Mississippi Miracle or Mirage?: 2019 NAEP Reading Scores Prompt Questions, Not Answers
There is a disturbing contradiction in the predicted jubilant response to Mississippi’s outlier 4th-grade results from the 2019 NAEP reading test. That contradiction can be found in a new article by Emily Hanford, using Mississippi to recycle her brand, a call for the “science of reading.”
This is a great deal to ask of the average reader, but Hanford’s argument is grounded in a claim that most students in the U.S. are being taught reading through methods that are not supported by scientific research (code for narrow types of quantitative research that can identify causal relationships and thus can be generalized to all students).
However, the contradiction lies in Hanford’s own concession about the 2019 NAEP reading data from Mississippi:
The state’s performance in reading was especially notable. Mississippi was the only state in the nation to post significant gains on the fourth-grade reading test. Fourth graders in Mississippi are now on par with the national average, reading as well or better than pupils in California, Texas, Michigan and 18 other states.What’s up in Mississippi? There’s no way to know for sure what causes increases in test scores [emphasis added], but Mississippi has been doing something notable: making sure all of its teachers understand the science of reading.
To be fair, there is a way to know, and that would be conducting scientific research that teases out the factors that can be identified as causing the CONTINUE READING: Mississippi Miracle or Mirage?: 2019 NAEP Reading Scores Prompt Questions, Not Answers | radical eyes for equity
