Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves credited a series of conservative education reforms with helping propel his state from near the bottom of national academic rankings to some of the country’s strongest results in reading and math.
Kayleigh McEnany highlighted Mississippi’s progress while discussing the struggles American students have faced on international assessments.
She pointed to fourth-grade reading scores as an example of the state’s transformation.
“Look at this: Mississippi back in 2015 was ranked number 47 in fourth-grade reading. Over about a decade, Mississippi climbed a lot all the way up to number nine,” McEnany said.
“And if you adjust for demographics, Mississippi becomes number one in the nation for both fourth-grade reading and math, and number one in the nation for eighth-grade math.”
McEnany also highlighted the performance of Black students in Mississippi compared with Massachusetts despite differences in education spending.
“And get this: among Black students in fourth-grade reading, Mississippi outranks Massachusetts, a state widely thought to have some of the best schools in our country, and one that spends twice as much per pupil than Mississippi does, about $11,000 more, to be exact,” McEnany said.
Asked how Mississippi accomplished those gains, Reeves pointed to education measures adopted more than a decade ago and the state’s continued focus on implementation and accountability.
“We really went to work, and we’ve proven that conservative policies work,” Reeves said.
“We passed conservative reforms in education in 2012 and 2013. We focused on ensuring that we implemented those reforms properly, and we had a built-in accountability piece that ensured success.”
McEnany then cited results showing that Black and low-income children in Mississippi have outperformed comparable students in several other states.
She asked Reeves whether reducing absenteeism was responsible for the results.
“Well, it’s a combination of a number of things,” Reeves responded.
Among the policies Reeves identified were expanding school choice for students with special needs, establishing public charter schools in failing districts, and adopting the science of reading.
Mississippi also established a third-grade reading requirement that Reeves described as an important accountability measure.
“We instituted the science of reading, and we put in a test at the end of the third grade wherein if you are in the third grade and you’re not reading at an adequate level, you cannot get elevated to the fourth grade,” Reeves said.
“And so that’s that built-in accountability piece that a lot of states don’t get.”
Reeves said the improvements have extended across different groups of Mississippi students rather than being concentrated in particular schools or communities.
“But the important thing that you just pointed out, and this is what scares the left so much, and that is our conservative policy reforms don’t just work for some of our kids in some of our school districts,” Reeves said.
“They’re working for all of our kids in all of our school districts.”
Reeves pointed specifically to the progress of Black fourth graders, who he said ranked 45th among their peers in 2013 but have since risen to third nationally.
“They’re now number three in America amongst their peers and headed towards number one,” Reeves said.
He also highlighted Mississippi’s Hispanic students.
“Hispanic students in Mississippi, when compared to their peers around the country, number one in America in reading scores, number one in America in math,” Reeves said.
McEnany contrasted Mississippi’s approach with states that have responded to educational problems by reducing academic standards.
“And blue states, we’ve seen blue states try to lower standards,” McEnany said.
“So in other words, rather than pulling kids up, they’re bringing standards down. You’ve not done that in Mississippi.”
Reeves said Mississippi had deliberately pursued the opposite strategy by repeatedly increasing expectations.
“While a lot of other states around the country are lowering standards, we’ve done the exact opposite. We have raised standards,” Reeves said.
“And not only have we raised them once or twice, we’ve raised them four or five times over the last 12 years.”
Reeves argued that Mississippi students responded to those increased expectations by improving their performance and said the same approach could be applied elsewhere.
“Kids in Mississippi can do that. Kids across America can do that, and I think that’s something that as a national policy we should continue to focus on,” Reeves said.
“Raise the bar. Raise the level of expectations for our kids.”
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