I believe you're referring to the impressive rise in reading scores in Mississippi since passage of a statewide law in 2013, and there certainly may be things that Missouri and individual school districts can learn from it; however, other states have copied that law but haven't seen the same results and there's little understanding of what exactly is behind the MS testing gains. Here's a good rundown on it from Chalkbeat. Anyway, it's unfair I think to blame individual school district(s) elsewhere for not having similar gains, especially when in Mississippi it has been a statewide initiative. But I'd love to see more state resources in lower income districts here in MO for reading aids, etc. regardless. (Also, fwiw SLPS led the Literacy in the Lou initiative designed to boost youth literacy throughout the region.)mjbais1489 wrote: ↑Jul 23, 2025I just want to vehemently disagree with the idea that everything is Trump or Missouri's fault. I'm pretty liberal but its just not true anymore that "red" states are bad at education. Mississippi has been doing incredible work in reading comprehension for more than a decade now. We'd be so lucky if our school district/school board cared enough to be anything like Mississippi in terms of education.
SLPS has some positives that don't get talked about enough, and they do have to deal with really tough situations, but the excuse making is such a turnoff. The board has been terrible since they took back control from the state - that's their fault, they are to blame and they should take responsibility. And its hurting kids who really need help. The board, the leadership they should all be embarrassed. Saying its someone else's fault it such a lame cop-out.
I also disagree that the Board has been "terrible" since the return to local control, which was in 2019. There was continuity with Dr. Adams for the first several years, a new agreement boosting teacher pay was reached, some hard decisions had to be made about school closures after the SAB passed the buck to the elected board, and of course the pandemic presented enormous challenges for districts across the country. Things were going reasonably well I think until this past 2024-2025 school year, which was certainly a year of tumult and ended in May with triage moves after the tornado closed several schools. Of course, new Board members were elected in April, and a majority now have only served for several months... they have some tough decisions to make coming up and I wish them well.
