Deep South States See Major Improvements in Student Reading Scores

Children leave Wilkins Elementary school in in Jackson, Miss., on March 24, 2022. (Francois Picard/AFP via Getty Images)

Three states in the Deep South—Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana—have seen major improvements in student reading scores after the state legislatures changed educational policies.

Mississippi saw the biggest ranking change in terms of fourth grade reading, jumping from the second-worst state in the country in 2013 to the 21st spot in 2022, The Associated Press reported. During the pandemic, Louisiana and Alabama were the only other states to see modest gains in fourth grade reading.

Among low-income fourth graders, Mississippi ranked in second place for reading scores in 2022, just behind Florida, which took the top spot. Louisiana came in at 11th and Alabama at 27th.

These states have passed laws to boost reading skills among struggling children, including emphasizing phonics, which involves matching sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters.

In addition, literacy coaches have been deployed to aid teachers, specifically in schools that tend to have lower performance. Children suffering from issues like dyslexia and reading deficiencies are identified early on, with parents being informed about the situation while also providing the extra support necessary.

Sweeping education reforms, which began in Mississippi in 2013, garnered bipartisan support.

Louisiana state Rep. Richard Nelson told The Associated Press that education laws passed in some other states in the Deep South helped him to introduce similar bills with support from both Republicans and Democrats.

“Every time I present a bill, I say, ‘Look, Mississippi has very similar challenges to what we have in Louisiana, and they’ve been able to make this work,’” Nelson said.

Dismal National Student Performance

The strong performance of students in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama comes as the nation has seen a significant drop in reading and math scores during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An analysis of 15,000 students showed that reading scores dropped between winter 2020 and winter 2022, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), popularly known as the “Nation’s Report Card.”

This is the biggest decline since the 1980s.

The sample included 9-year-old children from 410 schools. About two-thirds of them were in fourth grade, and the rest were in third grade or below.

The report also showed that average long-term math scores fell for the first time since the test began in the 1970s.

Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the NAEP, said during a press call in August that the results were “sobering.”

“There is still a widening of the disparity between the top and the bottom performers, but in a different way,” Carr said. “Everyone is dropping. But the students at the bottom are dropping faster.”

In October, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce raised alarm bells following the grim NAEP test scores.

“This is a wakeup call for our country—for policymakers, leaders in public education, and the business community,” said Cheryl Oldham, U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president of education policy, in a statement.

Though the COVID-19 outbreak is partly to blame for the lower scores, the pandemic only exacerbated the existing failures in the education system, Oldham added.

Poor Education Policies

President Joe Biden’s education department has faced criticism for the poor academic performance of students.

According to the Nation’s Report Card, the average civics score for eighth grade students declined by 2 points in 2022 compared to 2018. This was the first time that civics scores registered a decline. The average U.S. history score of eighth grade students fell by 5 points compared to 2018 and 9 points compared to 2014.

In a May 3 statement, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the pandemic had a “profound impact” on student learning beyond the subjects of math and reading.

“Banning history books and censoring educators from teaching these important subjects does our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction,” he said, seemingly referring to efforts to remove critical race theory and other race-based concepts from school curricula in recent years.

In a May 3 tweet, Betsy DeVos, who served as secretary of education during the Trump administration, said the current test scores for history and civics are “abysmal” while slamming the Biden administration’s education policies.

“Even more abhorrent is @SecCardona’s shameless spin that the reason history scores are falling is because schools AREN'T teaching enough #CRT and the 1619 Project—which aren’t based on historical facts,” she said. “Or that this happened because of the school shutdowns … when the data quite clearly tell a different story.”

She shared a graph from the NAEP showing that student history scores began declining in 2014, several years before the pandemic.

“Today is yet another reminder we have a government-run, union-controlled, one-size-fits-NONE education system where supermajorities of kids aren’t proficient in reading, math, history, or civics. The need for #EducationFreedom couldn’t be any clearer or more urgent.”

Bill Pan contributed to this report.