot use poverty as an excuse. That's the most important lesson," Deming added. "It's so important, I want to shout it from the mountaintop." |
While reporting this story in the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest parts of America, I ran into a school superintendent who gave an example of how he sustains a high school graduation rate of 97 percent. A girl had dropped out recently because her family was desperately poor and she needed to work to get by. So school officials visited her repeatedly at home and met her employer, arranging for her to work after school hours. Now she's back in school, on track to graduate. |
After many years of hearing grim news out of the state, who would have thought that Mississippi could inspire us? But it should, and it offers plenty of lessons we can replicate in any state across America. |
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