Mississippi's decade-long focus on early literacy has transformed the state.

According to the Mississippi Department of Education, the state's fourth graders are making the nation's largest gains on reading assessments. They once ranked last on the tests. Media reports have dubbed the transformation the "Mississippi miracle."

Harry Patrinos, professor of education policy at the University of Arkansas, said the turnaround is anything but luck.

"Mississippi was 49th in the state in fourth grade reading. In just a decade, they went to 21st place in reading, and these gains continued to impress," Patrinos explained. "The country was hit with the school closures during COVID-19 but since then, Mississippi has not lost anything in terms of learning outcomes, which is rare in the country and the world."

The state's progress stems from its 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act, which emphasized speech-based instruction, early intervention and retention for students not meeting reading benchmarks.

Michelle Nowell, executive director of elementary education and reading for the Mississippi Department of Education, said the so-called "miracle" comes from sustained reforms focused on teacher training.

"We have renamed it the Mississippi Marathon," Nowell noted. "When I say we, I mean the department, the literacy coaches, because it really was a marathon, not a miracle because so much hard work went into it."

Nowell believes it is the human element behind the policy success, describing how literacy coaches from the state's education department built trust in schools across the state.

"In the past, anytime you mentioned MDE and MDE visiting a school district, it wasn't always a good thing," Nowell acknowledged. "It was either for an audit, and we wanted to change that perception. It's not a gotcha, we're here to help you. So we had to really build those relationships."

According to Patrinos, the reforms had an extra cost of $32 per student annually. The Trump administration recently announced $132 million in cuts to Mississippi's education funding, threatening the long-term success of its literacy programs.


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The selection of Marva Johnson, a longtime corporate executive and ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, as the next president of Florida A&M University has sparked fierce backlash over claims of political interference.

The university's board of trustees voted 8-4 last week to appoint Johnson, who lacks traditional higher-education experience but served on DeSantis' education advisory teams and the Florida Board of Governors. Critics have argued the search process was rigged to favor Johnson, who was added as a finalist late in the process.

Chuck Hobbs, a retired attorney, FAMU alumnus and former adjunct professor, pointed to the disconnect between the board's stated criteria and Johnson's background.

"If she isn't qualified from what their criteria indicated, not something in terms of what the alumni or students want but what this board of trustees said they were looking for ... if she doesn't meet those three criteria, then the second question has to be, then why is she there and what is the agenda?" Hobbs asserted.

Johnson dismissed claims she had an agenda or was a 'Trojan horse.' Supporters highlighted her management experience and political ties, while many students and alumni argued her selection threatens FAMU's autonomy as a historically Black university. The Board of Governors will review her appointment in June.

Walter Kimbrough, interim president of Talladega College and a veteran HBCU leader, noted a troubling trend of political influence in public HBCU leadership searches.

"I've gone back now about 15 years and I can't find an HBCU president with her background that's lasted more than five years," Kimbrough pointed out. "History said it's going to be a failure."

Kimbrough talked about the unique culture of HBCUs and the profoundly personal relationships formed on HBCU campuses between university presidents, their students, faculty and staff.

"She's never going to get that," Kimbrough contended. "Why then do you want a job when you're everything you represent is contrary to the idea of an HBCU presidency? It doesn't make any sense to me."

Hobbs sees Johnson's selection as the culmination of a yearslong conservative push to control public education.

Johnson's appointment came over Donald Palm, FAMU's longtime executive vice president; Rondall Allen, a provost at Maryland Eastern Shore; and Gerald Hector, a senior administrator at the University of Central Florida, all of whom met the board's original criteria for the job.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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Michiganders who left college early might now have a shot at finishing.

The Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential's growing partnership with ReUp Education is designed to help qualified residents with some college under their belt finally get that diploma.

The initiative involves teaming up with community colleges across Michigan to help bring back 21- to 24-year-olds who started college but didn't finish -- many whose education was disrupted by the pandemic.

Sarah Szurpicki, director of MiLEAP's Sixty by 30 office, said they identified 40,000 eligible Michiganders.

"We know that having a talented workforce in Michigan is, in my view, the most important thing we can do to be helping all of Michiganders be set up for a prosperous future," said Szurpicki, "to have choices in what they're doing."

More than 1 million Michigan residents of working age have some college experience, but no degree.

The goal of the Sixty by 30 initiative is for 60% of the state's working-age adults to have a post-secondary degree.

A recent report from MiLEAP shines a light on why so many adults step away from school - which include work and family pressures, mental-health struggles, tight finances -- and housing and transportation issues.

Szurpicki emphasized that this effort is also about equipping colleges with what they need to support students working toward finishing their degrees.

"ReUp also provides that sort of like an outsider's perspective on anything a particular college can do" said Szurpicki. "They provide feedback directly to the colleges of what they're hearing from the students that they're reaching out to."

According to MiLEAP, more than 200,000 Michiganders who left college now have access to ReUp's coaching and re-enrollment support, many of them qualifying for free tuition through the Michigan Reconnect program.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.



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Mississippi's education improvements could unravel unless the state addresses its teacher compensation crisis.

Toren Ballard, a former teacher and education policy researcher gave the warning and stressed the Magnolia state's 2022 pay raise temporarily boosted recruitment but did not solve retention. He pointed out when adjusted for inflation, teacher salaries remain below 21st century levels, with the most severe gaps in poorer districts unable to offer anything past a base salary.

"In recent years we have seen more people going into the profession, which is a good data trend but we've also seen the number of teachers leaving Mississippi classrooms explode," Ballard reported. "In recent years, in the average district, losing nearly one in four teachers each year."

Ballard praised Mississippi's new weighted student funding formula for addressing equity concerns. However, he highlighted competitive base salaries are critical to keeping up the state's education progress.

Ballard noted Mississippi's teacher shortage affects high-need districts and critical subjects like math and science. He argued paying teachers more is not necessarily about fairness.

"No, it's microeconomics," Ballard emphasized. "If we are going to offer more competitive salaries to Mississippi teachers, we are going to get more people interested in coming to Mississippi to begin with and more importantly, staying in Mississippi if they're already here."

Mississippi saw reading gains following the 2016 Literacy-Based Promotion Act, with fourth-grade test scores rising as other states declined.

Ballard hopes lawmakers now turn to current challenges, like rising health insurance premiums eating up a quarter of new teachers' salaries. There will also be reduced pension benefits for those hired after March 2026.


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