{"id":205948,"date":"2026-04-22T12:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/205948\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:23:07","slug":"what-new-york-can-learn-from-mississippis-education-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/205948\/","title":{"rendered":"What New York Can Learn from Mississippi\u2019s Education Miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new\u00a0report<\/a> from the center-left Progressive Policy Institute documents how Mississippi climbed from last in the country in fourth-grade reading to above the national average. The report\u2019s insights offer useful guidance for New York State.<\/p>\n

The report identified four reasons for Mississippi\u2019s success. Its widely touted \u201cscience of reading\u201d initiative, which implemented evidence-based reading programs, was one. The other three were rigorous standards and accountability, real consequences for poor performance, and careful state-level implementation.<\/p>\n

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More than 40 states have adopted policies<\/a> aimed at evidence-based reading instruction. Most have not adopted the other three policies. But clearly the full package is needed for success.<\/p>\n

What does Mississippi\u2019s approach look like in practice? Starting in 2012, the state began grading<\/a> every school based on measurable student outcomes. Schools earned points only for students performing at or above grade level. High schools received the most credit for students graduating with a standard diploma in four years. Students who earned a GED, occupational diploma, or certificate of attendance garnered the school fewer points. Students who dropped out cost points.<\/p>\n

Schools that earned strong grades were given more leeway by the state. By contrast, districts rated F for two consecutive years could face state takeover ; local superintendents could be removed, and school board members could lose their seats.<\/p>\n

Accountability and consequences played a major role in Mississippi\u2019s reading reforms, too. Under the state\u2019s 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act<\/a>, everyone in Mississippi\u2019s system is accountable for teaching children to read: teachers, principals, district administrators, and state officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The law requires that students who cannot demonstrate reading proficiency by the end of third grade be held back, with few exemptions and no parental opt-out. Beginning in kindergarten, schools must screen students for reading difficulties three times a year. Each time a child screens below the benchmark, the school sends a state-drafted letter to parents describing what is wrong and what the school would do about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Compare all of this with New York. The New York State Education Department (NYSED) describes<\/a> its accountability mission as providing \u201cscaffolded support,\u201d ensuring that schools have \u201cownership and agency\u201d as they plan for improvement. The NYSED makes no mention of \u201cconsequences\u201d for failure.<\/p>\n

New York does have a receivership law<\/a>, passed in 2015, that allows the state to intervene in its lowest-performing schools. But a school must spend at least three consecutive years among the bottom 5 percent before the state can act. Even then, the intervention is managed by the local superintendent, not Albany.<\/p>\n

And the law is rarely used. Of the 144 schools New York identified<\/a> as struggling in 2015, three were ultimately placed<\/a> under an independent receiver in 2018. Just 15 schools across the state were in receivership<\/a> for the 2025\u20132026 school year.<\/p>\n

One explanation for this difference in systems is that Mississippi is not so dominated by public-sector unions. Changes to evaluation systems, instructional requirements, and professional responsibilities in New York are subject to collective bargaining<\/a> with the state\u2019s teachers\u2019 union, among the most powerful in the country. Mississippi, by contrast, operates without a traditional collective bargaining system for teachers.<\/p>\n

The results reflect these differences. According to the 2015 NAEP, the average score<\/a> for fourth-graders in New York State was 223; almost a decade later, it declined<\/a> to 215. Over the same period, Mississippi\u2019s average score rose from 214 to 219. Yet in 2023, New York per-pupil spending<\/a> was $30,012, while Mississippi per-pupil spending was only $12,093.<\/p>\n

New York is not Mississippi. Its politics are more complex, its unions more powerful, and its districts more autonomous. But a state that has spent more per pupil than any other for 19 consecutive years should be able to hold someone accountable for whether its children learn to read.<\/p>\n

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City Journal is a publication of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MI), a leading free-market think tank. Are you interested in supporting the magazine? As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations in support of MI and City Journal are fully tax-deductible as provided by law (EIN #13-2912529).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new\u00a0report from the center-left Progressive Policy Institute documents how Mississippi climbed from last in the country in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-205948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}