The Mississippi miracle in reading: what the state did, and whether it is real

The Mississippi miracle in 60 seconds

"The Mississippi miracle" is a name the press made up. It stands for one fact. Between 2013 and 2024, Mississippi's fourth graders went from 49th to 9th among the states in reading. Over the same years, the nation went down.

Here is why. In 2013 the state passed a reading law. The money paid for reading coaches and for training every K-3 teacher in one method. Sounds first. Then letters. Then blending. Then books a child can sound out. Every K-3 child is checked three times a year. A child who is behind gets a written reading plan, and the family gets a plan for home.

Here is what it means for you. The method is what transfers, not the law. If you are a parent, the five steps and a two-minute home check are here. If you teach K-2, the scope and sequence and the daily routine are here. Critics argue about how much of the gain is real. Their case is below, with every number.

How did Mississippi improve its schools? The five parts, 2013 to 2024

People call the method "the science of reading". The name sums up decades of research on how children learn to read. Children first learn to hear the sounds in words. Then they match sounds to letters. Then they blend letters into words. Then they read books they can sound out. Along the way they build vocabulary and knowledge. The Mississippi reading program had five parts. Each one has a date.

Spring 2013: the law. The Literacy-Based Promotion Act is Mississippi Code 37-177. It tells schools to find reading problems early and to give those children extra help. Lawmakers funded it at about $15 million a year. Most of that money paid for coaches.

Summer 2013: coaches in the weakest schools. The state hired reading coaches. It sent them to the schools with the lowest third-grade reading results. By the 2022-23 school year, 52 state coaches worked in 86 schools. Each coach spent two to three days a week in each school.

2014: teacher training. The coaches and the first group of K-3 teachers took a course called LETRS. It teaches how spoken and written English work and how to teach reading. By 2019 the state said the course had reached "over 13,000 educators", from K-3 teachers to principals and the university staff who train new teachers.

2014: screening. The state bought one testing system. It checks children when they start kindergarten. It screens every K-3 child three times a year. Screening is what makes the rest work. A child who is behind in October of kindergarten is found in October of kindergarten.

2016: reading plans. A 2016 change to the law requires an Individual Reading Plan for any K-3 child with a serious reading problem. It also requires a read-at-home plan for the family. The current family plan asks for 20 minutes of reading a day. It says the child should get at least 95% of the words right. And it sets speed targets. By the end of first grade, 60 words correct per minute. By the end of second grade, 90. By the end of third grade, 115.

Tenette Smith ran the state's elementary reading work and told Education Week in 2023: "It has nothing to do with a miracle." The plan was coaching, training, screening and reading plans, repeated for a decade.

Is the Mississippi miracle real? What the numbers show

In 2013 nearly half of the state's fourth graders read below the Basic level. In 2024 about a third did. The nation went the other way.

Fourth grade. The state's average rose 10 points between 2013 and 2024. The nation's fell 6. The state reached the national average in 2019 and passed it in 2022. The 2024 score of 218.5 is not a real change from the 2022 score of 217.2. The difference is within the test's margin of error. Mississippi First makes this point. It is a policy group in the state. The rank still rose, partly because other states fell. The state reports a rank of 9th among the 50 states. Count DC and the other places NAEP tests, and it is tied for 8th of 53.

Adjusted for who the students are. The Urban Institute re-ranks states after adjusting scores. It allows for gender, age, race, poverty, special education and English learners. On the 2024 results, the state is first in fourth-grade reading and fourth in eighth-grade reading. Urban adds a caution. Income is hard to measure the same way in every state.

Eighth grade. Eighth grade is another story. The average was about 253 in 2013. Eleven years later it was still about 253. The rank went from 50th to 41st only because other states fell. The first children who went through the new K-3 system reached eighth grade in 2022. So the next two tests will say more than the last two.

The gains were broad. In Mississippi, Black, Hispanic and white fourth graders each rose about nine points. The same groups fell nationwide.

