Note: This Mississippi Today Ideas essay, published on the heels of the Jan. 29 announcement of the state’s gains in national test scores for students grades 4-8, was written by Jermeka J. Carter, a fourth grade reading teacher in the Delta.
My fourth grade class was deep in discussion about sports and NFL stats, with each student reading a sentence or two aloud to move our conversation along. When it was Tyler’s time to read the sentence, “They went on to win their three postseason games,” he whispered to me, “I can’t read.”
My heart sank. I quickly shifted to whole-class reading so he wouldn’t feel embarrassed and, as soon as I could, I set up a diagnostic test for Tyler. My fourth grader was reading at a kindergarten level. Worse, he had already repeated third grade.
“I can’t read” is the reality for many of my students. Data shows that while Mississippi has made notable progress in fourth grade reading proficiency, challenges persist in sustaining these gains through eighth grade. In 2024, 32% of Mississippi fourth graders achieved at or above the NAEP proficient level in reading, a significant improvement from 17% in 1998. However, in 2024 only 23% of students reached the proficient level by eighth grade, showing no significant change.
READ MORE: Mississippi’s ‘reading miracle’ has been out of reach for some schools
Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA), a mechanism for assessing students’ reading skills and identifying those who need help, but it doesn’t go far enough to make students proficient readers. It focuses primarily on kindergarten through third grade. Moreover, good cause exemptions, such as having a disability or limited English proficiency allow students to advance in the system even though they have not passed the Third Grade Gate test which all our students must take in order to move on to fourth grade. For students like Tyler, lack of timely interventions means that it’s harder and harder to build foundational skills and learn new concepts, dooming them to repeat grades without clear progress.
For students like Tyler who advance to fourth grade without mastering foundational reading skills, the struggle only intensifies. By fourth grade, the focus of education shifts from learning to read to reading to learn. Students who haven’t achieved grade-level proficiency are left grappling with increasingly complex texts across all subjects. As a result, the gap between these students and their peers widens, creating a domino effect of poor academic performance, low confidence, and disengagement. The LBPA, while effective in identifying early struggles, leaves students in grades 4-8 in an academic limbo, promoted but unsupported, falling further behind in a system that lacks targeted interventions for older learners.
I was determined to give Tyler the help he so desperately needed. Every morning, I arrived early to work with him, starting with the simplest sight words like “and,” “it,” and “look.” His classmates, seeing him work so hard to learn, began to cheer him on, pointing out words and encouraging him as we walked through the hallway together. It became a team effort, and day by day, Tyler started to believe he could do it. By spring, he grew from a level 1 to a level 3, and his face lit up with pride.
To help Tyler and other Mississippi students like him, we must take decisive action.
First, we need to identify at-risk students early by utilizing K-readiness data to pinpoint literacy gaps before they widen. Early detection allows us to intervene at a stage when it can have the greatest impact. If Tyler had been identified early and provided the needed support and interventions, his teachers could’ve had more opportunities to bridge his critical skill gaps.
Next, we must implement targeted, research-based interventions rooted in the science of reading. These interventions should be consistent and follow students throughout their academic journey. In my classroom, I use structured literacy approaches, including phonics, decoding, and fluency. Tyler participated in small-group instruction with tools like Elkonin boxes to break words into sounds and syllables, repeated reading for fluency, and vocabulary-building activities like Frayer Models to deepen word understanding.
Next, districts must provide professional development in universal, research-based intervention programs tailored to the needs of their students. Only through classroom experience and training I found on my own in phonemic awareness and phonics did I begin to bridge the gap. However, I still lack training to support older students like Tyler, who need targeted interventions for comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary. I shouldn’t have to piece together solutions on my own instead of implementing a cohesive, science-backed approach.
READ MORE: Mississippi falls short of an eighth-grade literacy miracle
There is good news. The state Legislature is considering a bill that seeks to address some of these challenges by proposing revisions to the Literacy-Based Promotion Act that extend its scope beyond 3rd grade. The bill emphasizes continued progress monitoring and targeted interventions for students in upper elementary and middle school, ensuring that struggling readers receive the support they need to succeed. This revision is essential in preventing academic disengagement and ensuring that all students are equipped with the skills necessary for success.
We now have the opportunity to address literacy gaps early, providing students like Tyler the support they need to not only meet but exceed expectations. Together, we can create a system in which no Mississippi student falls behind.
Jermeka J. Carter, NBCT Literacy:Reading Language Arts, is an English language arts teacher at Dundee Elementary School in Dundee and 2024-2025 Teach Plus Mississippi Policy Fellow. She serves as the curriculum and instruction committee chair at her school and is a National Board Certified Teacher. She was named the 2013 Tunica County Teacher of the Year. She holds a BS in elementary education from Rust College, an MEd in educational leadership and management from Strayer University, and an EdS in K-12 leadership from Grand Canyon University.
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