Tom Ultican, retired high school teacher of advanced math and physics, investigates the claims of Nicholas Kristof about a “Mississippi miracle.” In his article in the New York Times, Kristof attributed a rise in Mississippi’s test scores to “the science of reading” plus a policy of holding back third graders who don’t pass a reading test, allegedly proving that spending more money is not necessary, poverty doesn’t matter, and reducing class size is unnecessary.
He begins:
Nicholas Kristof’s opinion piece in the New York Times might not have been blatant lying but it was close. His depiction of the amazing education renaissance in Mississippi as a model for the nation is laughable. Lauding their third grade reading retention policies as enlightened, he claims their secret sauce for success is implementing the science of reading (SoR). This is based on a willful misreading of data while tightly embracing Jeb Bush’s futile education reform ideology.
Ultican then produces a graph showing that Mississippi fourth-graders ranked 20th in the nation in 2022, but its eighth graders ranked 45th.
Misusing data allows Kristof to end the paragraph indicating poverty is not an excuse for education failure. It reminds me of a statement written by education professor Kathryn Strom,
“The “no excuses” rhetoric (i.e, “poverty is not an excuse for failure”) is one that is dearly beloved by the corporate education reformers because it allows them to perpetuate (what many recognize to be) the American myth of meritocracy and continue the privatization movement under the guise of “improving schools” while avoiding addressing deeply entrenched inequities that exist in our society and are perpetuated by school structures.” (Emphasis added)
To add heft to his argument that poverty is no excuse, Kristof quotes Harvard economist David Deming from the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Graduate School of Education, saying “Mississippi is a huge success story and very exciting.” He adds, “You cannot use poverty as an excuse.”
It is important to note that Harvard is famous for supporting privatization of public education and promoting failed scholarship. Deming is currently doing research with Raj Chetty and John Friedman. Along with Jonah Rockoff, Chetty and Friedman published the now thoroughly debunked value added measures (VAM) paper. Their faulty research caused many teachers to lose jobs before it was exposed as a fraud. Kristof is using an economist (not an educator) from a group best known for scholastic failure as his expert.
Kristof also indicates that spending is not important. He writes, “Mississippi has achieved its gains despite ranking 46th in spending per pupil in grades K-12.” If we look up at the 8th grade rankings, it seems they are getting what they paid for.
Ultican then goes on to describe the connections between the “Mississippi miracle” and TFA and Jeb Bush and a host of other corporate reform groups.
He concludes:
In this opinion piece, Nicholas Kristof touched on and promoted almost every billionaire inspired agenda item aimed at decreasing money going to public education. He acted as a representative of elites, advancing policies undermining education quality for common people.
This was not about improvement. It was about lowering taxes.
Please open the link and read this interesting article.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There is one proof that has been confirmed by this “standards movement,” as Mark Twain is credited to have said, “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics”.
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Correction: “There are four kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics, and Standardized Test Score Results.”
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There is an American-tinged phenomenon of people assuming that because one does one thing well, it translates into doing everything well. The most obvious distillation of this belief can be found in the refrain of wanting government run as a business. Ergo, successful businessmen know more than most. At a minimum, so the myth goes, they pick it and its significance up quickly. Education is an easy target. Everybody’s been to school, what’s so hard to figure out? Run it like a successful business.
In my work, I never cease to be amazed by wealthy people who are impacted by a disease they never heard of or cared about before they were diagnosed and quickly think they know how to solve what medical experts have been working on for decades. Simple, ultimately false, marketing ideas applied to complex medical issues. And like the billionaires in education, the wealthy ones can fund research they believe will help them, not were the greatest scientific opportunity lies. Or the right celebrity getting the disease all of a sudden sparks interest where there was none before. Or the ones who know an herb they read about on a website is a sure cure.
The biggest obstacle in Mississippi, the South, and the nation at large is the inability of a majority white Americans to admit they have long been favored by history, whether their families had a stake in making that way or not. Oddly, a friend sent me this bit on the Mississippi Delta yesterday. Note the tenor of the narration and listen to the white “expert” explain how Mississippi ain’t so bad. And then read some of the comments. And then shake your head in disgust to realize that’s the way it really is. This is a great view of poverty and injustice as seen through the eyes of the cult.
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I think Greg’s analysis is spot on. Greed, hubris and bigotry are poisons doing serious harm to our civilization. I suspect it is not just a white person’s disease but because they of such social advantage it sure looks that way. We seriously need a revolution in thinking and our inner human condition.
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Greg,
That’s a stunning video. I’m speechless. Reminded me why I support the Mississippi Free Press. And made me wonder. If all the children of the Delta became good readers, what else would change? They’d probably leave.
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Are there any school districts that provide transportation to students who move within the district to housing that is not within the attendance boundaries of the neighborhood school?
Neighborhood schools in low income areas often have high turnover. Before 2003, St. Louis City Public Schools used to provide free transportation so students that moved so that they could finish the school year at the same school they started at in the fall.
Giving students attendance stability would help narrow the advantage that affluent and middle class families have over low income families.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is having the same problem with WordPress as Bob Shepherd. He gets a huge icon and a tiny box in which to post. He asked me to post this comment:
“Misusing data allows Kristof to end the paragraph indicating poverty is not an excuse for education failure.”
Kristof sold his soul to a billionaire/s.
How does living in poverty affect a child’s education?
