Mississippi’s Educational Surge

1^st in the nation in reading and second in math for economically disadvantaged 4^th graders.

1^st in the nation in reading and second in math for Hispanics 4th graders.

3^rd in the nation in reading and math  for African American 4^th graders

Meanwhile, in California–which is far richer, better educated, and spends 50% more per pupil than Mississippi–only 30% of 4th graders in public school are proficient in reading.  And 41% can’t read at the most basic level.

How did that happen?  It’s being called the Mississippi miracle!

But there is nothing really miraculous about it, though perhaps it’s a miracle that a state finally gets serious about addressing the current crisis in education.

Essentially, Mississippi did three things, all of which are easily transferable to other states:

(1)  Adopting  reading curriculum based on “the science of reading.” That is to say, phonics.  Children are taught the sounds symbolized by the letters and how the letters come together to form words.  As we’ve blogged about, many educators today have thought that “phonics” is old fashioned, but a comprehensive scientific study has shown that this traditional way of teaching reading actually works, while “whole language” memorizing of the shape of words and trying to pick up reading by osmosis the way children learn spoken language actually does not.  So the new terms for “phonics” are “science of reading” and “evidence-based reading instruction.”  That makes it more acceptable to the teaching profession.  But that’s fine.  It’s just phonics.

(2)  Training teachers in how to use the phonics curriculum.  Comments the iconoclastic liberal journalist Kelsey Piper,

Teachers, of course, already undergo a lot of training — and it’s mostly a waste of their time. That’s not because teacher training is unimportant but because we’re training them in the wrong things.

Billions of dollars are spent — and largely wasted — every year on professional development for teachers that is curriculum-agnostic, i.e., aimed at generic, disembodied teaching skills without reference to any specific curriculum.

So teachers, few of whom were taught with phonics themselves, were drilled in how to teach reading this way.

(3)  Making students repeat third grade if they can’t read.  Apparently, holding students back if they don’t pass their subjects isn’t generally done anymore.  In my day, this was commonplace.  I usually made good grades, except in Penmanship, but at the end of every school year, I was always nervous to get my final report card to see if I passed and got promoted to the next grade.  I always did, but plenty of my friends didn’t.

Holding kids back has fallen out of favor because not getting promoted is considered traumatic.  Comments Piper,

Research has found that third grade retention doesn’t harm students in non-academic ways and tends to help them academically — but, of course, it’s upsetting for kids, frustrating for families, and unpleasant for educators. Unfortunately, that’s probably part of why it works.

“What matters most is not the students who are retained, but what the policy does to adult behavior,” education reporter Chad Aldeman argued. “Mississippi required schools to notify parents when their child was off track and to craft individual reading plans for those with reading deficiencies. In other words, the threat of retention may have shifted behavior in important ways.”

What is most surprising about the third grade retention is that it happens a lot less than you would think, Vaites added: “It makes the adults just get every kid that they possibly can get across the line.”

In addition, Mississippi held everybody–schools, teachers, parents, children– accountable, monitored children’s progress, and offered literacy coaches and other kinds of support to those who needed it.

Other formerly low-performing states–Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee–have adopted a similar program and their reading scores have improved dramatically too.   Why aren’t all states doing this?

Piper asked why this hasn’t happened in California.  “This is just a politically awkward story,” education policy expert Andy Rotherham told her. “It’s all these red states. This is a very ideological field.”  When the success of Mississippi was first being noticed a few years ago, blue state defenders of the teachers’ unions dismissed the findings as a statistical fluke.  But, as Noah Rothman has shown, the source of that statistical study later backtracked.  “It looks like I might have been wrong again,” [Kevin] Drum admirably admitted. “Something really did happen in Mississippi. After the switch to phonics, their kids could read a lot better than before.”

The good news is that a few weeks ago, the California state legislature passed a bill that requires the State Board of Education to implement phonics-based reading instruction and to offer training for teachers in that approach.  The measure passed unanimously!