The Mississippi Child Literacy Miracle

Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Mississippi ranked 49th in the United States for elementary school literacy 10 years ago, when fourth graders were essentially an entire grade level behind the rest of the nation.

(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)

Fast-forward a decade and 85 percent of third graders in the Magnolia State passed the state reading assessment test in 2023, moving Mississippi up to No. 21 and showing the fastest growth in the country in reading comprehension, despite having one of the lowest per-pupil expenditure rates.

“People called it a miracle,” Kristen Wells-Wynn, literacy director for the Mississippi Department of Education, told The Epoch Times on July 3, “but we call it a marathon.”

For the coming academic year, teacher training in Mississippi will expand to higher grade levels, and other states, such as Maryland, will try to implement Mississippi’s early literacy model.

The change occurred in Mississippi when the state Department of Education began switching from the “balanced literacy” reading instruction method to the so-called “science of reading” approach. Ms. Wells-Wynn said Mississippi continues to fund the initiative at a cost of about $15 million annually.

Carey M. Wright, who led the change as Mississippi’s superintendent of education, took over as the head of Maryland’s Department of Education on July 1. Her first order of business will be to oversee the same transition of reading instruction in the Old-Line State.

Maryland residents have until July 19 to provide public comment on the change, according to a news release.

“This initiative aims to enhance data-driven literacy standards and practices across the state, ensuring every student receives a strong foundation in literacy,” Ms. Wright said in the news release.

“Feedback from educators, families, and community members is crucial in shaping this policy to best meet the needs of our students.”

Children board a school bus in Jackson, Miss., on March 24, 2022. Mississippi shows the fastest improvement in reading comprehension in the United States. (Francois Picard/AFP /AFP via Getty Images)

Understanding the Brain

Science of reading is an ongoing body of research that dates back 50 years, even though dozens of academic and scientific research articles are published on the topic annually, as technological and medical breakthroughs reveal new information about how the human brain processes information.

Ms. Wells-Wynn explained that the main difference between the two approaches is which parts of the brain are triggered.

With balanced literacy, also known as the whole language approach, students are taught to develop “cues” for words, which often involves looking at pictures next to words. Through repetition, the student progresses from guessing words based on those cues to memorizing them. Reading in groups and writing activities that coincide with reading instruction are standard instruction techniques.

By contrast, science of reading emphasizes the use of phonics, allowing students to understand how the words look and sound as they acquire vocabulary and then use it to understand the meaning of paragraphs and reading passages.

Learning by memorization, Ms. Wells-Wynn said, mostly taxes the right side of the brain, which is strong with the visualization process but less equipped for deeper understanding. The left side is more capable of converting concepts into a process, like decoding words.

“Things become automatic, as opposed to memorizing them,” she said. “You’re building the good neurocircuitry on the left side.”

The Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University identified Mississippi as the strongest national example of “return on investment” based on federal emergency relief provided to state public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, per-pupil spending in the state was $11,700 ($2,000 of which came from federal relief money) as reading scores continued to rise. By contrast, per-pupil spending in Connecticut was listed at $24,000 ($1,200 from federal relief money) per student, while average fourth-grade reading scores there declined by more than five points since 2013, according to the Edunomics Lab data.

Through the “balanced theory” approach, students are taught to develop “cues” for words, while the “science of reading” approach emphasizes the use of phonics. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

Other State Efforts

If Maryland implements science of reading, it will join the list of 21 other states where this method is both required and funded. Most states that do not require the curriculum at least fund it, including California.

The National Council on Teacher Quality’s 2024 State of the States report indicates that only six states—Maine, Montana, Washington, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Illinois—do not mandate or fund the curriculum.

According to The Reading League, a Syracuse, New York-based nonprofit that advocates the science of reading-based instruction, 60 percent of U.S. fourth graders are not reading proficiently. The organization has chapters across 33 states. Members help with teacher professional development efforts, work with district administrators to develop curriculum, and advocate wholesale reading curriculum changes at the state level.

“As states continue to implement practices aligned to the science of reading, they send a powerful message to educators, parents, and students about the state’s commitment to successful reading outcomes for all children,” Maria Murray, founder and executive director of The Reading League, said in an email to The Epoch Times.

“Maryland education leaders supported those who requested training in evidence-aligned reading instruction. That support will have a transformational impact on literacy and learning in the state.”

In California, lawmakers failed to pass a bill this year that would have required the science of reading-based curriculum in all schools, though districts can require it locally.

One of the organizations that lobbied against the California bill, English-learners advocacy group Californians Together, stated in a letter to the legislation sponsors that the curriculum does not “embrace the full range of a research-based and comprehensive approach that centrally addresses the developmental needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students.”

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