Mississippi, Florida, Texas and Louisiana do better on math and reading in 4th and 8th grade tests than MD and VA

[Anonymous]

Maryland hired the architect for the Mississippi miracle.

[Anonymous]

Mississippi native here. MS started changing things years and years ago. The changes are comprehensive and would never fly in VA or MD. They fired whole school boards, took over schools, held kids back with no exceptions, and parents had no input in the decision. The state picked the science of learning curriculum...no exceptions, no substitutions. School districts had no say. I mean, it was intense. It still is. But it works.

[Anonymous]

I keep seeing instagram videos where they ask high schoolers to read a sentence and they can't. It's not a hard sentence, but they completely couldn't read words like silhouette.

When you have rock bottom expectations for students and nonstop chromebook usage, this is what you get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's probably because those states are all so racist that anyone who can afford it, sends their kids to private schools. Schools are still segregated in the South, people just have to pay for the privledge.

The private schools in MS are indeed racist and they are also worse than the public schools in many cases. The teachers don't even have to be teachers in some of them. I escaped from MS - AMA. Gotta say though...they've done a great job with this. It's kind of shocking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a third grade teacher for 8 years before moving on to middle school. It was amazing to me how many students could not read. I am talking about basic sight words. Retaining in third grade, to me, does not solve the problem. Students showed a consistent pattern of not being able to read in those foundational years of k-2. Hold them back then. Giving students intervention in third grade but they still have to meet the third grade standards for the year is so pointless. If they are reading on a kindergarten level in first, second and third, then they should have been held back in first. But we don’t do that. The go to is always, well let’s wait and see, they will catch up, the parents don’t agree so we have to move them on. Primary years are k-2 and intermediate years are 3-5. All students should have to test out of primary years before moving into the intermediate years or in other words, this grade. Children should be held back no more than two years with intensive interventions before deciding to move them on.

What MS did and is doing is not just retaining in 3rd grade. It's so many things at the state, local, and school level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a third grade teacher for 8 years before moving on to middle school. It was amazing to me how many students could not read. I am talking about basic sight words. Retaining in third grade, to me, does not solve the problem. Students showed a consistent pattern of not being able to read in those foundational years of k-2. Hold them back then. Giving students intervention in third grade but they still have to meet the third grade standards for the year is so pointless. If they are reading on a kindergarten level in first, second and third, then they should have been held back in first. But we don’t do that. The go to is always, well let’s wait and see, they will catch up, the parents don’t agree so we have to move them on. Primary years are k-2 and intermediate years are 3-5. All students should have to test out of primary years before moving into the intermediate years or in other words, this grade. Children should be held back no more than two years with intensive interventions before deciding to move them on.

What MS did and is doing is not just retaining in 3rd grade. It's so many things at the state, local, and school level.

What else, other than SoR curricula?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a third grade teacher for 8 years before moving on to middle school. It was amazing to me how many students could not read. I am talking about basic sight words. Retaining in third grade, to me, does not solve the problem. Students showed a consistent pattern of not being able to read in those foundational years of k-2. Hold them back then. Giving students intervention in third grade but they still have to meet the third grade standards for the year is so pointless. If they are reading on a kindergarten level in first, second and third, then they should have been held back in first. But we don’t do that. The go to is always, well let’s wait and see, they will catch up, the parents don’t agree so we have to move them on. Primary years are k-2 and intermediate years are 3-5. All students should have to test out of primary years before moving into the intermediate years or in other words, this grade. Children should be held back no more than two years with intensive interventions before deciding to move them on.

What MS did and is doing is not just retaining in 3rd grade. It's so many things at the state, local, and school level.

What else, other than SoR curricula?

Teacher retraining and a lot more. See the podcast mentioned earlier in thread.

[Anonymous]

Just a reminder that Maryland’s reading strategy is based on Mississippi’s and the retention plan goes into effect in 2027. The policy doesn’t have teeth and parents can opt out, but it should make everyone sit up and take notice.

There will be retraining of teachers and literacy coaches, like Mississippi. One thing we won’t have is a single statewide reading curriculum or even a small list to pick from. School districts will still get to pick their own as long as they are evidence based.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep seeing instagram videos where they ask high schoolers to read a sentence and they can't. It's not a hard sentence, but they completely couldn't read words like silhouette.

When you have rock bottom expectations for students and nonstop chromebook usage, this is what you get.

