How did Mississippi Pass Washington in Reading?

Mississippi reading scores shot from #46 to #1 in the nation between 2013 and 2024, and the income-based gap shrank by 4 points. In contrast, Washington fell from #18 to #26, and the privilege gap remains a steady 29 points.¹ And Mississippi is only getting started.

In 2000, the Barksdale Institute pledged $100 million to retrain Mississippi school teachers for free, a move they hoped would eliminate the harmful potluck of practices known as Balanced Literacy by equipping teachers with the extensive knowledge needed to deliver Structured Literacy with fidelity.

However, participation remained so low for so long that the institute pivoted to a legislative strategy that would make the switch mandatory. In 2013, Mississippi passed the first ‘Science of Reading’ law in the U.S., which required research-based core instruction, teacher re-training, new teacher certification requirements, and more. Most importantly, the law gave Mississippi’s Department of Education $9.5 million to hire and train coaches and the authority to withhold other funding if schools did not implement this instruction in the classroom. ²

The state Department of Education trained its own coaches and strategically deployed them to the state’s lowest-performing schools. Coaches provided tutoring for the lowest-performing students while also training teachers. Several individuals involved in that process have shared some of the strategies responsible for that success, from funding that provided both carrot and stick to the fact that coaches do not report to schools themselves, ensuring that they can hold schools accountable. In 2016, barely three years into implementation, Mississippi eclipsed Washington. ³

1. Reading scores track with wealth, giving the false impression that wealthier states like Massachusetts or New York are performing better than other states, when in reality those high scores are due to lower poverty rates. The Urban League standardized demographics across all states and published a revised ranking that more accurately reflects each state’s performance. Based on that apples-to-apples list comparing 2013 to 2024, Mississippi moved from #46 to #1. ↩︎
2. Mississippi has inspired 40 states to initiate and/or pass similar legislation, including Oregon and California. Washington has not. Education Week maintains a running list of state legislation status and the content of those laws. ↩︎
3. The 74 website has an excellent article about this process, with a bar graph demonstrating just how dramatic Mississippi scores have risen relative to the rest of the nation. ↩︎