PRESS RELEASE
May 13, 2026
Contact: Sam Stockwell
samuel_stockwell@gse.harvard.edu
617.495.0342
Mississippi Ranks 7th in Both Math and Reading Recovery, Sustaining Its Role as a National Model for Academic Improvement
The state that inspired the national “Mississippi Miracle” continues to outpace the country in post-pandemic recovery.
Students are closing in on 2019 levels, but chronic absenteeism—nearly 13 percentage points above pre-pandemic norms—remains a serious threat to continued progress.
Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated is outperforming its peers in both math and reading.
(May 13, 2026) In its fourth year, the Education Scorecard (a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, and faculty at Dartmouth College) is issuing its annual report on district-level student growth in math and reading.
The latest report provides a high-resolution picture of where Mississippi students’ academic recovery stands, combining state test results for roughly 35 million grade 3–8 students nationwide with national assessment data to describe changes in local communities. Here’s what we found:
Mississippi:
- Mississippi ranks 7th out of 38 states in academic growth in math and 7th out of 35 states in reading between 2022 and 2025.
- In math, the average student is performing about .35 grade equivalents above their 2022 level, but around .31 grade equivalents below 2019 levels. Still, some districts like Petal, Tupelo, Oxford, and Jackson continue to lag significantly behind 2019 levels.
- In reading, the average student is performing about .03 grade equivalents above their 2022 level, but about .22 grade equivalents below 2019 levels. A number of districts like Jackson, Tupelo, and Pearl continue to slip and remain behind their 2019 levels.
- Several Mississippi districts are emerging as Districts on the Rise. These districts have shown unusual progress relative to similar districts in their own state. One district is excelling in both math and reading, with Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated outperforming its peers.
- Several other districts are rising relative to their peers in one subject—either math or reading. Hancock, Lincoln County, Madison County, and Ocean Springs are leading the way in math performance, while Grenada, Lauderdale County, Natchez-Adams, and Vicksburg Warren are leading the way in reading.
- Statewide, chronic absenteeism (students missing more than 10% of a school year) hovers around 28%, after a slight drop in 2023–24 from 2022 highs, but it remains almost 13 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.
- Mississippi received about $2.52 billion in federal pandemic relief for K–12 schools—roughly $5,700 per student. Our analysis finds that the gains in many high-poverty districts were driven by this federal support. Unfortunately, many middle-poverty districts (those with 30 to 70 percent of students receiving federal lunch subsidies) received little federal aid. Now that the federal relief is gone, Mississippi should focus school improvement dollars on the middle and higher poverty districts that remain behind their pre-pandemic levels.
“The pandemic was the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion in student achievement,” said Professor Tom Kane, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. “The ‘learning recession’ started a decade ago, after policymakers switched off the early warning system of test-based accountability and social media took over children’s lives. In this report, we highlight the work of a small group of state leaders who have started digging out by changing how students learn to read, and 108 local school districts that are finding ways to get students learning again. The recovery of U.S. education has begun. But it’s up to the rest of us to spread it.”
District on the Rise: Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District
Among Mississippi’s Districts on the Rise excelling in both math and reading, Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District (SOCSD) stands out for building a coherent system of high-quality instruction, empowered leadership, and data-driven culture. The district prioritized high-quality instructional materials in both math and ELA, transitioning from balanced literacy to structured literacy—emphasizing phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension from the earliest grades. In math, teachers use manipulatives and concrete models to build conceptual understanding before independent application, following a gradual release model of teacher modeling, guided practice, and independent work. Leadership development has been central to the strategy: the district created principal PLCs where school leaders collaborate and sharpen their instructional leadership skills, launched an emerging leaders pipeline to develop future assistant principals, and gave teachers greater voice and ownership in lesson planning to increase buy-in and consistency across classrooms. Data use is embedded at every level—teachers and school leaders regularly use formative and district-created assessments to monitor progress and adjust instruction in real time, with a deliberate shift in focus toward student growth rather than proficiency alone. The district strengthened its MTSS framework to ensure interventions are aligned to student needs and grounded in data, with enhanced support for students with disabilities, English learners, and the lowest-performing quartile. On attendance, SOCSD hired a dedicated parent liaison to work directly with families, partnered with community organizations to address housing, transportation, and basic needs barriers, and maintains a collaborative relationship with its local Youth Court and MDE-appointed truancy officer to encourage consistent student attendance. For the full case study, click here.
“Sustained progress doesn’t happen by chance—it comes from aligning strong instruction, empowered leadership, and intentional supports, so every student has the opportunity to succeed,” said Dr. Tony McGee, Superintendent of Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District.
