They Laughed at Mississippi — Then It Schooled the Nation

They used to laugh at Mississippi. 15 years ago, the Magnolia State ranked 49th in the country in fourth grade reading scores. But then something happened. Today, their scores in both reading and math are outpacing the national average, while states that pride themselves on educational excellence are falling behind. How did this happen? Historically, Mississippi has been a bottom dweller on nearly every ranking, a state dismissed as too poor, too rural, too backward ever to lead the pack. We even have an old adage, thank God for Mississippi, meaning residents of other states could say thank God for Mississippi because it saved them from the embarrassment of being dead last when it came to just about any quality of life metric.

But today? In terms of education, the tables have turned. Outstripping all others, Mississippi hasn't just improved its scores, it's also dominated education outcomes in comparison with the rest of the nation. How did they do it? Did they just adopt blue state levels of school funding? Not even close. Everyone got new Chromebooks with AI reading assistance. Nope. The truth is that they made a few very smart strategic changes and stuck to them. They call it the Mississippi Miracle, and it sure feels like one.

So, what happened? How did they turn it around? And is anyone paying attention? And what does this mean for education in America? To find out, let's talk numbers. Every few years, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP for short, tests a cross-section of students in reading, math, civics, and science to show which states are climbing and which are falling behind. In 1992, Mississippi's grade on the nation's report card was rock bottom. To take just the fourth grade reading results, less than 14% of students could read proficiently.

The state saw some improvements, but by 2013, scores were falling again, down to just 21% of fourth graders who could read at grade level. Many elites just shrugged. After all, Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the country, with under $50,000 per capita average income today, and some of the lowest levels of education funding to boot. The collective judgment was that Mississippi would never turn it around. It couldn't afford to, but it did. By 2024, Mississippi's average fourth grade reading score rose over 10 points to hit 219 on the nation's report card.

That is above the national average of 214. Only a few years ago, Mississippi was trailing it by double digits. And in math, it's the same story. Mississippi's fourth graders hit 239, two points above the national average. Again, unheard of just a decade ago. But here's where it really gets interesting. Before we get into that, a word from our sponsor. Do you realize that we are fast approaching the feasts of all saints and all souls, and the best-kept Catholic secret takes place in the days that follow?

It is a fantastic spiritual practice that you and your loved ones can do together that even many priests don't know about. So, what is this Catholic secret, and how can you take part? Every day during the first week of November, a special plenary indulgence can be obtained for the holy souls in purgatory to help them on their journey to heaven, and the best part? Helping them is a beautiful spiritual practice that you will love to do with your family.

It's simple, and there are very specific actions you must take in the first week of November to do it. That's where our friends at Holy Heroes can help, with their free step-by-step sheet to guide you. Don't delay in getting this free guide, because you want to be ready when November arrives in just three weeks to help the holy souls in purgatory. And Holy Heroes has even created a special large prayer card to help you fulfill the plenary indulgences. You can personalize your prayer card with the names of your own dearly departed on the date you will offer an indulgence specifically for them.

This will act as a reminder to pray for them on that day. Get the free guide and the prayer cards for yourself, your parish, your school, and maybe even enough to hand out to your neighbors on Halloween. Go to holyheroes.com by clicking the link in the description below. And now, back to the Mississippi Miracle. You've probably heard someone say Mississippi is ninth in the nation. That's what all the headlines said this fall. And that sounds great. Amazing gains. But even that isn't giving Mississippi enough credit.

It turns out that raw rankings like these are misleading, because raw rankings didn't even take into account Mississippi's high child poverty rate, which is, of course, correlated to lower test scores. As a result, most of what we think about school rankings... is an illusion. Why? Because the students are different. States with mostly wealthy white student populations, like Massachusetts or Iowa or my home state of Connecticut, tend to look great in overall rankings, not because our schools are better, but because our students come from more advantaged backgrounds.

