And so that’s a result that, in some ways, seemed predictable and even inevitable, because Mississippi is a pretty poor state. It doesn’t spend a lot on education. But slowly but surely, they started turning things around. By 2019, they were about in line with the national average. And now, they are a top 10 state for fourth graders learning how to read.Natalie Kitroeff
Wow.
Sarah Mervosh
Yeah. And I think something even more impressive is if you adjust for poverty and other demographics, like race, Mississippi is the number one place in the country for fourth graders learning reading and math and the number one state for eighth grade math.Natalie Kitroeff
OK, just explain that for me. When you say, when you adjust for poverty, it’s number one for these metrics. What do you mean exactly by that?Sarah Mervosh
Some of the best states that traditionally are seen as having the best education are the richest states — places like Massachusetts or New Jersey — because rich kids just score higher. But if you adjust for the student population that they’re serving. So how does a state serve its poor kids? Or if it has a lot of kids who are learning English.
So when you look at the students that it has, how does the state do? Mississippi does really well. Poor kids in Mississippi are scoring better on national tests in fourth grade than poor kids in almost any other state. So basically, what that’s telling me is that Mississippi is one of the best places in the country for a poor child to get an education.Natalie Kitroeff
OK. So that’s pretty remarkable. And all that is happening, of course, in a context where America’s schools are not doing well on the whole. The trends are bad. Test scores generally are down across the board.