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Imagine a state that ranked dead last in nearly every education ranking. More than half of third-grade students were unable to read proficiently. Colleges were pouring millions into remedial education because too many high school graduates arrived unprepared for college reading and writing. Poverty and historical inequities plagued classrooms and socially promoting children who could not read was the norm. That was Mississippi in 2012. Fast-forward to today, and this same state has engineered a stunning reversal. Fourth-grade reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) skyrocketed from 50th in the nation a decade ago to as high as ninth, with gains holding steady 2024, while the national average declined.
This remarkable turnaround, known as the Mississippi Miracle, isn’t magic, it’s the result of deliberate, state-led innovation that transformed early literacy from the ground up. A recent Fox News segment highlighted phonics as one of the key components of the turnaround in student outcomes. Phonics matters. But, if you think phonics alone explains the Mississippi Miracle, you are missing the playbook. What Mississippi did was build a coordinated and sustained system. It started with strong leadership from the top.
Governor Phil Bryant didn’t just sign the Literacy-Based Promotion Act in 2013, he championed it. He rallied the legislature to pass this transformative policy with bipartisan support. His vision set the tone of no more excuses, no more social promotions, no settling for mediocrity. The Literacy-Based Promotion Act did more than require teachers to use phonics instruction; it rebuilt our early-literacy system from the classroom up. The Act required that every K–3 teacher be retrained in evidence-based reading instruction through the LETRS training. The Act required that reading coaches be deployed in the lowest-performing districts to model instruction and provide daily feedback to teachers. Early-childhood programs, such as Mississippi Building Blocks and the Pre-K Collaboratives, were aligned with K–3 goals, ensuring that children arrived at kindergarten ready to learn. For the first time, every district used the same universal screener within the first 30 days of kindergarten.
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Additionally, students were assessed three times a year in kindergarten, first, second and third grades, ensuring that common data sets from the screener were used to drive instructional decisions. Retention alone is not a solution; when a child still lagged after twelve classroom data points and failed the third-grade assessment, the repeat year was intentionally different.
The struggling reader was placed in a completely different experience for the repeating year of 3rd grade. Repeating students were placed with a highly qualified teacher, received 60 minutes of daily intensive reading instruction in a smaller group and followed an Individualized Reading Plan developed in collaboration with the family. These interventions were not punishment for kids, but a focused remediation designed to change a child’s trajectory before failure became permanent.
Phonics and the science of teaching reading were an important part that included vocabulary, comprehension, fluency and language development. And we did it all with state funds and our own state innovation, no federal oversight dictating our work.
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Mississippi led its own revival. For 12 years now, we have been holding the line. Everyone talks about the student outcomes resulting from the Act, but few highlight how a governor’s commitment influences them. Governor Bryant’s leadership ignited the miracle and Governor Reeves ensures it continues. Every governor should aspire to be an education governor. Owning the challenge, funding the fixes and leading without apology.
If other states seek our results, forget thinking all you need to do is teach phonics. Build the system. Ask if you have:
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• Funded, ongoing teacher training in evidence-based practices, beyond one-off workshops.
• Embedded coaches in low-performing schools for hands-on reinforcement.
• Aligned early childhood pathways.
• A statewide screener with mandatory follow-ups and supports.
• Intensive remediation ensuring daily instruction with expert teachers and small groups.
• Transparent family updates that empower home action.
Mississippi didn’t luck into success. If you want results, build the system. Be an education governor, teach teachers, support classrooms, screen children early, engage every family and ensure that remediation is not just a repetition of the same experience for the child. It is so much more than just phonics. If you do that, then the so-called miracle becomes a predictable outcome, one that helped change a whole state to learn to read.