To be fair “silhouette” is a very advanced word to sound out. You need to know French spelling patterns (the dipthong ou plus the ette spelling for /et/) and they aren’t explicitly taught, as far as I know. It is also an uncommon word in general. That means the sentence you heard kids try to read was not, in fact, simple, but quite hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep seeing instagram videos where they ask high schoolers to read a sentence and they can't. It's not a hard sentence, but they completely couldn't read words like silhouette.

When you have rock bottom expectations for students and nonstop chromebook usage, this is what you get.

To be fair “silhouette” is a very advanced word to sound out. You need to know French spelling patterns (the dipthong ou plus the ette spelling for /et/) and they aren’t explicitly taught, as far as I know. It is also an uncommon word in general. That means the sentence you heard kids try to read was not, in fact, simple, but quite hard.

Quoting myself to say that kids SHOULD be taught to sound these words out, and deserve to learn how to read hard words! I just don’t blame individual teens for not yet being able to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When comparing students that are similar to each other (FARMS, race and ethnicity, ELL and special education status) Mississippi, Florida, Texas and Louisiana all do better than Maryland and Virginia on the NAEP test.

When will our school districts wake up and realize they are failing our kids and can't keep blaming bad parenting and poverty for their failures?

https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2024-national-assessment

MAGA idiot please go back to your hole

Learn to read cognitively . This crap is spreading in the internet and it’s not as it appears

None of these places will educate under republican rule.

Screw off

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When comparing students that are similar to each other (FARMS, race and ethnicity, ELL and special education status) Mississippi, Florida, Texas and Louisiana all do better than Maryland and Virginia on the NAEP test.

When will our school districts wake up and realize they are failing our kids and can't keep blaming bad parenting and poverty for their failures?

https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2024-national-assessment

MAGA idiot please go back to your hole

Learn to read cognitively . This crap is spreading in the internet and it’s not as it appears

None of these places will educate under republican rule.

Screw off

How does one “read cognitively”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When comparing students that are similar to each other (FARMS, race and ethnicity, ELL and special education status) Mississippi, Florida, Texas and Louisiana all do better than Maryland and Virginia on the NAEP test.

When will our school districts wake up and realize they are failing our kids and can't keep blaming bad parenting and poverty for their failures?

https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2024-national-assessment

MAGA idiot please go back to your hole

Learn to read cognitively . This crap is spreading in the internet and it’s not as it appears

None of these places will educate under republican rule.

Screw off

I'm not MAGA, I'm someone who desperately wants Democrats to do better. Math and literacy rates in Maryland have been on a downward trend for over a decade. Tired of hearing our education leaders quietly blame Black and Brown families for the failures of our school systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep seeing instagram videos where they ask high schoolers to read a sentence and they can't. It's not a hard sentence, but they completely couldn't read words like silhouette.

When you have rock bottom expectations for students and nonstop chromebook usage, this is what you get.

To be fair “silhouette” is a very advanced word to sound out. You need to know French spelling patterns (the dipthong ou plus the ette spelling for /et/) and they aren’t explicitly taught, as far as I know. It is also an uncommon word in general. That means the sentence you heard kids try to read was not, in fact, simple, but quite hard.

Excuses as per usual - I’m in HS and some kids legitimately cannot read full sentences. It’s a damn shame and I’m taking my children out of the country because I refuse to have them be subpar average US products. (spouse and I are naturalized so we know the worth of education abroad is far better)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how much of this could have to do with quickly getting kids back into school in person during Covid?

Unrelated to that.

It was the use of literacy curricula that do not work to teach reading. See the "Sold a story" podcast.

Nah, in many southern areas kids were only out of school for 6 weeks during covid.

It was the curriculum. Lucy Caulkins or whatever it was called. Left Va for a smaller area down south (red) and the education is 1,000x better. They still teach the basics and haven’t succumbed to woke BS. All we ever heard was how great LCPS was and found it to be lacking across the board.

And yet the Southern states score poorly in standard tests compared to Northern states.

US and World News wrote .

“ Based on 2025–2026 data, the states with the best K-12 public education are consistently led by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Virginia. These states are top-ranked for high school graduation rates, test scores, and school safety, typically offering high teacher salaries and low student-to-teacher ratios. ”

Virginia does well overall and are top scorers. Every state has poorly run areas and excellent areas. The top states make sure that every city, town, district have what they need that is unique to their needs.

Since you brought up your red states, if you look at the individual states results you will see the red states are consistently at the bottom and blue states have the best results in educating their students.