New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently went to Mississippi to gather facts for a piece in his series on “How America Heals.” He came away inspired by how the poor southern state is making dramatic improvements in education.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores have risen from the bottom to equal to the national average for fourth grade reading.
“With an all-out effort over the past decade to get all children to read by the end of the third grade and by extensive reliance on research and metrics, Mississippi has shown that it is possible to raise standards in a state ranked dead last in the country in child poverty and hunger and second highest in teen births,” he wrote.
Harvard economist and education expert David Deming told Kristof, “Mississippi is a huge success story and very exciting. What’s so significant is that, while Mississippi hasn’t overcome poverty or racism, it still manages to read and excel. You cannot use poverty as an excuse.”
This is encouraging news not just for Mississippi, but also for West Virginia. That is because the Third Grade Success Act passed by the state legislature earlier this year, borrows heavily from the Mississippi law from ten years ago that prompted the turnaround in reading outcomes.
The provisions in the West Virginia law borrowed from Mississippi include, but are not limited to:
–Implementation of science-based reading instruction in the early grades that includes phonics and phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
–Additional professional training for teachers in the science of reading.
–The hiring of trained paraprofessionals to assist teachers in grades K-3.
–A halt to social promotion. Students who have not reached a certain level of reading proficiency by the third grade will be held back, with some exceptions.
–A greater emphasis on, and specialized instruction for, young students with reading disabilities.
State Senator Amy Grady (R, Mason), chair of the Senate Education Committee, herself a schoolteacher, successfully pushed the bill through the Legislature. She believes the Mississippi model will make a difference in West Virginia.
“It’s a difference in how well we can teach reading,” she said. “We will have teachers more prepared to teach it correctly.”
West Virginia’s early childhood reading education desperately needs improvement. The NAEP scores released last fall show that just 33 percent of fourth graders are “proficient or above” in reading. That means two-thirds of students will potentially struggle in the later grades.
According to Reading Partners, a children’s literacy nonprofit, “Studies have shown that children who cannot read at grade level by the start of the fourth grade are four times less likely to graduate on time than their grade-level peers — a startling statistic that shows the weight that early education carries for a child’s future success.”
Whenever some national ranking shows West Virginia near the bottom, we often derisively say, “Thank God for Mississippi.” However, when it comes to educational outcomes, West Virginians should say that with a sense of gratitude that Mississippi has provided us with a template for how to do better.