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Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Dr. Kymyona Burk say Mississippi’s early literacy success needs to be a beacon of hope for states throughout the nation.
Over the previous decade, Mississippi has made important strides in bettering its early literacy outcomes. This outstanding achievement usually is known as the “Mississippi Miracle.”
But it surely isn’t a miracle in any respect. The Magnolia State’s success is the results of a concerted effort by policymakers, educators and households to place all college students on a path to turning into expert readers.
In 2011, practically 4 out of 5 Mississippi fourth graders scored under proficient on the Nationwide Evaluation of Instructional Progress (NAEP) studying examination. This dismal efficiency was a wake-up name for the state, which ranked final within the nation in studying achievement.
In response, Mississippi enacted a complete suite of reforms to handle literacy; enhance entry to early childhood schooling; and enact an A-F accountability mannequin. The literacy insurance policies included:
A scientific method to studying instruction, which incorporates specific instruction within the parts of studying recognized by the Nationwide Studying Panel – phonemic consciousness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Important funding in skilled growth for lecturers on educate studying successfully.
A requirement that college students who don’t meet the state commonplace for promotion by the top of third grade be retained.
Screening all college students for studying difficulties starting as early as kindergarten and offering interventions to those that want them.
The adoption and implementation of those insurance policies have had a dramatic impression on Mississippi’s studying achievement. Between 2011 and 2019, Mississippi’s fourth grade studying rating on the NAEP examination, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, elevated by 10 scale rating factors (the equal of a full grade degree), the most important acquire of any state within the nation throughout that point interval. In 2022 and post-pandemic, Mississippi scored increased than the nation for the primary time, scoring 217 to 216, respectively. Because of this, Mississippi has improved from final to twenty first within the nation in fourth grade studying achievement.
Mississippi’s outcomes are a testomony to the ability of sound public coverage and efficient implementation. It exhibits that even states with long-standing challenges can obtain important progress in bettering scholar outcomes.
The state’s success can be a reminder that every one college students can be taught to learn, no matter their background or circumstances. Once we present college students with the early literacy helps they want, they’ll succeed.
Over the summer time, nonetheless, we heard pushback from just a few outspoken critics who wish to decrease the state’s success. They cherry-picked knowledge and redirected consideration to Mississippi’s different challenges—from poverty to public well being—in an try and diminish positive factors in early literacy.
We wish to make it clear that the state can proceed to deal with addressing these challenges whereas celebrating our sustained dedication to bettering studying outcomes—and sharing our public coverage roadmap with different states seeking to implement comparable literacy insurance policies.
Policymakers outdoors of Mississippi can be taught an excellent deal from what occurred right here, which we based mostly on outcomes achieved years earlier in Florida, the primary state to efficiently implement complete literacy coverage.
First, it is very important have a complete early literacy plan that features the entire elementary rules, akin to third-grade retention, screenings and interventions, phonics instruction {and professional} growth for lecturers. We’ve developed a web based, interactive device, Early Literacy Issues, that particulars these rules and breaks down how a lot progress states have made in every space.
Second, states should implement these insurance policies with constancy. This implies guaranteeing that every one faculties and lecturers are following the plan persistently.
Third, progress requires persistence, persistence and public help. It takes time to see the outcomes of early literacy reform, and it takes time to elucidate why modifications are essential. In Mississippi, we spent the higher a part of two years supporting educators in faculties and explaining the regulation to lecturers and households earlier than the promotion requirement went into place.
Mississippi’s early literacy success needs to be a beacon of hope for states throughout the nation. It exhibits that it’s potential to show round even essentially the most difficult faculty techniques and be certain that all college students can succeed.
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