Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) is celebrating the “comeback story” of his state’s fourth-graders, who ranked on 2022 national test scores as the nation’s top performers in reading, and second in math, following the enactment of literacy legislation he spearheaded that saved the state from its “dead-last ranking in the United States.”
Bryant wrote Monday at RealClear Education:
According to the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Mississippi fourth-graders, when adjusted for demographics, are ranked as the nation’s top performers in reading and second in math. Mississippi’s dead-last ranking in the United States in overall education was once a familiar statistic, but recent test scores reveal the incredible new reality of academic prosperity for students in the state. Graduation rates have skyrocketed to about 10% higher than the national average. Most students, including those in poverty, have moved from being ranked at the bottom to placing somewhere near the middle.
Congratulations to all the students, parents, governor and legislative leadership for the Mississippi miracle. Let’s keep it going! https://t.co/D6JkcBZ5jp
— Phil Bryant (@PhilBryantMS) May 26, 2023
The former governor, now a senior advisor at the America First Policy Institute, explained that passage in 2013 of the Literacy-Based Promotion Act provided for a third-grade “reading gate” that required students to reach “reading proficiency” before being promoted to the next grade.
Additionally, the legislation provided for school choice, early childhood education, and other reforms.
“The genius behind this law comes from its ability to reach students when it counts and identifies K–3 students who need additional reading help as early as possible,” Bryant (pictured above) wrote. “Students not proficient in reading by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school – and high school dropouts are not eligible for 90% of jobs in the U.S. economy.”
The former governor recalled the barrage of criticism he received from education bureaucrats for promoting the literacy legislation that is now known as the “Mississippi Miracle.”
“Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond, a nationally recognized expert in education policy, claimed that the third-grade reading gate would harm students,” he noted. “’In the long term,’ she said, ‘the dropout rate in Mississippi will increase as those third graders who were held back become further disconnected from school.’”
“Boy, was she wrong!” Bryant declared.
In October 2022, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) announced the state had “maintained its historic gains in 4th grade reading on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), while scores nationally dropped in all four NAEP subjects and grades.”
MDE detailed the state’s successes:
- Mississippi achieved significant gains in fourth-grade reading and math since 2011.
- Along with Washington D.C., Mississippi is the only state or jurisdiction that improved over a 10-year period in two of the four core NAEP subjects.
- Mississippi is one of only two states with improved fourth-grade math scores over a decade and one of only three states with gains in fourth-grade reading.
- In eighth-grade, Mississippi scores remained flat in reading and math over the past decade while the average scores nationally dropped in both subjects.
“The 2022 NAEP scores prove the resilience of Mississippi students and the ability of Mississippi educators to provide high-quality instruction despite the challenges of the pandemic,” said Dr. Kim Benton, state superintendent of education, interim, at the time.
“Educators said Mississippi’s 3rd-grade reading gate – learn to read or repeat the grade – would raise dropout rates,” observed education blogger Joanne Jacobs on Twitter Tuesday. “But grad rates are way up, along with reading scores.”
Educators said Mississippi's 3rd-grade reading gate — learn to read or repeat the grade — would raise dropout rates. But grad rates are way up, along with reading scores.https://t.co/i3raDMBu76
— Joanne Jacobs (@JoanneLeeJacobs) June 27, 2023
Writing at RealClear Education Thursday, Lance Izumi, senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute, also observed Mississippi’s success, attributing it to adherence to time-honored, proven methods of instruction.
“When Mississippi adopted scientifically proven reading methods in the 2010s, the reading performance of their low-income students, which was among the worst in the nation, jumped to the second position in 2022,” he wrote.
As Bryant references, Izumi observes the key to Mississippi’s success, and likely what is missing in most other states, is an emphasis on “decades of research” that have shown that “the most effective way to teach children to read incorporates five key components: phonemic awareness (associating sounds with letters and spoken words), phonics (understanding the relationship between letter sounds, letter groups, and written words), fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.”
A recent National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) study notes, “Research indicates that more than 90% of all students could become proficient readers if they were taught by teachers employing scientifically based reading instruction.”
“In fact, a recent survey conducted by Education Week found most elementary special education and K-2 teachers (72%) say they use literacy instructional methods that incorporate practices debunked by cognitive scientists decades ago,” NCTQ reported, adding:
Researchers have discovered that these strategies that are contrary to research-based practices—like teaching kids to look at the picture to help guess a word, or skipping words they do not know—not only are unhelpful, but also take up valuable instructional time that should be dedicated to research-based reading instruction.
Izumi called the deterioration of reading proficiency among children in American government schools a “scandal.”
“Nevertheless, the NCTQ study outlines a roadmap for improvement,” he asserted. “It is now the responsibility of policymakers to take action and safeguard the future of our children.”
Bryant described the road to achieving the “miracle” as difficult but well worth the struggle.
The results “speak for themselves,” he observed.
“Mississippi’s policies should serve as a model for other states,” Bryant urged. “It’s time to demand reform that addresses the education crisis facing our nation’s children.”
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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Phil Bryant” by Phil Bryant.
