skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

IVF clinic bombing should be a security wakeup call for fertility centers, experts say; Illinois is first state to restrict federal access to autism-related data; Virginia ranks in top 10 for lowest rates of deaths on the job; Food security researchers in 20 countries thought they had U.S. funding. Then Trump took office.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Congress debates Medicaid cuts, FBI pledges to investigate missing Indigenous people, Illinois pushes back on federal autism data plan, and deadly bombing in California is investigated as domestic terrorism.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

New Mexico's acequia irrigation system is a model of democratic governance, buying a house in rural America will get harder under the Trump administration's draft 2026 budget, and physicians and medical clinics serving rural America are becoming a rarity.

MS literacy gains offer blueprint for education reform, experts say

play audio
Play

Monday, April 21, 2025   

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.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
In 2022, U.S. subsidies for fossil-fuel companies totaled $757 billion, according to the International Monetary Fund. The figure included uncompensated costs of negative health effects and environmental degradation. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Congress is set to claw back $6.5 billion in climate-related Inflation Reduction Act investments to help pay for the Trump administration's priorities…


Social Issues

play sound

The FBI has said it will add resources in 10 states including New Mexico to tackle unresolved crimes, with a focus on those related to missing and …

Social Issues

play sound

Minnesota's legislative session is hovering around its endpoint and lawmakers found extra room in the budget to expand affordable housing. Those …


Some experts said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker's order protecting the medical data of state residents reinforces the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which safeguards American's health information. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Illinois is the first state to block the federal government from accessing state data on autism. The order, signed by Gov. JB Pritzker last week…

Environment

play sound

Washington lawmakers have created a new Prescribed Burn Liability Fund to help make controlled burns less risky on public, private and tribal lands …

Recent scam emails in Indiana have used familiar agency names, including the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, to appear legitimate. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

A recent scam using fake Indiana government email addresses is prompting a broader warning to Hoosiers. The messages claimed to involve unpaid tolls …

Social Issues

play sound

A guaranteed income pilot program in Oakland improved housing stability and employment among its recipients, according to a new report from the …

Social Issues

play sound

As Colorado moves to bar Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants from using benefits to buy soda and other sugar sweetened beverages…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021