By Vince Bielski, RealClearInvestigations
April 22, 2025
GEO Prep Mid-Metropolis Academy, situated in one of many poorest sections of Louisiana, did one thing nearly unprecedented in public schooling – it went from dying to thriving in just some years.
Kevin Teasley, GEO Academies: “We don’t chase fads.”
geoacademies.org
The Baton Rouge Okay-8 faculty, which is nearly completely crammed with deprived black college students drawn from a lottery, repeatedly obtained a failing grade till new management took over in 2017. It steadily improved and landed within the high third statewide in studying proficiency final 12 months, not by following newfangled pedagogical traits however by focusing intensely on the fundamentals of studying: a confirmed curriculum, academics skilled to grasp it, and testing to carry everybody accountable for progress.
“We’re simply fully dedicated to educational achievement,” mentioned Kevin Teasley, the pinnacle of GEO Academies. “We don’t chase fads like a variety of faculties. My inbox is filled with them. Our success comes from our repetitive and long-term dedication to getting outcomes.”
Mid-Metropolis is emblematic of the stunning public faculty revival in a handful of largely southern states, with Louisiana and Mississippi main the best way. Over greater than a decade, these two states have skyrocketed from the very backside to close the highest within the rankings of the Nationwide Evaluation of Academic Progress (NAEP), the gold commonplace of proficiency exams. As public schooling sinks deeper right into a disaster of low efficiency and excessive absenteeism, the southern states are demonstrating how faculties can considerably elevate scholar achievement.
From dying to thriving: GEO Prep Mid-Metropolis Academy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
GEO Prep Mid-Metropolis Academy
Louisiana and Mississippi’s rise is all of the extra inconceivable as a result of they’re the 2 poorest states within the nation, a situation that researchers hint to the significantly deep penetration of slavery of their economies and their subsequent anti-union legal guidelines which have suppressed wages. Not surprisingly, each states are within the backside quartile in public schooling spending, suggesting that higher faculties aren’t only a matter of funding. Each even have comparatively weak academics’ unions that sometimes oppose the sorts of reforms which are driving up proficiency scores within the two states.
The query is whether or not this reform motion, dubbed the Southern Surge, can escape of its area of interest and increase into extra liberal states within the Northeast and West to make a much bigger nationwide splash. There are causes for doubt. States like New York and Washington, with highly effective academics’ unions, have moved in the other way, tamping down rigor, similar to testing for commencement and accelerated packages, to attain “fairness” for deprived college students. They see accountability by means of testing as a part of the issue.
“Southern states have seized on a political surroundings that enables them to do the issues that matter,” mentioned Rick Hess, director of schooling coverage on the American Enterprise Institute. “These states have weaker academics’ unions and Republican dominated political cultures. To drive enchancment, it is simpler when you’ve got the politics of Mississippi than the politics of Massachusetts.
Pushing Literacy Reform
Following the South, most states have handed legal guidelines selling what’s popularly referred to as the science of studying, or phonics-based curricula, that’s been repeatedly proven to enhance literacy. The intent is to spice up studying proficiency within the essential early elementary grades, which largely determines whether or not college students achieve later years. However enacting new legal guidelines has been the simple a part of studying reform, and they seem like little greater than window dressing in lots of states due to the heated politics round classroom practices.
Lizzette Reynolds, schooling commissioner: “Literacy reform doesn’t work with out robust accountability.”
Tennessee Dept. of Training
Native faculty districts have appreciable management over what goes on inside lecture rooms and are skeptical of state interference, whereas unions guard trainer autonomy as a high precedence. In Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, it took a few years to steer districts to switch a mishmash of ineffective studying curricula with content material backed by analysis that was vetted by the states. Simply as necessary, academics needed to bear intensive coaching to grasp the numerous elements of the science of studying since college packages haven’t stored tempo with altering classroom practices and don’t adequately cowl it.
Much more controversial, states needed to toughen their lackluster accountability techniques, the principle driver of progress within the South. By grading faculties on the variety of college students who’re proficient and quickly advancing towards that mark reasonably than on lenient measures like attendance, southern states, together with Tennessee, are figuring out the low performers and fixing them.
