{"id":88597,"date":"2026-01-16T15:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/88597\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T15:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:26:22","slug":"pa-politicians-think-theyve-found-an-education-miracle-in-a-surprising-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/88597\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa. politicians think they\u2019ve found an education \u2018miracle\u2019 in a surprising place"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania lawmakers are looking to an unlikely role model to improve literacy rates in the commonwealth: Mississippi.<\/p>\n

For the past several years, the state of Mississippi has been recognized by educational leaders for the unusual success it has had helping its youngest students learn to read, despite having high rates of poverty and relatively low levels of education spending. <\/p>\n

Pennsylvania needs inspiration after Pennsylvania politicians passed regulations last year that will require schools and districts to adopt evidence-backed reading curriculums by 2027<\/a>. Dozens of other states passed similar legislation\u201d after a series of stories by APM Reports in 2022<\/a> found schools across the country were not following best practices on \u201cthe science of reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

But questions remain about what Pennsylvania needs to do to match Mississippi\u2019s results \u2013 and how feasible these results are. Education experts who spoke at a Senate policy committee hearing Monday<\/a> agreed that follow-through and implementation will be key \u2013 but there wasn\u2019t consensus on what that should look like.<\/p>\n

Sen. Dave Argall, Republican chair of the committee, said most public policy improvements are slow. He wants to know whether what is happening in Mississippi is different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m reading in the New York Times yesterday<\/a> on this new way of helping teachers help our students to learn to read is more revolutionary than incremental,\u201d he said. \u201cIs this new way of learning truly revolutionary?\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times story, which was cited several times during Monday\u2019s hearing by lawmakers and educators, highlighted several key features of the \u201cMississippi miracle\u201d: <\/p>\n

Adoption of \u201cscience of reading\u201d curriculums that include phonics instruction.Holding back students who don\u2019t pass their state reading test in 3rd grade for another year.State control over which literacy curriculums local districts can adopt.Ongoing support from literacy experts to teach teachers at struggling schools.Accountability on standardized tests, including grading schools on a scale from F – A.Incentives for making improvements among the bottom 25% of students.Increased capacity at the state education department, including a literacy coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cMississippi didn\u2019t just know the research, they built the systems, the structures, the training, the leadership capacity and the accountability needed to live it every single day,\u201d testified Candace Hall, a board member at the International Dyslexia Foundation, at Monday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

The suite of policies in Mississippi is appealing to conservatives, because it comes from a state that spends less on education, has weak teachers\u2019 unions and doesn\u2019t require a massive financial investment. But it also emphasizes liberal ideas like stronger state control over local control over local education matters.<\/p>\n

\"SenatorSen. Dave Argall wants to know whether the reading skill improvements in Mississippi can be replicated in Pennsylvania.Courtesy image<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also want to honor Pennsylvania\u2019s tradition of local control,\u201d Hall said. \u201cBut with that comes the state\u2019s responsibility to provide guardrails that ensure every child receives high quality instruction, no matter the zip code.\u201d<\/p>\n

The policy is popular among some liberals because it focuses on the growth of all students, no matter the circumstances they have come from. Mississippi has been particularly effective at raising test scores for the most disadvantaged children in one of the highest poverty states in the country. But the policies emphasize accountability to a larger degree than adding resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cI unfortunately regularly visit classrooms with unopened boxes shrink wrapped of brand new materials because the teachers weren\u2019t given any time to learn the new curriculum that their district paid for,\u201d testified Kendall LaPora, a research associate with the nonprofit Research for Action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the focus on Mississippi\u2019s unusual success, several speakers at Monday\u2019s hearing championed more traditional liberal and conservative talking points that Pennsylvania. either needs more resources for its schools or needs more school choices for parents.<\/p>\n

Rachel Langan, an education policy analyst at the conservative Commonwealth Foundation, said she didn\u2019t think individual programs could lead to lasting change and that, instead, lawmakers should focus on the conservative education priorities: vouchers and tax credits that would fund children at whatever school their parents want to send them to. <\/p>\n

\u201cCurriculum reforms and efforts to improve literacy are necessary and commendable, but they are not enough to produce steady improvement in academic achievement,\u201d Langan said. <\/p>\n

Some of the other speakers at Monday\u2019s hearing focused on areas they work in, such as early childhood literacy, adult literacy and regional intermediate units that support schools. <\/p>\n

Donna Gafney, the director of organizational learning and professional development for Montgomery County\u2019s intermediate unit, said state leaders should continue to invest in early childhood education, invest in ongoing professional development and to leverage organizations like hers, that are focused on providing professional development. Intermediate units, she said, \u201care built to be the scalable bridge connecting policy to real consistent classroom impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the meeting the chairman, Argall, said that future efforts by Pennsylvania may need to focus more on accountability. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo far Pennsylvania has only adopted part of the Mississippi model,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seems like we\u2019ve done more of the carrot and less of the stick. And so the New York Times article yesterday seemed to argue that you gotta do the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania lawmakers are looking to an unlikely role model to improve literacy rates in the commonwealth: Mississippi. For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-88597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-reading-city","9":"tag-reading-city-headlines","10":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}