The Urban Institute, though, under the leadership of education researcher Stan Lebowitz, Did an analysis of NAEP scores that adjusted for demographics, including family income and race. And here's the kicker. When you break the scores down by race and income, Mississippi's numbers become even more impressive. For black students, Mississippi is third in the nation for fourth grade reading. For Hispanic students, tied for first. And for low-income students, regardless of race, Mississippi ranks number one. That's right. By way of comparison, in California, only 28% of black fourth graders read at or above a basic level, compared to 52% in Mississippi.

Now, 52% is still too low, but it sure beats 28. These are the students often written off by systems, by narratives, and sometimes by educators themselves, but in Mississippi, they're learning to read. So, yes, thank God for Mississippi. But not because it takes bottom place so other states don't have to. Thank God for Mississippi, because it's showing the rest of America the way out of its dismal educational outcomes, especially for the most disadvantaged and poorest kids. That's not a miracle. It wasn't an inexplicable divine intervention.

It wasn't a random lightning strike. It was policy. It was leadership. And it is entirely replicable. So, what is the strategy? Conventional wisdom says the first and primary strategy when it comes to improving education outcomes is to spend more money, but Mississippi still ranks near the bottom in per-student spending. So, how did they do it?

In 2013, Mississippi passed the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, which was amended with improvements in 2016. The first part of that act was mandated teacher training in the science of reading. Every K-3 teacher went through two years of professional development in phonics-based reading methods grounded in cognitive science. They ditched the old balanced literacy methods and sight-word training. ...and embraced what works, explicit, structured instruction in how to implement a high-quality, phonics-based curriculum. The second part of the law was that it actually gave some teeth to the training.

The law inserted accountability for students, teachers, and parents. If you can't read on grade level by the end of third grade, you don't move on. It's called the third grade gate. The law required not only that students be held back, but also that parents be informed immediately if their children did not pass reading assessments. Students who were retained received an immediate intervention plan, including 90 minutes daily of individualized reading instruction. This element alone, researchers have argued, could account for 25% of the state's gains in national testing scores.

But that wasn't all. The law also mandated reading coaches in every district. Mississippi hired dozens of trained reading coaches paid for by the state to work directly with students and teachers in struggling schools. This wasn't a band-aid, it was a transformation.

Finally, there was earlier screening and support for young kids who were struggling. It wasn't all about that one test at the end of third grade. Kindergarteners were screened for reading readiness, and if they were already behind, the interventions started immediately, not three grades later. The law reads, a kindergarten or first, second, or third grade student identified with a deficiency in reading must be provided intensive interventions in reading to ameliorate the student's specific reading deficiency.

And what about the spending? One of progressive educators' top talking points, as I've mentioned, is that education just needs more funding, and some of Mississippi's measures did cost money. The state dedicated a significant investment of $15 million per year to hire more teachers and to train them. 60% of that money went directly to coaching and intervention services staff.

The bottom line, though, that spending did not account alone for the tremendous gains the state made in NAEP scores. 2022 data tell the story. New York spent more than any other state and still landed in the bottom half.

Big spenders like Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut didn't fare much better. Meanwhile, Texas, Florida, and Mississippi got far stronger results on a fraction of the cost. So, why are the teachers' union talking points still focused on spending, and why aren't more people talking about how Mississippi turned things around? I mean, it's an urgent issue. The nation's 2024 report card just dropped, and it is some bleak reading.

As education journalist Kelsey Piper pointed out in September, Mississippi's rise came as most state scores tanked, and the pandemic is not to blame alone. She wrote, these numbers have been tumbling downhill in California and more widely across the United States for years now, and not just because of school closures during the pandemic. Nationwide, reading scores for fourth graders peaked back in 2015, and while the... Especially ugly 2022 outcomes were dismissed at first as COVID-19 outliers. Scores have fallen even further since.

The decline is the worst for kids who are already struggling. The test scores of the bottom 10% of students nationwide have dropped catastrophically. A similar pattern to California happened in Maine. Here, you can see the reading scores for Mississippi and Maine over time. In 2002, Students in Mississippi were two years behind students in Maine. Today, they're about a year ahead. The Boston Globe opined, Ten years ago, New England's public schools were the envy of the country. On the nation's report card, Massachusetts students led the United States across ages, subjects, and most demographic groups, despite wide achievement gaps.