Carey Wright, superintendent: She led Mississippi’s turnaraound. Now she’s going for an encore in Maryland.
Maryland Dept. of Training
“Literacy reform doesn’t work with out robust accountability,” mentioned Lizzette Reynolds, the schooling commissioner in Tennessee, which strengthened its accountability system in 2023. “With out understanding the info and realizing how faculty districts are doing with their college students, we would not see the enhancements that we have now made.”
The southern states have been in a position to work round political resistance to the literacy overhaul, however it will likely be a much bigger impediment because the motion inches into Democratic territory. In Michigan, for example, Democrats ended the state’s accountability program in 2023 that recognized poor-performing faculties with A-F grades, choosing a extra forgiving method. The next 12 months, the state’s early studying proficiency rating continued declining to close the underside of the nationwide rankings.
Nonetheless, some blue states, together with Colorado, are adopting elements of the playbook, with Maryland probably the most noteworthy instance. Carey Wright, who led Mississippi’s dramatic turnaround, now goals for a repeat efficiency because the superintendent in Maryland. Wright informed RealClearInvestigations that she expects to see extra blue and crimson states be part of the reform motion that she helped encourage.
Cade Brumley, superintendent: The hot button is “much less affect from Washington.”
Louisiana Dept. of Training
“States are mirroring a variety of the issues that we did in Mississippi as a result of it’s been profitable,” Wright mentioned. “We used approaches based mostly on analysis exhibiting they work and that’s why I really feel strongly about what we did.”
The Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Division of Training cuts each methods with regards to studying reform. Southern officers are involved in regards to the gutting of federal analysis because it has performed an necessary position in discovering efficient instructional approaches, together with the science of studying. In Mississippi, Wright says, the division supported analysis into how classroom practices have been altering as a part of its reforms, confirming that the state was heading in the right direction.
If, alternatively, the federal authorities provides states extra authority over spending Title 1 funding for deprived college students by changing it to dam grants, that would assist advance the reforms. “We’ve got confirmed our skill to drive outcomes ahead and I believe we will speed up these outcomes with much less affect from Washington, D.C.,” Cade Brumley, the state superintendent in Louisiana, informed RCI. “We might higher tackle the precise wants in our state with none federal strings hooked up.”
Origins of Accountability
Roots of a revival (in some locations): President Bush indicators the bipartisan No Baby Left Behind Act in 2022.
Paul Morse/Wikimedia
The 2024 NAEP scores launched in January confirmed as soon as once more that public schooling is damaged. In the important thing benchmark of fourth-grade studying, the common rating has been steadily dropping for greater than a decade, and final 12 months matched the all-time low of 1992, with solely 31% of scholars reaching proficiency and the hole between the highest and backside performers increasing.
Charles Barone: “Faculty enchancment efforts at the moment are tepid at finest.”
The variations in state efficiency additionally matter, suggesting that the southern playbook is a part of the reason. Massachusetts, which has lengthy held the title because the top-performing state, suffered a 10-percentage-point drop in fourth-grade studying proficiency to 40% of scholars from 2011 to 2024. New Jersey, the previous No. 2 state, additionally fell sharply. Each states have a weak set of literacy interventions and fewer sturdy accountability in contrast with Louisiana and Mississippi, in line with an evaluation by ExcelinEd, an advocacy group.
With 38 states declining in early literacy in that point span, the dramatic rise of the 2 southern states is extraordinary. They have been useless final within the 2011 rankings. In Mississippi, proficiency jumped by 10 share factors to 32% by 2024, probably the most development of any state. It’s now tenth within the nation, far forward of states like New York that spend extra per scholar. What’s extra, Mississippi climbs to first place in studying proficiency when adjusted for variations in state poverty ranges in an City Institute rating. Louisiana’s development was an in depth second to Mississippi and lands in second place, in line with the adjusted checklist.
