When I started teaching in Louisiana in 2004, I was told that the state was expanding annual assessments of students to all grades 3–8 because Louisiana ranked forty-ninth in the country for reading proficiency. I started to hear a gutting phrase that I’ve since learned is common across the southeast, “the only state behind us is Mississippi. Thank goodness for Mississippi.”
On the recently released NAEP assessment, guess what place Louisiana ranked in fourth-grade reading? (14th.)
Guess what place Mississippi ranked in fourth-grade reading? (14th—tied.)
Out of fifty states, Mississippi ranked third in the nation for economically-disadvantaged students on fourth-grade reading proficiency. Black students in Mississippi have gained more in reading than Black students in any other state in the nation in the last ten years.
Much has been written about the “Mississippi miracle.” Many other states have learned from Mississippi’s 2013 Literacy Based Promotion Act and mimicked Mississippi’s policies and teacher trainings.
However, there is one move that Mississippi leaders made that I have not seen any other state implement. Given Mississippi's outsized gains, I think it is a move worth lifting. Mississippi leaders wanted to improve teacher coaching. Rather than sending money to schools or districts so they could hire coaches, the state hired eighty-five full-time teacher coaches and sent them to schools. They managed the coaches at the state level.
Here is the job description for those coaches. Coaches spent most of their days in their assigned schools coaching and conferencing with teachers, supporting school teams to use high-quality curricular materials, designing professional learning for teachers and leaders, reviewing data, and making recommendations for instructional practices. They spent some of their time in professional learning with the other coaches to support a deep understanding of the science of reading, adult learning theory, and the state policies.
What makes this strategy different—and bold—is that the state leaders implemented a strategy that did not go through districts, schools, or group training but drove embedded support directly into classrooms.
Then Secretary of Education for Mississippi Dr. Carey Wright explained: “I wanted to control for quality and to ensure these coaches knew the science of reading and adult learning theory. I wanted to guarantee all teachers that those who would be working side by side with them in their classrooms were of the highest quality and would be able to build their capacity to teach students how to read.”
I think this approach mattered for three reasons:
- It supported role clarity. Coaches’ job descriptions were established centrally; there was no differentiation of focus. The state created a mechanism to ensure that the reading coaches did not get pulled into “other duties, as assigned.”
- It allowed for a clear standard for hiring and performance management. Having a small, central team conduct all hiring ensured that the same standard was used to evaluate applicants and manage performance over time.
- It made it possible for the state to provide training and support. Knowing exactly what the coaches were going to do made it possible for the state to train the coaches and provide real-time professional learning.
There were two conditions that Mississippi leaders, in a right-to-work state, could count on when they designed this strategy that leaders in other states may not be able to. Mississippi leaders knew that:
- Coaches would be able to conduct informal observations and provide feedback to all teachers without a required invitation in.
- Coaches would be able to direct the use of planning time.
Many collective bargaining agreements don’t make those conditions assumable.
In hiring coaches directly, Mississippi mitigated the risk of a problem we don’t talk about enough in education: lack of role clarity. In most states, districts and schools determine the structure and focus of roles. This allows leaders to be flexible and adapt to style and hyper-local context, but it also results in wide variation in clarity and focus. The variation can lead to blurriness about where time should be spent and make it harder for leaders to provide support, accountability, and clear pipelines for preparation for new roles.
Mississippi leaders found a way to address role clarity without changing governance. Even in a state that is all about local control, they made sure the people close to teachers were clear on what they were expected to do and able to spend the time on those activities.
As state leaders consider how to respond to declining reading results on NAEP, I think moves like this that support clear role clarity for those providing support to teachers are worth considering.
Editor’s note: This was first published in an email newsletter from Emily Freitag in her role as CEO of Instruction Partners. You can subscribe here.