What are the criticisms of the Mississippi miracle?

Critics make three points. First, the 2024 score is not a real change from 2022. The gap is inside the test's margin of error. The rank still rose, partly because other states fell. Second, eighth grade has not moved. The first children taught the new way from kindergarten only reached eighth grade in 2022. Third, the word is too big. The state's own officials reject "miracle". The gains took a decade and about $15 million a year of plain work. The Urban Institute adds a caution of its own. Income is hard to measure the same way in every state. So its adjusted ranks are a guide, not a verdict.

Our reading is this. The fourth-grade gain is real. It is the largest in the country. It is smaller than the headlines. The parts of it a parent or teacher can copy are the ones with the best evidence.

Does it work outside Mississippi?

The method has been tested on a whole country. England told every primary school to teach reading through phonics in 2006. From 2012 it has tested every child aged 5 to 6 on reading 40 words aloud. Here is the share who passed, year by year.

The best study of England's switch is by three economists, Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally and Martina Viarengo. They compared the schools trained first, from 2005, with schools trained two or three years later. Children taught the new way scored 0.2 to 0.3 higher at age 5. That number is in standard deviations. A standard deviation is a yardstick for test gains. It lets researchers compare gains on different tests. One whole unit is a very large gain. A tenth of one is small, but it can still matter. At age 7 the gain was about 0.07. By age 11 the average gain had faded to zero. It did not fade for children who started behind. Children from low-income homes who spoke English as a second language were still 0.10 to 0.18 ahead at age 11. Most children learn to read in the end. Teaching sounds first gets the ones most at risk there too.

For parents: what to take from Mississippi

You do not need a program. You need ten minutes a day and the right order. The home version of what Mississippi trained its teachers to do is five steps. Sound games before letters. Blending every day. Decodable books instead of guessing. A short daily routine. And asking the school for the screener result and the plan. Each step, a two-minute home check for the four things that usually go wrong, and the words to use with the school are in Kindergartener or first grader struggling with reading?. The 20 minutes, the 95% rule and the speed targets in that guide are Mississippi's own.

For K-2 teachers: what to take from Mississippi

Mississippi did not hand teachers a script. It trained them and put a coach in the building. The classroom version is a daily routine on a fixed scope and sequence. Review. Sounds in words. One new sound-spelling. Blending. Words and sentences. Decodable text. Writing. Twenty to thirty minutes, every day, in the same order. The children the screener flags get the same routine in a group of three to five, with more practice. The full routine with timings, the correction routine, a typical K-2 sequence and the Tier 2 version are in A phonics scope and sequence for K-2.

Mistakes Mississippi's story warns against

• Buying a program and calling it done. Mississippi's money went to people: coaches and training. It did not go to a boxed program. A program nobody is trained to teach changes nothing.
• Skipping the teacher training. The state trained principals too. It also trained the college staff who teach future teachers. So new teachers arrived already knowing the method.
• Treating one part as the whole. The state's own officials say the gains came from coaching, training, screening and plans together.
• Expecting it in a year. The first coaches arrived in 2013. The first fourth graders screened since kindergarten took the NAEP four years later. The headline results came in 2019 and 2024.

How every state moved, and what laws it passed

Three things stand out. Mississippi's 10-point gain in fourth grade is the largest of any state. Louisiana is next at 5.5 points. It has since passed its own laws on teacher training and screening. Massachusetts has the highest fourth-grade score. But most states fell. Only five of the 50 states and DC posted any gain. And a reading law does not predict the change by itself. Since 2013, 43 states and DC have passed a science-of-reading law. The Albert Shanker Institute counted 223 reading bills in 45 states and DC in four years, 2019 to 2022. A law is a start. Mississippi put training, coaching and screening behind its law. It did so for six years before the 2019 results arrived.

How does Sonoverse use the Mississippi method at home?

