The Mississippi Education Turnaround Continues

So parents are getting more involved or are politicians educating the kids. Which is it.

I didn't realize so many kids were graduating in december

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Good job MS! ANC what are yall doing different to get these results?

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Handing out the test answer booklet to the teachers to read out to the class.

All the test are multi choice with the answer “c” for every question.


Sidebar: if I were a teacher I’d 100% make every answer on my test be the same letter except maybe one or two just to drive the students insane.

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we kept hearing from high school teachers that kids couldn't read.

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I am a teacher in Louisiana and this is a fact in La as well.

I am in higher ed now, but I was in K-12 in the time period where these changes were being discussed.

Imagine being one of just a couple of true conservatives in the room with a ton of liberals and what I term educrats - conservative in all parts of life except for education.

They want more money.
We ask for what.
Doesn't matter. Money will solve our issues.
What are you going to do with it.
Hire more administration.
Thats stupid. We need more instruction.
Buy more technology (big problem at the time)
That's stupid. Tech can't do everything.

The concept of coming up with three big ideas was amazing. They didn't have ideas other than more money. higher teacher pay. The same crew (led by Nancy Loome) is back at it with teacher pay, but they have no ammo with these recent results.

We hired Carey Wright as state superintendent and paid her more than any superintendent in America. She is as liberal as Obama, but I will give her credit - she came in, determined what needed to be done, worked with the legislature to determine a plan and stuck through it.

I figure we are about to lose her after this year, but I applaud what she has done for our state.

Another thing we did was get rid of elected school superintendents. Superintendents are now hired by an elected school board.

You had people running school districts that couldn't manage a Taco Bell graveyard shift but could win an election in these small towns. They were running school districts like employment agencies for their friends and families.

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There is a program here in Memphis where you can go spend an hour every week reading with 2nd grade kids who are behind on reading. It's a great program

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I'm good with those programs and they are helpful, but what Mississippi did is different. Its not just reading to them or preaching the importance of reading (both are important), its actually teaching the science of reading - training your brain how to process information.

Here's a great rundown: LINK

and to be fair, here's the liberal spin: LINK

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Another thing we did was get rid of elected school superintendents. Superintendents are now hired by an elected school board.

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We looked at that, but I don't think it buys you anything. If you've got a 7 member school board 4 people now decide who the superintendent is and it's harder to get rid of a bad one. I don't think it's overtly worse than electing them, I just think it's a wash. There are positives and negatives to both ways.

Either way you have to elect good people or you'll have issues.

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I live in the black belt in West Alabama,this is a huge problem here.

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I grew up there. Alabama is considering the reading initiatives and I have seen a lot of opposition from people back home.

I assure you, its completely different, but it works. In less than seven years, Mississippi has gone from dead last to around 27th in the things that matter in education.

Some education rankings factor in teacher pay (unrelated to cost of living, we are low) and union activity (which we basically have none) and will rate us lower. But if you look at test scores and graduation rates, etc., we are rocking.

Graduation Rate:

Iowa 90.5% (leads nation)
Mississippi 85.0%
California 83.0%
National Average 81.6%
Louisiana 78.1%
DC 61.4% (nations lowest)

The next thing we need to do is stop requiring all students to take the ACT. Were one of just three states that do it and it brings down our average significantly.

This is big because it’s covering actual gains in the classroom, not a measurement of dollars spent.


My mother is a teacher in the worst neighborhood of the worst school district of nc.

She says it’s not money, but an ability to teach disciplined students. The troublemakers must be disciplined or removed to create a conducive learning environment.
The ones that seek attention, ruin it for everyone else (ahem, Odell).