Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves detailed how conservative education reform led his state’s school system to achieve some of the best outcomes in the country, a phenomenon dubbed the “Mississippi Miracle.”
The Associated Press in 2023 referred to the state’s skyrocketing test scores for fourth graders as the “Mississippi Miracle,” explaining, “Mississippi went from being ranked the second-worst state in 2013 for fourth-grade reading to 21st in 2022.”
What are they doing that most other states are not doing?
Be informed, not misled.
In 2023, Associated Press published this:
It’s a cliché that Kymyona Burk heard a little too often: “Thank God for Mississippi.”
As the state’s literacy director, she knew politicians in other states would say it when their reading test scores were down — because at least they weren’t ranked as low as Mississippi. Or Louisiana. Or Alabama.
Lately, the way people talk about those states has started to change. Instead of looking down on the Gulf South, they’re seeing it as a model.
Mississippi went from being ranked the second-worst state in 2013 for fourth-grade reading to 21st in 2022. Louisiana and Alabama, meanwhile, were among only three states to see modest gains in fourth-grade reading during the pandemic, which saw massive learning setbacks in most other states.
The turnaround in these three states has grabbed the attention of educators nationally, showing rapid progress is possible anywhere, even in areas that have struggled for decades with poverty and dismal literacy rates. The states have passed laws adopting similar reforms that emphasize phonics and early screenings for struggling kids.
In a recent interview, Governor Tate Reeves (R) said, "The Mississippi Miracle is real."
"Governor Reeves is right to brag on Mississippi's education progress because it really has been stunning over the last decade," Grant Callen, founder and CEO of Empower Mississippi, tells AFN. "One example of that is our literacy scores; we were 49th in the nation in fourth-grade reading in 2013, and we are number nine in the nation now. We jumped 40 spots."
He says "a transformative package" of reforms contributed to those dramatic gains.
It recognized that the state was not doing kids any favors by moving them to the fourth grade if they did not know how to read; it reintroduced phonics and ensured that kids were literate before they moved on from the third grade.
The percentage of students who both failed the test and were held back from advancing to the third grade decreased from 9% in 2019 to 6.5% in 2023. High school graduation rates also rose during that time from 72% to 89.9%.
Callen says he is proud of the lawmakers who stood against the coalition of the status quo that incessantly fought to keep these reforms from happening.
And while he believes other states can and should use Mississippi as a model, he points out that the Magnolia State still lacks one thing: school choice.
"It is time for Mississippi to build on these literacy gains and enact real options for families," Callen contends. "We're currently surrounded by states that have already passed universal education, but we haven't done that in Mississippi. It's time."
The updated National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report card for 2024 shows that Mississippi leads the nation in demographic-adjusted scores for fourth- and eighth-graders. It has gone viral on social media, with Vice President JD Vance even sharing it and calling Mississippi's progress "incredible."
"Smart education reform drastically improved Mississippi's schools," he posted on X.
Mississippi has the best demographic-adjusted NAEP (4th & 8th grade) scores now
— Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery) April 7, 2025
The "Mississippi Miracle" started in 2012 when the Republican governor/legislature introduced phonics-based instruction and began to hold back ~10% of 3rd graders per year who fail a reading test pic.twitter.com/BYtlXePzRd
Indeed, they did. And continue to do so.
The other side went crazy... they said, ‘Well, we’re going to have to hold back half of our students,'” Reeves recalled. “No, we raised the level of expectations and Mississippians did what Mississippians do — they rose up and they met those increased expectations.”
Reeves said the state has raised the cutoff for advancing from the third grade to the fourth grade three times in the past ten years and has seen reading levels continue to improve. Using the reading model, Mississippi implemented similar standards in its math programs and then hired career coaches to assist students who do not plan to attend college with early career development.
"The results speak for themselves,” Reeves says.
The demographic-adjusted NAEP scores compare students from similar demographic and income groups to students in those same groups across states.
“These reforms not only work for some of our kids and some of our districts, they are working for all of our kids. Look at African American fourth graders when compared to their peers. In 2013, they were 45th best in the nation. Last year, how are black fourth graders when compared to their peers? Number three in the nation,” Reeves explained.
Hispanic students in Mississippi rank third in the nation in reading and first in the nation in math.
“By the way, our high school graduation rates during this time have risen from 72% of our kids graduated from high school to, last year, 89.9% of our kids are graduating high school,” Reeves added.
In addition to the new testing requirements, Mississippi also introduced new charter schools, established an Educational Savings Account (ESA) program for parents of children with disabilities, allowing them to enroll their children in programs tailored to meet their needs, and followed Florida's lead in providing letter-grade ratings for public schools.
Takeaway.
“It’s really not a miracle at all,” the governor says. “It’s really a result of conservative reforms implemented in public education — they’re making a huge difference for kids.”
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Bold. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.