[…]
At first, a “miracle” sounds like a compliment, and I’m sure whoever first used the term thought of it like that and probably enjoyed the alliteration of “Mississippi Miracle.” But the implication of “miracle” is that it is something no human could have achieved through their own efforts, and then it begins to look very suspicious to people inured to too-good-to-be-true educational success stories.
Our NAEP data clearly show a long, slow climb from the bottom to the national average in fourth grade reading and fourth grade math, and a significant closure of the gap in eighth grade math. When adjusting for demographics, we led the nation on the 2024 NAEP in those grades and subjects. Our eighth grade reading NAEP data isn’t as stellar, but we have made progress, and when adjusting for demographics, we ranked fourth in eighth grade reading in 2024.
I want people to appreciate just how much hard, focused work we did as a state for a really long time to get those gains. Just because the country seems to have heard about us yesterday does not mean that this happened overnight. When people call it a miracle, they dismiss all of our effort, including the sustained hard work of teachers and students and families. They also dismiss the possibility that other states could run the same playbook and get the same results.
[…]
