Mississippi Education Gains Include Significant Strides for Black, Latino Students

Standing on the steps of the Capitol Building flanked by American and Mississippi state flags, Gov. Tate Reeves lauded Mississippi’s educational progress during his annual State of the State address on Jan 29.

“For so long, our teachers and our kids have been told they are last. 50th. At the bottom. Y’all, it’s just not true,” he said. “Mississippi is charging to the front of the pack with our education system and daring other states to keep up.” 

Reeves focused heavily on the state’s academic achievement including “record-high graduation rates and record-low dropout rates.” On the same day, the Mississippi Department of Education cited new data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showing that Mississippi’s fourth-grade students ranked first in the nation for achieving the highest score increase in reading and math since 2013.

“Today, we actually received even more proof that what we have done is working,” Reeves said from the podium. “Mississippi’s brand-new data from one of the top testing institutions—the National Assessment for Educational Progress—shows that we broke educational achievement records again.”

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The data also showed that Mississippi has made significant gains with its minority populations. Black fourth-grade students in Mississippi now rank third in the country among their peers for reading and math. Hispanic students in Mississippi rank first in the nation in reading and second in math among their peers. The state’s fourth graders rank No. 9 overall in the nation for reading and No. 16 for math.

“Congratulations to our fabulous teachers, school leaders, students, and parents for their remarkable achievements!” Parent’s Campaign Executive Director Nancy Loome said on January 29. “And kudos to our legislators who have invested in our public schools and resisted following other states off the school choice cliff. While Mississippi’s scores on national assessments have improved steadily over the years, the national average has declined following the national voucher push to divert critical resources to private schools.”

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