There is no 8th-grade reading "miracle" anywhere.

Black fourth-graders in Mississippi, one of our poorest states, are two-and-a-half times more likely to be proficient in reading as black students in California.

Twenty percent of high school graduates have trouble reading anything more complex than a restaurant menu.

"Back to basics" won't help Northern schools catch up to Southern Surge states in reading. It takes a lot more.

Education reforms are working in the South, and they can work in blue states too, if there's political leadership.