Vermont and New Hampshire were near the top. Rhode Island... Connecticut and Maine were in the middle of the pack. Not so anymore. Piper explains, We've been spending lots of money on schools, but we have not been willing to muster the political will and effort necessary to hold those schools accountable for results and adopt teaching practices that actually work. Now, these are some very uncomfortable numbers for the education establishment, progressive educators, and teachers' unions. Why?

Because they have had a stranglehold on education policy for the last 60 years, they're holding the bag. The purpose of a system is what it does, and this system has not taught American kids to read. The Mississippi results and similar results from other southern states like Louisiana and Florida challenge that establishment. They say you don't need billions in new funding. You don't need fads. You need focus. You need accountability. Mississippi's reforms relied on standards with consequences. You need to harness the will of teachers, parents, and administrators to hold kids to high standards, rigorously enforced.

Yes, this means that kids will repeat grade levels. According to Mississippi Today, that number, however, has been dropping steadily since the law was passed. The number of students who both failed their third grade reading test and were held back went from 9% of test takers to 10% of test takers, and the number of students who failed their third grade reading test and were held back went from 9% of test takers to 10% of test takers. in 2019 to just 6.5% last school year.

Fun fact, sometimes holding kids back actually gives them another shot at excellence. It's been effective. One study from Boston University specifically examined the Mississippi gate and analyzed students just above and below the cut score from 2015, the first year the policy was in full effect. They found that students who were held back scored significantly better. on sixth grade reading assessments than their peers who were not retained. So, good news there. Another factor in Mississippi's win was that it aligned standards with testing and accountability systems.

In everyday language, that means changing adult behaviors through accountability, specifically teacher training and parental notification. The law also mandated targeted interventions for students who were held back and rejected progressive reading dogmas. These measures are all deeply unpopular among teacher unions, school boards, and many in the education schools. And the fact that gains were made in Mississippi, well, that's kind of a hard pill to swallow for edgy snobs. But I think there's more, something deeper going on in our resistance to following Mississippi's lead.

Other than modest increases in teacher salaries and staff, there's just not much money in common sense reforms. And blue state education loves big business. Not only is there not much money, there is a lot of accountability for the adults and students. Nobody likes to be held back. It's upsetting for kids, it's uncomfortable for teachers and administrators, and it can feel insulting to parents. We like the results of accountability in theory, not so much in practice.

And it's hard to have nuanced conversations about education reforms when the loudest voices in the room are just saying, we don't need to hold Johnny back, we just have to throw more money at the system. Easier on our pride.

So, what's the real story of the Mississippi Miracle, or more accurately, the Southern Surge? That so-called poor states, written off for generations, can pull off what the experts said was impossible. Mississippi is Exhibit A. It didn't do it with billion-dollar budgets, with new buzzwords, or glossy tech. It did it with grit, accountability, and a refusal to keep failing the same kids over and over again. While elite systems were busy with social-emotional learning initiatives, Mississippi was retraining teachers in phonics and early detection.

And while others spent millions on consultants, Mississippi teachers and admins just rolled up their sleeves and did the hard work themselves. While policymakers in the big coastal states were arguing over ideology, Mississippi was proving that evidence-based instruction actually works. But here's the uncomfortable truth. Mississippi's success is not a miracle. It's a training program that others can follow if they have the will to get up off the couch. This story isn't really about test scores. It's about grit, wisdom, and faith. Faith that all kids can learn.

Faith that teachers, when trained and trusted, can transform lives. And faith that leadership, even in the smallest, least glamorous corners of our country, can flip the script for an entire generation. So, the next time someone says, we just need more money for education, ask, or do we need more Mississippi?

A state once mocked as last in everything. Just gave the country a masterclass in how to win, not by outspending, but by out-teaching, out-training, and out-believing. And the question now is, who's got the grit to follow their lead?

If you enjoyed this episode, get ready for the next one. Subscribe and hit that notification bell, and be sure to share this with your friends.