NYC should look to the Mississippi Miracle to learn how to teach reading

New York Post

16-05-2025

If you're a parent of a young reader, would you rather start off in Manhattan or Mississippi?
The answer may surprise you.
Today, fourth-grade students in Mississippi read almost a full school year ahead of their peers in New York City, according to national test scores.
Advertisement
It wasn't always this way.
In the early 2000s, Mississippi students trailed New York City by half a year.
Now students in the Magnolia State read above the national average.
Advertisement
Mississippi isn't alone: Other high-poverty Southern states have made major gains.
These dynamics are part of a post-pandemic shift of red states overtaking blue ones academically.
Here's another way of understanding these data: About 31,000 New York City fourth-graders scored at the Below Basic level last year.
Advertisement
These students struggle to interpret the main character's actions in 'The Tale of Desperaux,' a classic story of a mouse on a quest to rescue a beautiful princess.
In this summer's primary election, New Yorkers will effectively choose their next mayor, and the stakes couldn't be higher for Gotham's aspiring readers.
Here are three things that the city's next mayor should learn from Mississippi and other Southern states about improving literacy.
A general view of school children pictured leaving school on the last day of school before summer vacation on June 18, 2024.
Christopher Sadowski
Advertisement
First, be honest and support struggling readers. While 90% of New York parents think their child reads at or above grade level, only 45% actually do.
Mississippi doesn't have this kind of honesty gap.
The state sends written notice to parents when children are at risk of being held back and requires schools to create Individualized Reading Plans.
These plans include targeted interventions and progress monitoring.
Schools also offer summer reading camps with small-group support.
Line chart shows reading levels of fourth graders in Mississippi, US, and New York from 2003 to 2024.
Mike Guillen/NY Post Design
Second, empower educators. Through no fault of their own, teachers around the United States are not well-trained in how to teach reading.
Of the 16 teacher-prep programs in New York City, 12 earn a D or F from the latest National Council on Teacher Quality reviews.
Advertisement
After passing a comprehensive literacy bill in 2013, Mississippi funded a two-year course in evidence-based reading methods for all elementary teachers.
The state teachers' association supported the change.
NYC could offer salary bonuses for completely similar training.
Skeptical of adopting a 'red state' reform?
Advertisement
Research shows that intensive literacy coaching improved outcomes at scale in California.
These investments deliver more bang for the buck than just increasing spending.
Under the current mayor, the NYC Reads initiative ended Columbia Teachers College's 'balanced literacy' program, which had been the main approach in city schools for 30 years, and replaced it with three evidence-based programs.
Advertisement
Two — EL Education and Wit & Wisdom — emphasize nonfiction and reading whole novels, a rarity in an age of rampant screen time.
While teachers have been offered some professional learning opportunities, implementation has been uneven.
Teachers need more time and support to unlearn what they thought for three decades was the right approach for kids.
In the old Teachers College model, fourth-graders reading at a second-grade level were given easy, 'just right' books.
Advertisement
But research shows this doesn't build vocabulary or background knowledge.
As Tim Shanahan of the University of Illinois-Chicago wrote, 'If students are working with texts that they can already read quite well . . . there is little opportunity for learning.'
The new curriculum rightly demands grade-level texts, but learning new ways to support students takes time.
As Robert Pondiscio wrote in these pages last month, 'If we're serious about raising literacy rates, we need to sustain this effort across years, mayors and chancellors.'
Finally, set difficult but achievable goals. In 2013, Mississippi's governor set a clear reading goal — one his successor continues to prioritize. No other governor or mayor does this.
Former US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently noted, 'There are no education goals for the country.'
With 70% of NYC jobs expected to require some college, the next mayor could set a 2% to 3% annual literacy-growth goal.
Over a decade, that would give students a real shot at success.
Mississippi's growth has been called a miracle, but that term implies supernatural causes.
The state's gains have been made by leaders and teachers implementing a well-designed strategy for a decade.
They also know much work remains to see the same rate of growth in eighth-grade scores.
New Yorkers take pride in having the best of everything — and often, they do have the best.
But when it comes to teaching reading, it's time for humility, and time to learn from those who are doing better.
David Scarlett Wakelyn is a former New York Deputy Secretary for Education and a consultant at Upswing Labs. Michael Hartney is the Bruni Family Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and an associate professor of political science at Boston College.