Want better schools? It's all up to states. - Harvard Gazette

"It's a big story that we all ought to be paying attention to because the federal government essentially handed power over K-12 decisions back to states in 2015. That was a decade ago, and nationally, achievement has been declining. I think it's largely because a lot of states, including Massachusetts, were not ready to take the reins. And this subset of Southern states has undertaken ambitious reforms to the way they teach literacy that seem to be paying off in terms of improved student achievement."

"According to the Education Recovery Scorecard, Alabama ranked first among states in math recovery and third in reading, Louisiana ranked second in math recovery and first in reading, Mississippi sixth in math recovery and fourth in reading, and Tennessee third in math recovery and ninth in reading."

Southern states have historically underperformed educationally, but recent data shows Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee ranking among the top states in math and reading recovery between 2019 and 2024. The Education Recovery Scorecard, developed collaboratively by Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth researchers, tracks learning loss during this period. Education scholar Thomas Kane attributes these gains to ambitious state-led reforms in literacy instruction undertaken by these Southern states. The surge represents a significant development because the federal government transferred K-12 decision-making authority to states in 2015. Many states, including Massachusetts, were unprepared for this responsibility, but these Southern states implemented effective educational reforms that improved student achievement, demonstrating the importance of state leadership in reversing national educational decline.

Read at Harvard Gazette