Good morning. The U.S. launched strikes against the Islamic State in Syria. Prosecutors are trying to figure out how to bring the strongest case against Nicolás Maduro. And the Smithsonian removed text that referred to President Trump’s impeachments from the National Portrait Gallery. We have more below. But first, Sarah Mervosh, an education reporter, has some good news about schools in a place you might not expect.
An education ‘miracle’?As recently as 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th in the country for education. Its standing seemed predictable, even inevitable, for a state with low education spending and one of the nation’s highest child poverty rates. Today, though, Mississippi is a top 10 state for fourth graders learning how to read, and one of the best places in the country for a poor child to get an education. Mississippi’s turnaround has been the talk of the education world over the last few years. Its success has generated awe but also skepticism. After all, it is notoriously difficult to improve schools at scale. Could the “Mississippi miracle,” as some have called it, be real? I traveled to Mississippi last month to see for myself. What I found is that the most common explanation for Mississippi’s progress — changing the way it teaches reading to young children — is only part of the story. The state has also held schools accountable for student test scores, an approach that fell out of favor nationally after No Child Left Behind, the maligned Bush-era education law. And it has offered teachers more support. In other words, in a country that prizes local control of education, Mississippi takes an unusually strong role in telling schools what to do. What Mississippi did
In 2013, Mississippi changed the way reading is taught, embracing the “science of reading.” Teachers use sound-it-out instruction, known as phonics, and other direct methods, like the explicit teaching of vocabulary. Around the same time, it also raised academic standards and started giving every school a letter grade. But the state hasn’t simply demanded proficiency, as under No Child Left Behind, which set an unattainable goal of having every child in America be proficient in reading and math. Instead, Mississippi has emphasized student growth toward proficiency. Schools get credit when students improve — and double credit for the improvement of their lowest-scoring students. That means every school, rich or poor, has an incentive to help everyone. The state also approves a list of curriculums, used by most districts. This is not always the case in other states, where decisions are often left up to individual school districts. And the state doesn’t just punish schools that are struggling, another difference from No Child Left Behind. It also takes a proactive role in helping them. Take the state’s literacy coaches: They are sent into the elementary schools that have the lowest reading scores each year, with a mission to teach teachers, not children. On my visit, I was surprised to find that teachers seemed to love it. That is probably because coaches are there to mentor, not to tattle on bad teachers. Other states have tried to copy Mississippi, mostly by focusing on the science of reading. But people involved in Mississippi’s turnaround told me it was nearly impossible to cherry-pick strategies and expect results. “You’ve got to do that and that and that,” said Carey Wright, Mississippi’s state superintendent from 2013 to 2022. “And you have also got to do it year in and year out.” Inside one school
One criticism of Mississippi’s approach is that it revolves around standardized testing. I visited the elementary school in Hazlehurst, a rural area south of Jackson where more than half of children live in poverty. Students there take tests every two weeks, a greater frequency than even the state recommends. There was also plenty of joy. I saw preschoolers sounding out letters into toy telephones, and second graders coaching one another on how to sound out words like “disappointment.” One 10-year-old named Johnny told me about the satisfaction he feels from learning: “If I make a bad grade but I’m going up, it’s like a staircase.” A big question now is whether Mississippi can keep going in the face of declining test scores nationally. At Hazlehurst, scores have climbed to 35 percent of students reading on grade level, compared with 12 percent a decade ago. No miracle, but real progress. For more, including what Mississippi is doing to try to extend its gains to older students, read my full story here.
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Dry January has returned, testing many people’s will to abstain from alcohol for a whole month. But is the challenge beneficial? Yes. It has helped Americans change their views by providing a space to “take a hard look not just at how much and how often we drink, but at how it affects our sleep, mood and even weight,” Bloomberg’s Lisa Jarvis writes. No. Real behavioral change requires sustainable goals, not short-term deprivation. “The point isn’t to ‘win’ January. It’s to make January through December healthy and happy: fewer risky nights, more dinners with friends and routines that don’t depend on heroic self-control,” Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel writes for Time.
Since the attack on Venezuela, it seems as if the old rules that govern world order are slipping away. Times Opinion asked a group of writers, including Adam Tooze and Margaret MacMillan, to consider what will come of that. The digital economy relies on monetizing our attention. It’s time to break free by rethinking what attention is, D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh and Peter Schmidt argue. To help Iranians with their protests against the government, Western leaders should work with human rights organizations and lift sanctions, Holly Dagres writes. Each year, The New York Times Communities Fund supports nonprofits. This year, the fund is working with seven organizations that focus on helping people through education, from preschool to vocational training. Donate to the fund here.
Performance bonuses: Netflix usually pays a set fee determined upfront. But it made an exception for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Bye, California: Google’s founders are cutting some ties to the state where they built their fortunes. American dominance: The realist school of foreign policy holds that politics boils down to power. The Trump administration is channeling an aggressive, crude strain of realism. Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was the obituary of Hessy Levinsons Taft, a Jewish woman who, as a baby, appeared on the cover of a Nazi magazine. Sexualized deepfakes: By letting his chatbot create nearly nude images of real people, Elon Musk is entering legally perilous territory. A member of the Dead: Bob Weir, whose songwriting and inventive timing on the rhythm guitar helped shape the sound of the Grateful Dead, has died at 78. Here are 10 of his most notable performances.
N.F.L.: The Chicago Bears earned their first playoff win in 15 years with a victory over the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round. M.L.B.: Alex Bregman, one of this off-season’s top free agents, has agreed to a five-year, $175 million contract with the Chicago Cubs, according to league sources. Fans: Hand-knitted jerseys — and patterns to make your own — are popping up on sites like Etsy as fans find ways to combine their love of sports with their love of crafting.
“Strangers,” by Belle Burden: A divorce memoir might not sound like ideal new year reading, but Burden, a lawyer and descendant of a storied American family, hits the mark with her introspective debut. The book begins at the dawn of the pandemic, when the author and her family decamp to their summer home on Martha’s Vineyard. As soon as they’re settled — as settled as anyone could be — Burden’s husband of 20 years announces that he’s done with their marriage, all of it. He doesn’t want custody of the couple’s three children; he provides no explanation for his sudden exit. Burden offers a day-by-day account of what happened next, juxtaposing the dismantling of life as she knew it with the comings and goings of an osprey family that nests on her land. Her privilege is immense, as is her pain. Both are laid bare with grace. More on books
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