Every once in a while, a state or city discovers a new and better way to educate poor children. Inevitably, a group of skeptics arises to insist that this new way doesn’t work, that even attempting to shrink the gap between rich and poor students is a fool’s errand.
Strangely enough, these skeptics tend, with increasing frequency, to reside on the political left.
The most recent subject of this recurring dynamic is Mississippi. Once synonymous with terrible education, the state incorporated a set of educational reforms including teacher training, testing, retention (i.e., whether kids move forward or are held back), and a mostly phonics-based reading instruction, unlike the ineffective but popular “whole language” model that prevailed at the time. In a mere 10 years, the state’s fourth-grade reading scores rose from 49th place, in 2013, to the top 20, in 2023. Adjusted for race and income, Mississippi now does a far better job of teaching literacy than do many northern states usually seen as leaders in public education. In 2023, Maryland promptly hired Carey Wright, Mississippi’s superintendent of education, to oversee the state’s public schools.
An article , well worth your time.
