Why is Mississippi doing so well?

In 2013, the state passed a reform to require teachers to understand the science of reading (basically, phonics), deploy literacy coaches to schools, identify students struggling to read early and hold back students in third grade who weren’t ready to advance.

Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana have now done much the same, and have also made gains.

The original source of all this was a 2002 reading law in Florida that boosted student achievement in the Sunshine State.

https://nypost.com/2025/09/30/opinion/mississippi-is-no-miracle-its-the-future-of-education/

Meanwhile, Oregon, with some of the highest per-student spending by a completely Democratically controlled state legislature continues to double-down on proven failed teaching methods and suspending all education standards to graduate.