The southern revival has its roots within the bipartisan No Baby Left Behind Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2002. Initially backed by governors, the act required states to get critical about holding faculties accountable for lifting proficiency, with penalties similar to closure for repeatedly failing to enhance. Fourth-grade literacy scores shot up considerably throughout the subsequent decade, significantly for black and Latino college students.
However over time, states objected to the ambition and rigidity of the act and have been allowed by the Obama administration to revamp accountability techniques to fulfill their explicit wants. Moderately than emphasizing proficiency, states in 2011 started utilizing simpler measures to guage faculties. Fewer faculties have been recognized as needing enchancment, and states had extra leeway in find out how to repair them, whereas penalties for failure have been eradicated.
It hasn’t labored in most states. The weakening of accountability, which was later wrapped into Obama’s Each Scholar Succeeds Act (ESSA), coincided with the drop in NAEP scores from 2011 by means of 2024 – a falloff that doubtless has a number of causes, together with the proliferation of smartphones and social media. A Authorities Accounting Workplace investigation final 12 months discovered that almost all states weren’t even complying with ESSA’s relaxed accountability guidelines.
“The varsity enchancment efforts at the moment are tepid at finest,” mentioned Charles Barone, who has performed a central position in shaping federal schooling reforms together with No Baby Left Behind. “States should not doing a lot to assist college students attain proficiency.”
Louisiana Finds Its Stride
Louisiana and Mississippi, alternatively, remained dedicated to sweeping adjustments. They wished to shed their status for operating the worst faculties within the nation and employed dynamic reformers – John White in Louisiana and Carey Wright in Mississippi – who broke the mould of bureaucratic-minded superintendents typical in schooling departments.
John White: Endured eight typically bruising years in Louisiana, however reforms finally received out.
Nice Minds
“Our academic system can’t change at scale with out the chief, the state, asserting a view on the way it ought to change, and utilizing its many instruments together with accountability to make it occur,” White, now CEO of curriculum developer Nice Minds, informed RCI. “The historical past of many states not having a view in any respect, and never doing their job, is the issue.”
White’s early deal with research-backed curricula was, within the phrases of creator and professional Robert Pondiscio, “the final, finest, and nearly completely un-pulled education-reform lever.” White, a savvy coalition builder and former trainer, turned to veteran instructors to establish the very best curricula and efficiently incentivized districts to deploy them. White’s progress got here regardless of fixed assaults from Louisiana’s greatest academics’ unions and a politically bold governor who turned towards him over the superintendent’s embrace of upper Widespread Core requirements that knowledgeable the educating supplies.
White left his submit after eight typically bruising years. In 2020, Superintendent Brumley took over and has backed a number of reforms that constructed on White’s accomplishments. The subsequent 12 months, Louisiana required that each one Okay-3 academics bear about 50 hours of coaching since new curricula wouldn’t assist a lot in the event that they didn’t have the arrogance to make use of them. By 2022, Louisiana’s fourth-grade literacy scores started their ascent.
Like White, Brumley hasn’t steered away from controversy. Beginning within the present faculty 12 months, third graders who rating effectively beneath proficiency in studying received’t be promoted to fourth grade and can obtain intensive tutoring. The top of social promotion stirred a lot debate amongst state lawmakers as a result of it disproportionately impacts black college students. However the retention coverage that Tennessee and Alabama additionally adopted has a observe document, considerably bettering the studying efficiency of scholars in Mississippi.
Brumley is barely getting began. A stronger accountability system that raises the educational bar begins this fall in Louisiana, becoming a member of Mississippi and Tennessee in assigning clear and extra credible A-F grades to varsities to enhance their efficiency. Brumley says that the previous system obscured outcomes and was too tender, with nearly 90% of faculties getting an A or B for tutorial development, although college students weren’t advancing very a lot towards proficiency.
The brand new Okay-8 system, which associations of academics and superintendents opposed due to its reliance on testing, makes it tougher for faculties to get a excessive mark. Half of the grade will likely be based mostly on scholar educational development, however they must advance extra quickly for a college to be awarded factors. The opposite half is derived from the variety of college students who attain proficiency. Colleges not get factors for college students who method it.
