While Mississippi politicians brag about the "Mississippi Miracle", third-grade reading-gate scores fell for most school districts in the Jackson metro area. Only Madison and Canton public schools saw improvements
Jackson continued to lead the decline as only 53% of its third-graders passed the test, a sharp drop from the 67% it enjoyed in 2023. Pearl Public Schools suffered the next largest decrease, falling from 92% in 2023 to 85% in 2026.
School, score, (2026) (2025) (2024)(2023)(2022)(2019)
Canton: 67% (62%) (62%) (71%)(62%)(72%)
Clinton: 87% (89%) (88%) (86%)(90%)(86%)
Hinds County: 66% (70%) (63%) (68%)(71%)(67%)
JPS: 53% (55%) (54%) (67%)(61%)(64%)
Madison County: 91% (89%) (92%) (89%)(90%)(91%)
Pearl: 85% (87%) (91%) (92%)(87%)(89%)
Rankin County: 86% (89%) (89%) (87%)(84%)(83%)
2019 is the last year when the third-grade reading tests were administered before the Covid shutdowns. The public school districts that remained closed the longest, Canton and Jackson, still have not seen their third-grade reading scores recover to their 2019 scores. The Jackson Public Schools district is eleven points below where it was before the pandemic of 2020. It should be noted JPS and Canton kept their schools closed longer than did other local school districts.
Maybe it's not fair to compare JPS to other area public schools. After all, JPS is nearly 100$% black and there are much higher levels of poverty among its students. Fair enough. Let's compare apples to apples.
Hattiesburg: 75%
Greenville: 77%
What is even more troubling for JPS is how Hattiesburg and Greenville's scores rose substantially from 2019.
Hattiesburg: 65%
Greenville: 54%
Unfortunately, the reading-gate statewide score fell from 77.3% in 2025 to 75.6% in 2026. However, the 2026 score was at the same as it was in 2024.
The scores are posted below.
MDE Press Release
The Mississippi Department of Education announces that 75.6% or 24,118 of third graders passed the initial administration of the third-grade reading assessment given this spring for the 2025-26 school year. A total of 31,887 students took the test.
In 2024-25, 77.3% of third graders passed the initial administration of the assessment, with 84.6% of students passing after final retests. In 2023-24, 75.7% of students passed the initial administration, with 84% passing after final retests.
In accordance with the Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA), third graders who do not pass the initial administration of the reading test are given up to two attempts to retest. Students who did not pass the initial reading assessment took retests from May 11-15. The second retest window is June 22-26.
The LBPA became law in 2013 to improve reading skills of kindergarten through third-grade students in public schools, so every student completing the third grade is able to read at or above grade level. The LBPA requires Mississippi third graders to pass a reading assessment to qualify for promotion to fourth grade. Some students may qualify for good cause exemptions to be promoted to fourth grade.
An amendment to the law in 2016 raised reading-level expectations starting in the 2018-19 school year, requiring third graders to score at level three or higher on the reading portion of the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) English Language Arts (ELA) assessment.
To see the district- and school-level initial pass rate report for 2025-26, go to mdek12.org/publicreporting/
Final district-level pass rates will be published this fall in the Literacy-Based Promotion Act Annual Report of Performance and Student Retention for the 2025-26 school year.
24 comments:
Don’t send your kids to public schools. Home school or private schools
Jackson would be good training ground for aspiring Peace Corp volunteers.
You should be doing everything you can to not send your kids to public school in the 2020s. No matter where you live, it’s just not likely your child is surrounded by good kids and is receiving a decent education.
The big drop for JPS was from '23 to'24, and they've done nothing to improve their abysmal showing in the last 3 years. Maybe some overpaid administrators should have their salaries cut in proportion to the drop in reading rates.
@12:21 world needs ditch diggers too, so glad your kids are being homeschooled.
Better yet - don't rely on someone else to teach your kids how to read.
May be a dumb question but do private schools give the same test or something similar? It would be interesting to compare results if so.
Madison County rocks again.
Jackson public school parents must not be reading to their children-
Your kids dig ditches?
Don't have kids if you can't afford to provide for their education. Period. Mississippi's "miracle" is a flat out LIE.
Homeschooling requires a parent to devote the time and understanding to what a child needs to develop in education. Not so sure every child needs to be homeschooled. Some need experienced teachers to teach them.
KF, according to the chart, Madison County decreased from 2019 to 2026 and Rankin increased.
Some parents are incompetent as parents, let alone as teachers. I know some home-schooled kids who need socialization and getting their asses busted by classmates on a school playground every now and then. Life experiences provide some useful lessons.
Well the world needs fast food workers
#1, a statewide 24% failure rate is abysmal.
#2, regarding home schooling, have you met the parents you propose to do this home schooling?
Time Capsule:
In my 1960-61 Catholic school in TX, we were told our 3rd grade read at a national 8th grade level, based on testing at end of year. We also were lead in prayer daily asking God to please destroy Communism. Yet Cuba persisted. Maybe Trump and Rubio can finally fix Cuba.
So very thankful my grandkids are at Madison Elementary School. Great job by the teachers and principals! Thanks!
My daughter is at Germantown and crushing AP exams and has a 30+ ACT, so the naysayers can go kick the biggest rock they can find
Pfffft. Reading? Waaaaay overrated. Why? Because nobody needs it anymore. It’s TV all the time, no reading required. Screen readers for smartphones abound. Go ahead, ask people you meet what they’re reading lately. Those that don’t look at you funny will sneer at you for acting smart and biggity. Reading? Waaaaay, way overrated.
Not all private schools are much better. Especially when it comes to ACT prep. But they do love those checks.
Reading is one thing, comprehension of what you are reading is another
Not sending my son to public high school was the best investment I ever made.
Didn't the Governor just have a big to do a few months back about how MS Kids are reading better than ever and how other States have been asking advise from MS on how they improved their reading so drastically????
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