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- Governor Reeves said Mississippi isn’t just making news – “we are making history!”
Vice President J.D. Vance (R) entered the “Mississippi Miracle” chat on Tuesday, sharing a thread on X (formerly Twitter) that showed the Magnolia State with the best demographic-adjusted National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP scores for 4th and 8th grades in 2024.
“This is pretty incredible,” Vice President Vance wrote on X. “Smart education reform drastically improved Mississippi’s schools.”
The reforms began in 2012 under then-Governor Phil Bryant (R), Lt. Governor Tate Reeves (R) and Speaker Philip Gunn (R).
As previously noted by Laurie Todd-Smith in a 2023 Magnolia Tribune column on the making of the “Mississippi Miracle,” only 33 percent of third graders and 32 percent of 8th graders were reading proficiently on state tests that year. She led the governor’s education policy team and is now the Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Education at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Bryant presented lawmakers with an education vision titled “Framing Mississippi’s Future” and in 2013, reforms such as the Literacy Based Promotion Act (3rd Grade Reading Gate), the Pre-K Collaborative, the Mississippi Charter School Act, Dyslexia Education Scholarships, and more were passed and signed into law.
Over the next decade, Mississippi lawmakers, students, teachers and communities responded to the new education standards by implementing policies and evidence-based strategies that saw major investments in teacher pay and training as well as student support systems through reading and career coaches.
Today, according to the latest NAEP scores on the “nation’s report card,” Mississippi 4th graders have experienced the highest growth in the nation in reading and math between 2013 and 2024, outscoring the national average in reading for the first time.
As noted by the Urban Institute, when adjusted for student demographics, Mississippi’s 4th graders led the nation in reading and math, and the state’s 8th graders led the nation in math while landing at fourth in the U.S. reading.
Chad Aldeman, founder of ReadNotGuess.com, education policy forum, noted in February that the “Mississippi Miracle” is alive and well.
“Over the last ten years, Mississippi is the only state to make gains across all performance levels in 4th grade reading. While the bottom was falling out in most states, with the scores of low-performing students falling 10 or 20 or even 30 points, the scores of the lowest-performing students in Mississippi rose 9 points. While scores have been flat or declining in many parts of the country, Mississippi students continue to rise,” Aldeman wrote.
Aldeman also noted that Mississippi’s 4th grade reading scores are first in the nation for low-income students, third for black students, and tied for first for Hispanic students.
Former Governor Bryant shared Vice President Vance’s X post, writing, “Thank you Mr. Vice President! Much like the reforms President Donald Trump is making, we had to fight the entrenched educational establishment tooth and nail to make this happen. And it paid off for our students and families.”
Bryant is referring to the education lobbyists, such as The Parents Campaign and others, that actively opposed the reforms and campaigned against candidates that supported the education changes in 2012, 2013 and beyond.
Current Governor Tate Reeves, who was Lt. Governor when the initial reforms were passed, also shared Vance’s X post, saying, “We are not making news — we are making history!”
Frank Corder
