Belief in transformative miracles is a recurring theme in the history of American education. Sometimes educators are compelled to embrace “miracles”” based on word of mouth. Other times, the media push educators to do something without evidence, but lots of enthusiasm. In 2000, I wrote a book called Left Back, which traced the rise and fall of cures and nostrums in the classroom. These bursts of enthusiasm are seldom promoted by teachers; they are too busy doing their job to come up with revolutionary ideas.

John Thompson reports from the front lines in Oklahoma:

Republican Mike Mazzie, an anti-Muslim freemarket ideolgue, showed more civility in the recent gubernatorial debate with Democrat Cyndi Munson than he did in the Republican primary debate.  Maybe that is why he received less fact-checking from the daily press. 

So, I will focus on my field of expertise, and limit my fact-checking to Mazzie’s claims regarding public education.  

First, he has proposed “eliminating the state income tax over six years, and vowed to get rid of property taxes on homes owned by those who are 65 or older.”  Both taxes play an essential role in funding public education, which has been weakened over the last quarter of a century by the test-driven mandates that Mazzi supports, budget cuts, the Ryan Walter’s administration, Covid, and demographic changes.

In his Republican primary debate, Mazzie denied that those cuts would hurt schools because, Oklahoma has 541 school districts “run by liberal left-leaning radical socialists.”

Three of his opponents, who had decades of experience in public education, pushed back.

Sen. Adam Pugh said he rejected Mazzie’s words “wholeheartedly.”

Superintendent John Cox called Mazzie’s comment “a direct hit on him. ‘I am an extremely conservative person, and I’m not that radical socialist.’”

And, Robert Franklin, who is now running for State Superintendent:

Invoked his years as an assistant principal …”When people made fun of one another, we call that bullying. We also put people in detention for that kind of stuff.” He said the rhetoric disqualified Mazzie from his vote, flatly without apology.   

In the recent debate with Rep. Munson, the closest thing Mazzie said in terms of funding schools after extreme tax cuts was criticizing her for wanting “to pour more and more money into an already dysfunctional system.” And then he changed the subject to school choice, legislative bans for boys playing in girls sports, and requirements that boys should not be in girls bathrooms. 

Mazzie’s other claims that need fact checking involve the so-called “Mississippi Miracle.”

He promised:

I will hire a statewide literacy director in my first week in office to replicate the very successful Mississippi model, which took them from 50th to first in the country in reading outcomes. The keys for their success are phonics curriculum, enough reading coaches statewide, and accountability.

Mazzie oversimplified some numbers about Mississippi’s rankings. But, more importantly, he offered no evidence that Oklahoma, even if it doesn’t eliminate its income and/or property taxes, would provide nearly as much funding as Mississippi did for literacy, which started with $100 million grant from the Barksdale Institute, which would be worth almost $200 million today.  

And he doesn’t seem to understand that since federal, Covid funding has run out, effective, but expensive, high-dosage tutoring is being replaced by dubious, digital tutoring models.

Neither does Mazzie seem to understand how accountability-driven test prep, that took off due to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), undermined the teaching of History, Science, Critical Thinking, Recess, Arts, and Music.  And, that is crucial because background knowledge is the key to reading, and the data-driven mindset that he wants were the major reasons why reading has declined.

Mazzie should also read the Report: Beyond the Surface: Leveraging High-Quality Instructional Materials for Robust Reading Comprehension Learning brief, funded by Tulsa’s Schusterman Family Foundation. As reported by the 74, One of the lead authors, Dan Reynolds, asked, “Are we teaching our K-4 kids that reading is just tasks? Are we teaching them that they just need to label stuff and fill out graphic organizers?”

Reynolds said the “Surface-level” instruction they discovered, “weakens instruction for students and can later manifest as a skills disadvantage.” 

And, Mazzie doesn’t seem to know the history of simpler, cheaper reforms producing brief and short-lived gains. Yes, Mississippi produced big gains in 4th grade reading, even when it used NAEP test scores, which are more reliable than state tests that are designed to be taught to.  But Mississippi’s 8th grade scores remain lower than they were in 2002. This indicates that retentions and test prep haven’t improved reading comprehension.

Even worse, as Mississippi ramped up 8th grade reading prep, evidence has grown that they are increasingly teaching kids to hate reading. For instance, Wired magazine reported how students would:

Grab a Chromebook and log in, at speeds ranging from feet-dragging to actively resistant. They open the StudySync software program, which shows them each a series of questions tailored to their weaknesses. Their faces look like they’re being marched to the guillotine.

And the article ends with the teacher saying that she “can’t think of a single student across her five periods who reads for fun, who considers her class anything beyond an ordeal to be survived.”

By the way, the debate prompted me to read new claims by the supporters of the “Miracle.” For instance, I reread a study that is representative of the rewriting of history that is being presented as evidence that the “Mississippi Miracle,” will be transformative because it is bringing back NCLB’s accountability system. It said that, “There is at least one study about the fact that NCLB led to achievement gains.”

That study actually explained that the “main advantage to using NAEP data for our analysis is that it is a low-stakes exam that is not directly tied to any state’s standards or assessments.” And, it found  that, “Accountability has produced substantial gains in math skills but not in reading.” It estimated that, by 2007, as No Child Left Behind, “8th grade reading dropped by 3.8%.”   

In conclusion, Mazzie seems completely unaware of both, peer reviewed social and cognitive science, and what actually happens in schools. Having had decades of experience working with Republicans, like Robert Franklin, the outstanding candidate for State Superintendent, I’m dismayed by the way he promoted fact-free claims. Having served in the nonpartisan MAPS for Kids, where we listened to national experts, as well as local educators, patrons, and students, I’ve worked in team efforts to tackle complex and interconnected education challenges, as well as witnessing the damage done by ideology-driven true believers in simplistic, cheap, market-driven mandates.