How Mississippi ended its worst-in-the-nation early literacy epidemic

Mississippi state lawmakers enacted science-based literacy legislation in 2013, laying the groundwork for improved reading proficiency among early grades, and additional legislation in 2016 to solidify improvement in literacy trends.

Mississippi had the lowest percentage of fourth grade students meeting or exceeding grade level reading standards on the National Assessment on Educational Progress among all 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2013.

A decade later, Mississippi students recorded the largest jump in proficiency among any state with the rate of fourth graders at or above proficiency in 2022 increasing 9.4 percentage points since 2013.

Now Mississippi students have a better reading proficiency rate than 18 other states and the District of Columbia.

What spurred these dramatic improvements in early literacy in Mississippi? Legislation implementing science-based literacy policies.

The term “science of reading” is often used when referencing evidence-based literacy policies, and it denotes the “the vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing,” according to The Reading League. More simply, it is research about how to most effectively teach reading and comprehension.

In 2013, Mississippi state lawmakers passed legislation establishing the Literacy-Based Promotion Act to address its worst-in-the-nation rates of early reading proficiency. This legislation laid the groundwork for more science-based literacy legislation in the years that followed.

But Mississippi isn’t the only state to implement science-based reading legislation. Since 2013, 39 other states and Washington D.C. have enacted legislation concerning the use of evidence-based methods to teach students how to read, according to Education Week.

While Illinois lawmakers amended the school code in July 2023 directing the state board to support literacy efforts, more is needed to ensure grade-level literacy in Illinois public schools. Mississippi offers an example to Illinois lawmakers and school districts on how to implement evidence-based efforts to improve literacy among early learners.

Mississippi’s literacy law utilizes a comprehensive approach to literacy

Amidst worst-in-the-nation literacy rates on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2013, Mississippi lawmakers enacted the Literacy-Based Promotion Act rooted in evidence-based research on how to improve literacy rates among early learners. The law was intended to establish a comprehensive approach to teaching literacy starting as early as kindergarten.

Recognizing the importance of early reading skills, Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act sought to improve K-3 students’ reading skills through multiple mechanisms: ending “social promotion” practices to retain deficient readers, early identification of reading deficiencies and intervention, parent notification and engagement and science-based training for teachers.

It also laid the groundwork for additional legislation rooted in the “science of reading.”

Ending “social promotion” practices to retain deficient readers

The LBPA requires third grade students who do not meet the reading requirements for promotion to the fourth grade to repeat their third-grade school year. This put an end to the practice of “social promotion” in Mississippi, or grade promotion based on a student’s age or completion of the school year rather than academic readiness.

Beginning in the 2014-2015 school year, third grade students who scored at the lowest achievement level in reading on the state’s accountability assessment were not promoted to the fourth grade. In 2016, the LBPA was amended under Senate Bill 2157 to require a higher score for the promotion of third grade students to fourth. Starting in the 2018-2019 school year, third grade students who scored in the lowest two achievement levels in reading on the state’s accountability assessment were not promoted.

There are specific exemptions which may allow a student to promote to the fourth grade without meeting the academic requirements outlined in the LBPA.

The LBPA outlines these “good cause exemptions” which dictate if a third-grade student who does not meet the academic requirements for promotion may be promoted by the school district:

• Students with limited English proficiency who had less than two years of instruction in an English Language Learner program.
• Students with disabilities whose individual education plan does not require them to participate in the statewide accountability assessment.
• Students with disabilities who demonstrate a reading deficiency but whose IEP has provided them with intensive reading remediation for more than two years.
• Students with disabilities who demonstrate a reading deficiency but were previously retained in a K-3 grade.
• Students who meet an acceptable level of reading proficiency on an alternative standardized assessment approved by the Mississippi State Board of Education.
• Students who demonstrate a reading deficiency despite having received two or more years of intensive reading intervention and have been retained in a K-3 grade for two years without meeting exceptional education criteria.

Early identification of reading deficiencies and intervention

The goal of ending “social promotion” is to ensure students are prepared to meet grade level reading standards by the end of the third-grade school year, a critical literacy point for students, by implementing reading interventions for those students who have fallen behind.