“A student living in poverty will typically attend underfunded schools with fewer resources for students who are struggling or showing signs of learning disabilities. They might also have trouble getting their homework done, due to a lack of resources at home, or a safe, quiet place to study.Dec 10, 2022”
https://elearningindustry.com/how-poverty-and-homelessness-affect-the-american-public-education-system#:~:text=A%20student%20living%20in%20poverty,safe%2C%20quiet%20place%20to%20study.
I was looking for that study out of Stanford that used the results of the PISA test that revealed students living in poverty in every country were falling behind in their education.
I couldn’t find the link. My first thought, The destory public educaiton crime syndicate (Walton, Gates, DeVos, ALEC, et al.) somehow buried it so it would not appear on the first page of a search.
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went to Catholic school for twelve years, from first grade and graduated from a Catholic high school. First grade, Sister Margaret ruled with a ruler and a determined will. There were more than thirty first graders sitting in desks with hands folded in our uniforms of ironed white blouses and green jumpers for girls, dress pants and ironed cotton shirts for boys. Our mothers handmade a crayon roll bag with crayons purchased by our parents. Of course my parents paid for our education through tuition. No broken crayons were tolerated and don’t push too hard on your pencil because pencils were only allowed to be sharpened once a week. The pencil had no eraser, so absolutely no mistakes. There were three reading groups: the David and Ann (on grade level reading), the Dick and Jane (almost grade level reading), and the Judy (below grade level reading). David and Ann students sat in blonde wood desks, Dick and Jane students sat in light brown desks, and Judy students in dark brown desks. You may wonder about the reading group names. David and Ann read only David and Ann books, Dick and Jane read only Dick and Jane books and of course the Judy group only read Judy books. Every first grader did the same Phonics workbook page whether or not you understood it.
Second grade was with Sister Celine Marie and a totally different classroom. I brought in a library book we were reading at home called Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary that Sister Celine read aloud to the class daily. We had reading groups, workbook pages, spelling workbooks, math, etc but I remember enjoying reading and enjoying learning. Sister Celine had a beautiful voice and we did a lot of singing. We learned cursive and I loved cursive writing. I not only loved school I knew I wanted my own second grade classroom so I could be the kind of teacher, like Sister Celine Marie, where children were curious and excited by learning.
Despite obstacles I became a public school elementary school teacher. I would be lucky to teach at different times kindergarten, first, second, and third grade children for twenty eight years. Even with a Master’s degree in Special Education I never stopped reading and taking classes to be a better teacher. But I particularly learned the most from my children in the classroom. I needed to see if they were learning and curious to learn more in and out of school. I learned that teaching a child the alphabet and phonics, putting letters together to make words, putting words together to make sentences, paragraphs, stories, books were just the mechanics. Understanding what you read was essential. How you read and understood different genres was essential. Learning to be a successful reader in all genres meant I was teaching reading and understanding what you read all day, yet never losing sight of the excitement of learning and being curious. Being a teacher was exhausting but exhilarating.
However, working one-on-one with each child in reading conferences was how I knew a child was progressing in her reading and understanding and if there was more I needed to do. A standardized test score was not going to give me this information. A standardized test score would not tell me if she were curious, loving and excited by learning and reading, and continue on this path for a lifetime.
Each child must have time, encouragement, instruction to be a successful lifelong learner not a test score and retention. It is the job of all adults to ensure each child has a safe environment, nutritious food, health care, love, support, encouragement to be the best possible contributing person she can be.
I have been a retired public school teacher for ten years. I realize supporting public education both financially and in print is not the accepted position of the news media, in this case Nickolas Kristof. However, once again his words in his opinion piece are wrong and destructive to public schools and teachers. I wish I could say he is ignorant. Sadly he is stupid and wrong.
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Susan,
What a lovely summary of your education and your very fruitful career!
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Beautiful comments on a fruitful career!
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Good stuff!
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The sad state of Louisiana is attempting to pass legislation to copy the Mississippi Miracle. Wrong on so many levels.
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Growing up in Louisiana, we would give thanks that we weren’t as bad as Mississippi. Mississippi said the same about Arkansas. And Arkansas said the same about Louisiana. They were all correct. Now states all over the nation want to jump on that bandwagon of neglect!
And the only Mississippi Miracle of which I am aware is the ability to finally get out of the state!
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The video you -posted basically revealed a swath of a state that is being deserted. This exists throughout the rural south that is governed by a cruel and manipullative proletariat. I attended Sewanee that is in a bucolic setting of thirteen thousand acres surrounded by what is often referred to as Appalachia. My first teaching internship in 1981 was in a two room school house serving people long ignored or forgotten on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. Your video also reminds me of the early documentaries about the impact this region had on LBJ and Ladybird as he devised his “war on poverty.” Now we in the South and Midwest are experiencing the aftermath of a globalized economy that ignored Johnson’s efforts and had no interest in making life better for those left behind. So here we are. The wealthiest society in the history of mankind and too many NIMBY’s who think it’s acceptable to feel sorry for the destitute while turning our backs on those left to fend for themselves. We cannot afford to fund our public schools, provide health care, or provide a living wage for everyone, but those gleaming cities on the hill sure are nice.
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I’m not sure the 8th graders ever got good instruction. You need a dysteachia and dyslexia intervention program for older kids when you start rolling out good literacy instruction in Early Education .
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