Mississippi did not buy one reading program. It trained teachers in a method. Sounds first, then letters, then blending, then books a child can sound out. Sonoverse was built on that same method, for a parent at home or a tutor at the table. The lessons teach explicit, step-by-step phonics in a set order. A guide named Bolt says each sound and shows the step. Each lesson connects sounds, blending, spelling and reading. The order follows one of two published science of reading sequences, UFLI Foundations or IMSE. You pick the one your child's school uses. Sonoverse is not affiliated with either. The books are decodable. Each one uses only the sound-spellings your child has been taught, plus a few taught high-frequency words. A tricky word? Tap it for sound-by-sound help.

Then comes the part Mississippi calls screening. A short reading check listens as your child reads aloud. It scores the words and sounds they say. You see which sounds are solid and which need another look. The next practice targets those sounds. The reading history shows progress over time. That is a screener and a reading plan, scaled to one child. Hundreds of decodable books are free. Mississippi's results are statewide results, not a study of Sonoverse, and no app replaces a trained teacher. The method is what transfers. Find your child's starting point with the free word check.

Questions people ask

What is the Mississippi miracle?

It is the name the press gave to Mississippi's rise in fourth-grade reading on the Nation's Report Card. The state went from 49th of the 50 states in 2013 to 9th in 2024. A 2013 law paid for reading coaches, teacher training, K-3 screening and reading plans. The state's own officials dislike the word. The gains took a decade of ordinary work.

Is the Mississippi reading miracle real?

The fourth-grade gain is real, and the largest in the country before and after adjusting for who the students are. "Miracle" is the wrong word for a decade of funded, ordinary work. So far the gains are mostly in fourth grade. The critics' case is above.

What do critics say about the Mississippi miracle?

Three things, covered in the critics section above. First, the 2024 score is not a real change from 2022, and the rank rose partly because other states fell. Second, eighth-grade scores have not moved. Third, "miracle" is the wrong word for a decade of funded, ordinary work. Each is weighed in that section.

Why is Mississippi's education improving?

One K-3 package since 2013. Coaches in the weakest schools. Every K-3 teacher trained. Every child screened three times a year from kindergarten. A reading plan for every child who is behind. Fourth-grade math rose too. The five parts above give the dates and the money.

When was the Literacy-Based Promotion Act passed?

In spring 2013. The act was changed in 2016 to require Individual Reading Plans and a read-at-home plan for the family.

Did Mississippi's reading scores improve?

Yes, in fourth grade. The average rose 10 points between 2013 and 2024, while the nation fell 6. Eighth-grade scores stayed about the same. They rank higher only because other states fell.

Are Mississippi's reading scores still improving?

Not clearly, since 2019. The 2024 fourth-grade score is not a real change from 2022, and eighth grade has been flat. The next results, from the 2026 test, are due in early 2027. This page will be updated within a week of their release.

Where does Mississippi rank in education in 2026?

No 2026 ranking exists yet. On the latest results, from 2024, Mississippi is 9th of the 50 states in fourth-grade reading, 16th in fourth-grade math and 41st in eighth-grade reading. Adjusted for who the students are, the Urban Institute puts it first in fourth-grade reading. The 2026 results are due in early 2027.

What is the science of reading?

It is the body of research on how children learn to read. In practice it means this. Teach the sounds in words. Teach the letters that spell them. Teach blending. Have the child read text they can sound out, every day. Then build vocabulary and knowledge on top. It describes evidence. It is not a brand.

What is LETRS?

LETRS is a course for teachers. It covers how spoken and written English work and how to teach reading and spelling. Mississippi made it the core of its K-3 training. The state said more than 13,000 educators had taken it by 2019.

Can a parent do this at home?

Yes. The home version is five steps: sound games, blending, decodable books, a short daily routine, and asking the school for the screener result and the plan. The parent guide has each step and a two-minute home check. Sonoverse's lessons and reading checks follow the same order.