A report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation warns about the harms of a student’s inability to read effectively by the end of third grade. The research shows a student’s likelihood to graduate high school can be predicted with reasonable accuracy by their reading skill at the end of third grade. By the beginning of fourth grade, students transition from learning to read to reading to learn.

The LBPA requires schools to initiate intervention for students retained in the third grade, and the 2016 amendment under Senate Bill 2157 requires schools to create individual reading plans for retained students.

The interventions outlined in the LBPA for retained third grade students include:

1) Requiring at least 90 minutes per day of science-based reading instruction in phonemic awareness

2) Phonics

3) Fluency

4) Vocabulary development

5) Reading comprehension. These match the five essential components of effective reading instruction outlined by the National Reading Panel in 2000.

However, students retained in third grade are not the only ones required to receive intensive reading instruction and intervention under the LBPA. The law requires any student identified with a reading deficiency in kindergarten through third grade to be given immediate intensive reading instruction and intervention.

Under the LPBA’s original language, a reading screener or reading assessment could be given to students within the first 30 days of the school year to identify reading deficiencies. The legislation did not require schools to screen or assess students within that time frame.

However, additional legislation in 2018 changed that to require school districts to screen every student in kindergarten through third grade within the first 30 days of school to identify deficiencies in literacy and numeracy and allow for early intervention. Additionally, teachers must monitor students’ progress at the middle and end of each school year.

Parent notification and engagement

The LBPA requires teachers to notify parents within 10 days if their kindergarten through third-grade student has been identified as having a reading deficiency. Teachers must describe the services and supplemental instruction that the school district is providing to the student as well as strategies for parents to help support their child to read proficiently.

Teachers must continue to notify parents about their child’s reading deficiency and the interventions offered with each quarterly progress report until the student’s deficiency is fixed.

Teachers also must alert parents within 10 days and in each subsequent quarterly progress report that their student’s reading deficiency means their child will not be promoted to fourth grade if the student’s reading deficiency persists, unless the student is eligible for a good cause exemption.

Science-based teacher training and support

Mississippi recognized the importance of teacher preparation and support in improving early literacy rates.

After recognizing how few teachers and administrators were equipped with an understanding of science-based reading instruction, the Department of Education provided training on the science of reading and early reading instruction to all K-3 teachers through LETRS training, or Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling.

A report from the Southeast Regional Education Laboratory evaluating Mississippi’s implementation of LETRS training found teacher knowledge of early literacy skills increased from the 48th percentile to the 59th percentile within one year.

Mississippi state legislators further emphasized the importance of science-based literacy training for teachers by enacting Senate Bill 2572 in 2016 which requires teacher candidates applying for initial elementary education licensure to “pass a foundational reading test for certification to ensure they have the knowledge and skill to teach students to read.”

Additionally, the LBPA sought to support teachers in the classroom by requiring the Mississippi Department of Education to identify schools with the lowest third grade reading scores and provide literacy coaches to improve teachers’ reading instruction.

Illinois can learn from the “Mississippi miracle”

Some experts have deemed Mississippi’s improvement in reading proficiency over the past decade the “Mississippi miracle.” But analysis of the Mississippi Department of Education’s and state lawmakers’ actions over the past decade reveal Mississippi students’ improvement in literacy rates is not a “miracle” or mistake but came after intentional legislative efforts to ensure the state’s literacy policy adheres to the science of reading.

Illinois took a step to follow Mississippi’s emphasis on science-based literacy policy by amending the school code in July 2023 to include a section on literacy. It created a comprehensive literacy plan for Illinois which would explore evidence-based literacy research, provided a rubric to evaluate curricula and implement evidence-based reading instruction, and requires the state to develop and make available training opportunities for educators in teaching reading that are aligned with the state’s comprehensive literacy plan by 2025.

While it is a positive move for Illinois lawmakers to enact legislation directing the state board to support literacy efforts, more is needed.

Illinois lawmakers could follow the lead of their peers in Mississippi and implement third-grade retention policies, early identification of reading deficiencies, early intervention for struggling readers, parent involvement in struggling reader’s learning plans and teacher training and support in science-based reading instruction. With Illinois students falling behind, there’s no time to lose.