A CNN Sunday morning news show reinforced the national perception that one great thing about Mississippi is its push for testing as a way to require student progress.
“Fareed Zakaria GPS” spent a few minutes this past weekend reviewing the “Mississippi Miracle,” in which elementary school reading scores are higher than states that spend far more money per pupil on education than Mississippi does.
“I have to look at the statistics,” Zakaria said. “They’re so extraordinary. Spending per pupil in Mississippi was below $12,000 last year, while in New York, it’s almost $30,000. And now if you do it on an adjustment for demographics, which is usually where you’d look at it, Mississippi ranks number one in America in both fourth grade and eighth grade math.”
His guest, journalist and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, agreed.
“We’re used to looking down on these Deep South states for a good reason,” he said. “They really did fail their kids, and especially poor kids, and especially Black kids. But over the last 20 years or so, beginning with Mississippi, they have begun to lead the way.
“A Black kid in Mississippi, for example, is two and a half times as likely to read proficiently as a Black kid in California. A low-income kid in Mississippi is twice as likely to be proficient in reading as a kid in my home state here in Oregon.”
Kristof praised Mississippi’s third-grade reading test, which students must pass to advance. It became law in 2013 under Gov. Phil Bryant’s guidance, with wide bipartisan support in the Legislature. Since then, it is clear that most schools have adapted to the requirement, and most kids pass the test to move on to fourth grade.
It’s one of many things Mississippi has done to improve education. The state sent reading coaches to schools to provide extra instruction for kids who needed it, and that too made a difference. Alabama and Louisiana have followed Mississippi’s lead, and their reading scores have improved as well.
“Look, I’m a liberal,” Kristof told Zakaria. “I deeply believe in liberal outcomes, but I think that we have sort of shied away from accountability with the idea that it’s unfair to low-income kids. And I think what we’ve learned is that it’s unfair not to have metrics and accountability, that we fail these kids.”
Kristof believes it’s “eminently possible” for other states to copy what has worked here. “But it will require eating a little bit of crow and acknowledging that the places to study are states that, frankly, we often look down on,” he said.
“The kids in Alabama and Louisiana and Mississippi have been held accountable. And the kids who have most benefited from that accountability have been kids of color and low-income kids,” he added. “I think there’s an important lesson there for liberals like me.”
Mississippi could not buy this kind of publicity, especially in a field where the state ranked so poorly for so long. But don’t let it go to your head.
One reason for Mississippi’s improved education rankings is that many other states are in a slump. And for all the state’s gains, there is a long way to go. We do not have enough children scoring well across the board — in English, math and science.
On CNN, Zakaria recalled George W. Bush’s 1999 observation, before he was elected president, about the importance of a good education. Bush said the country should hold disadvantaged children to high standards instead of giving in to “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
What Bush said is still correct. Mississippi’s focus on reading skills has worked. If anything, though, we must continue to do better.
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
