[kogus]

This was very interesting to read, and news to me. It's gratifying to see Mississippi prove that it's possible to break out of a pattern of failure. I would love to see a discussion around the specific policies and practices that MS has put in place to actually achieve these results. The article doesn't really discuss that.

[kardianos]

They teach using proven methods, like phonics. They actually teach math. They test and use that as real information. They focus on results not on ideology.

They do NOT encurage using Paulo Freire's "methods".

[kogus]

The article suggests that someone from Maine would be reluctant to ask Mississippi for advice, given the stereotypes and biases that all Americans have absorbed over the years.

If the Maine Secretary of Education overcame his or her reluctance and did in fact ask Mississippi for advice, imagine their disappointment if the response was "we actually teach math".

Do you have a source for your response? I'm genuinely curious about what they changed to achieve this level of success. I'd be interested first for the actual educational methods, and secondarily I'd be interested in relating it to the idea of organizational changes that can produce relatively rapid reversals of a long term trend.

[miltonlost]

Is that in the article? Where do you know their curriculum?

[aredox]

Proven methods... For what? Acing standardised tests?

There is more to live and success than standardised tests. Steve Jobs wasn't a brilliant student with top marks everywhere.

[dataengineer56]

They hold students back if they don't pass a basic reading literacy test in third grade.

[pc86]

Who would have thought that not pushing kids forward into an academic environment they're not prepared for would be beneficial?

[c4mden]

They invested heavily in early literacy programs and literacy training for K-3 teachers.

[MattSteelblade]

The author posted a link to an article[1] showing that Mississippi's retention policies were not responsible for the increase in scores.

> But I've gotten some plausible pushback from researchers who say that Mississippi has always held back lots of kids. In practice, the 2013 law didn't change anything.

> ...

> In 2017, the average age of a fourth grade class is a minuscule 0.01 higher than the 1998-2013 average. That's no difference at all. This proxy is strong evidence that Mississippi's retention policies never changed in practice, which means it's entirely kosher to just compare their scores normally before and after reform.

[1] https://jabberwocking.com/mississippi-revisited-the-mississi...

[duxup]

Is that a state wide policy?

[bee_rider]

The scores are adjusted for some demographic factors, so one explanation could be that they use exactly the same strategies as everybody else but the “demographic factors” adjustment works out for them.

[bitshiftfaced]

Children of similar demographics are getting better absolute reading scores in Mississippi. How would it "work out" for them in a way that isn't explained by performance?

[keenmaster]

Mississippi's average ACT scores are tied for last (edit: tied for second to last). I’m sure some of their educational outcomes are improving, but the demographic-adjusted stats from elementary school students are misleading. Holding kids back for poor performance can really pump their numbers inadvertently. Even if that’s not a very prevalent practice, performance in high school is more important and far more predictive of life outcomes.

You know what’s crazier? Mississippi’s average ACT was higher before some of their education policy improvements.

[happyopossum]

ACT scores trail education outcomes by ~10 years, as students in school in the middle of a shift don’t get the full benefit from it - they’re often not included in policy changes for the sake of continuity (you may not be able to suddenly change the way you teach math in 5th grade).

[WaitWaitWha]

https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the...

Indeed they are towards the bottom, but not "tied for last".

Talking about statistics, take a look at the "Estimated % of Grads Tested" column. the top 20 do not break 20%, while the bottom is near 100% with the exception of Hawa'ii.

[reverendsteveii]

It's the height of elitism to pretend that this comment isn't shooting up in the rankings, and it would be foolish to ignore it

[dentemple]

> By the way, if you control for HN comments made by me on 5/7/25, this is the #1 ranked comment.

I have nothing to add. I just wanted to show that I helped contribute to make keenmaster's 5/7/25 comment on this thread his #1 comment on this thread for the day, 5/7/25. Hello to all of the future historians looking back on this moment!

[amanaplanacanal]

That's because the article is really about politics, not education. Education was just a hook for the author to hang a political point on.

[lolinder]

Just to clarify to those reading the comments first, the political point he's making is not to ignore Mississippi just because it's Mississippi.

He has warnings for both Democrats and Republicans at the end and is pretty clearly not a fan of the way either party is approaching education at the national level right now. He is drawing attention to the fact that some red states with historically bad schools have started pulling ahead of some blue states with historically good schools, but his interest is in making sure we learn from that, not scoring culture war points.

[pc86]

If the educational system is run in some measure by the government, it is going to have political implications regardless.

[rubyfan]

yeah, they lost me at the use of the word “elites”