It's a Mississippi miracle, but it may not be for why you think. I'm Scott out with Bill Whittle and

Stephen Green. This episode of Right Angles brought to you by the members at Bill Whittle.com.

And gentlemen, the Washington Post had an editorial board piece on the surprising achievement of students in Mississippi

with regard to the test that they have to take periodically,

the National Assessment for Educational Progress tests.

They changed some things a few years ago, so that one aspect of this is that they got the most attention

was that if a third grader didn't test as proficient in reading on the assessment,

then he would be held back instead of advancing to fourth grade.

And a lot of people heard that, saw the results with Mississippi really surging in scores from the bottom of the

pack as far as states go to kind of the middle of the pack now, that they assume that all

you have to do is hold students back and good things will happen.

Stephen Green, I thought it was interesting, and I think the Washington most frankly had a good take on this.

They said, look, it's not just holding students back. It's what happens when that happens and what happens before that happens.

And one of the things that struck me is the fact that they said that a student would be held back meant that fewer students fell into that category.

Essentially, the fear of being held back drove teachers to identify students in jeopardy earlier,

drove the school district to invest more in coaching teachers.

They implemented some literacy training for teachers so that they could help these students,

and frankly, drove parents to do more to make sure that their kid could do well on that

third grade test and advance.

Steve, it was so good, in fact, that while we've bemoaned the fact that a lot of schools fell

behind during COVID, Mississippi actually set a personal record, personal for the state,

for gains in scores after COVID, as most states were struggling to get back to their pre-COVID

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