To win back public-school parents, be like Mississippi

Proclaiming that schools are doing OK won't work for Democrats, writes Ben Austin of Education Civil Rights Now. "Voters are wildly dissatisfied with the status quo" on education. Sixty-five percent believe students have not recovered from school closures during the pandemic, he writes, and the dreadful post-pandemic NAEP scores for 12th-grade reading and math show they're right.

Republicans are offering "a clear — if flawed — answer to this crisis: free money for parents to send their children to the school of their choice," writes Austin, who once worked in the Clinton White House.

"National Democrats can recapture the mantle as the party of public education by embracing parents as partners, supporting public school choice, and translating high quality public schools' from a soundbite into a civil right for all American children," he writes.

He suggests they listen to Marc Porter Magee of 50CAN: “There’s a road map out there from states like Louisiana and Tennessee, focused on high-dosage tutoring, high-quality curriculum, and clear information for parents on where their kids stand. What’s missing now is the political will to bring it to every state.”

Kindergarteners at Clarksdale (MS) Collegiate Charter School.

If "blue" states aren't willing to learn from Mississippi (and Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee) how to teach reading, then they've decided to make illiteracy a policy choice, writes Kelsey Piper on The Argument.

In California, where she lives, only 30% of public school fourth graders can read proficiently, and 41 percent test as "below basic," she writes. Eighth graders "look almost as bad."

Scores have been falling for years across the country, especially for students who were already struggling.

But Mississippi students keep improving. "Its fourth grade students outperform California’s on average, even though our state is richer, more educated, and spends about 50% more per pupil," writes Piper.

"In California, only 28% of Black fourth graders read at or above basic level, for instance, compared to 52% in Mississippi." Scores are rising for non-disadvantaged students too.

If you live where I do, in Oakland, California, and you cannot afford private education, you should be seriously considering moving to Mississippi for the substantially better public schools.

"Blue states . . . have been spending lots of money on schools, but we have not been willing to muster the political will and effort necessary to hold those schools accountable for results and adopt teaching practices that actually work," she writes.

Other states -- Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee -- "have achieved strong results with the same basic playbook," writes Piper.

John White, who led the Louisiana Department of Education through the reform era, talked with Piper about what the Southern Surge states have in common.

All provided incentives for districts to adopt high-quality, research-backed reading curricula that included teaching phonics in the early grades. The surge states trained teachers on that curriculum. Mississippi "sent coaches directly into low-performing classrooms to guide teachers on how to use material."

Also critical "is clear accountability at the district level, at the school level, at the educator level, and at the student and parent level,” White said.

"Accountability, of course, means standardized tests, requirements that students master reading before they are advanced to the fourth grade, and rankings of schools on performance," writes Piper. It can be painful and politically unpopular.

In blue states and cities, "at least until recently, local school boards have been more interested in issues around equity than measurably improving learning outcomes," she writes.

People on the left don't want to learn from Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Alabama. “This is just a politically awkward story,” education policy expert Andy Rotherham told her. “It’s all these red states. This is a very ideological field. People struggle with calling balls and strikes.”

Teaching children to read is the surest path to equity, of course. Piper wants a mass movement to demand a Northern Surge of reforms. "Whatever embarrassment we feel about having to admit Mississippi beat us should be thoroughly outweighed by our overwhelming delight at having a roadmap to do better," she writes.