“In Louisiana and throughout the nation, institution teams are attempting to limit reform, so it is necessary that leaders proceed to push towards the established order,” Brumley mentioned. “Typically that comes with taking photographs and daggers, however it’s price it if it prompts the educational development of scholars.”
Blue States Motivated to Reform
The obstacles reformers have confronted within the South could appear to be baby’s play in blue states, the place academics’ unions have appreciable clout in shaping laws. The California Lecturers Affiliation, up to now, has prevented lawmakers from passing a regulation to mandate the science of studying. However a seamless decline in NAEP rankings, doubtlessly hurting states’ skill to maintain residents from leaving and develop companies that want expert staff, could also be a catalyst for change.
“There are a variety of historically increased performing states which have seen declines in efficiency as others catch up, so they will see the necessity to do one thing completely different,” mentioned Christy Hovanetz, a senior coverage fellow at ExcelinEd who advises states on bettering accountability. “That is precisely what began the reforms throughout the South.”
Christy Hovanetz: Declining rankings elsewhere within the nation could also be a catalyst for change.
ExcelinEd
Democrat-led Maryland is a working example. It was a excessive flyer, the third finest state in early literacy in 2011, earlier than plunging to forty second by 2022. It was time for a change within the individual of Carey Wright, who had just lately left Mississippi on a excessive notice. The superintendent has much more bold plans for Maryland.
Drawing from the playbook Wright helped creator, Maryland authorized a number of early literacy reforms that at the moment are being rolled out in lecture rooms and raised educational requirements throughout all topics. Final 12 months, the state’s fourth-grade literacy rating rose for the primary time in seven years, spurring the board to declare its aim for Maryland to rank within the high 10 by 2027.
Wright is now pushing into the subsequent frontier of reform – lifting math achievement after a precipitous fall since 2019. In January, the Maryland state board authorized an overhaul of math schooling with extra accelerated instruction for superior college students, personalized interventions for low performers, and a required variety of minutes dedicated to the topic.
Wright has a expertise for making companions out of potential opponents. Though Maryland has a powerful academics’ union, Wright says they’ve a very good relationship partly as a result of it was given a seat on the desk to design a extra rigorous accountability system to begin in 2026. “They’ve a variety of questions, little question,” Wright mentioned. “In Maryland it’s a must to convey alongside your stakeholders as a result of the politics are very completely different right here than in Mississippi.”
A number of different blue states are additionally pushing literacy reform. It’s taken Colorado greater than a decade to get phonics-based curricula into lecture rooms, and now the state is making progress on a greater accountability system. Its nationwide rating has risen 12 notches to sixth place final 12 months.
In Virginia, the plunge from ninth place to thirty second within the rankings turned Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin right into a crusader for reform. Within the previous system, Youngkin informed the media, 89% of faculties obtained full accreditation, although 66% of Okay-8 grade college students failed or almost failed math and studying assessments. Virginia’s new system, whereas not as robust in stressing proficiency as Louisiana’s, is about to start this fall. Democrats assist it however are pushing for extra funding to assist faculties enhance which are graded “Off Observe” or worse.
“Virginia’s new system is much better,” mentioned Hovanetz of ExcelinEd, who talked with state leaders in regards to the reform. “They have been one of many states with the bottom expectations of proficiency.”
Whereas reformers see extra progress forward in blue states like Rhode Island and Connecticut, there’s additionally backpedaling. Florida, as soon as a frontrunner within the motion, appears to have misplaced its mojo. Its massive drop in early literacy final 12 months stirred a lot soul looking.
Florida Commissioner Manny Diaz accused NAEP of utilizing a flawed methodology, saying the pattern of take a look at takers didn’t embody high-performing college students in class alternative packages who have been getting a personal schooling. Some reformers see a distinct drawback, arguing that Florida has been distracted by preventing high-profile battles over woke textbooks and the gender of loos to the detriment of a eager deal with proficiency.
“I can’t communicate for Florida,” mentioned Wright of Maryland. “However on this work, you may by no means elevate your foot off the pedal. That is relentless. Day in, day trip, it’s a must to take a look at information and by no means assume that issues are going to get higher.”
