Dr. Lance Evans , State Superintendent of Education (Photo from MDE Facebook)
- Failing districts not participating in the professional development services are advised to do so.
Investment in coaching support has been instrumental in Mississippi’s education gains, and the Mississippi Department of Education will be asking for more funding to expand the program.
Currently, the state has nearly 90 coaches that help schools with literacy, math, special education and improvement of the school, according to MDE. When the program started in 2013 after passage of the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, MDE had only 29 coaches. Today, MDE also has 32 coaches that focus on early childhood education who operate within the state’s Early Learning Collaboratives and Pre-K programs receiving state funds.
Utilization of the coaches has allowed for the implementation of initiatives MDE says were instrumental in Mississippi’s education improvements over the past decade. Two of those gains include increasing proficiency rates in English Language Arts and Mathematics from 33.6 percent to 47.4 percent and 33 percent to 54.5 percent, respectively.
Coaching has also led to the state’s 4th grade NAEP scores in math and reading to rise from being nationally ranked 50th and 49th, respectively, to 9th in reading and 16th in math. Mississippi saw its graduation rate rise to 89.2 percent in 2024, higher than the national average of 86 percent.
MDE’s coaches have helped the state reach these new heights by working with educators and administrators in schools that have the lowest math and reading proficiency rates as well as in schools that have students with disabilities or other low performing student populations. Administrators at the schools enter into signed agreements indicating they intend to cooperate with the coaches assigned by MDE to increase the achievement of students. MDE’s coaches are currently assigned to 187 schools within 119 of the state’s districts.
“MDE commits targeted state dollars to schools and districts to strengthen instruction and leadership to ensure students succeed,” said Dr. Lance Evans, State Superintendent of Education. “Local district buy-in and support are necessary for coaches to be effective in building the capacity of teachers and school leaders.”
During the 2025-26 school year, MDE provided $17.5 million in state funding and $800,000 in federal funding to the coaching support system.
“We are grateful to the Legislature for investing in effective, state-led education initiatives in addition to fully funding the Mississippi Student Funding Formula, which sends money directly to districts,” Dr. Evans said. “These targeted initiatives have continuously helped improve student achievement from pre-K through grade 12 and have made Mississippi a national leader for education reform.”
According to an MDE, the state’s education agency intends to ask the Legislature for additional funding to further expand the support team of coaches who provide the professional development services to literacy and math educators in targeted elementary and middle school grades.
During Thursday’s meeting of the Mississippi State Board of Education, Board Chair Matt Miller had a message to the school districts that are or could be benefitting from coaching.
“To the F schools and D schools that are engaging in (coaching) support, thank you,” Miller said. “Because you’re helping your students. To the F schools and D schools who are not engaging in (coaching) support, shame on you. You’re going to end up having us takeover. And you will not have a superintendent, and your board won’t be there anymore. And let me tell you, I can speak for every board member in here, we do not want to do that.”
