From the New York Times, I'm Natalie Kittrowaf.

This is the Daily.

In the middle of a crisis for American education, with reading and math scores down across much of the country, one place has managed a stunning turnaround.

Mississippi, one of the poorest states in America.

Today, my colleague Sarah Mervosh on how Mississippi may have pulled off an educational miracle,

and what a deep red state could teach us

about how to educate our kids.

It's Friday, April 10th.

Sarah, you've been spending time looking into what is being called the Mississippi miracle,

this unthinkable improvement in the state's schooling.

I want to start by asking you first to just lay out what that improvement has actually looked like, the scale and the scope of this turnaround.

Yeah, I mean, it's significant. I'll start with just a few stats. As recently as 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th in the country for education, particularly for young kids learning how to read.

49th. 49th.

No one wants to be 49.

Nope.

And so that's a result that in some ways seemed predictable and even inevitable because

Mississippi is a pretty poor state.

It doesn't spend a lot on education.

But slowly but surely, they started turning things around.

By 2019, they were about in line with the national average.

And now they are a top 10 state for fourth graders learning how to read.

Wow.

...