What is failure? The older I get, the more I seem to ask myself this question. For years, I’ve worked with children, on behalf of children, and I am a mother to a wonderful little girl. And every day I ask myself, “Am I succeeding or failing?”

If I am preparing these children to be the best they can be, seize opportunities and ready themselves for life’s high expectations, then I’m succeeding.

So when I saw a recent comment in The Clarion Ledger predicting that “we are setting these kids up for failure,” I was taken aback. The idea was that holding struggling readers back a year in elementary school, to prevent them from eventually dropping out of high school, was somehow setting kids up for failure.

As a former Mississippi classroom teacher, I wanted my students to be ready for life’s expectations. As a native Mississippian, I want Mississippi’s youngest generation to outdo their parents.  None of that will happen if our children cannot read. Study after study shows that children who cannot read on grade level by fourth grade begin a cycle of falling behind, often dropping out of high school and too frequently spending time in the criminal justice system.

Mississippi passed the Literacy-Based Promotion Act in 2013. This is the first year that Mississippi’s third-graders are expected to demonstrate sufficient reading skills for promotion to fourth grade. They will have three chances to show they are ready for the more rigorous fourth-grade coursework. This is not a one-test-on-one-day promotion decision. Since the law was passed, Mississippians have spent thousands of hours preparing for implementation. Millions of dollars have been—and will continue—to be spent on literacy coaches, teacher training and educating parents.

Right now, Gov. Phil Bryant and legislative leaders are working for additional millions of dollars in support of the law. Sen. Gray Tollison and Rep. John Moore are also advancing legislation to get better prepared teachers into classrooms and to better identify students who need the greatest support.

Yet, there is a push to delay implementation. Mississippi’s superintendents have said that roughly 11,000 third graders may not pass the reading proficiency test. Research shows that if those kids are promoted to fourth grade, roughly 9,700 will drop out of high school. Talk about setting kids up for failure. I wish the conversation from the school districts was more along the lines of “What a catastrophe. We have somehow failed to teach 11,000 third graders how to read—and we’ve had at least three years to do it!”

Yet, detractors still say this is not the right day and there are not enough dollars. I’ve heard suggestions that Mississippi is not as prepared as Florida was when it pioneered a similar law in 2002 through 2003. I’ve heard that Florida spent a billion dollars. That’s not even close, and I would know, as I was the person responsible for implementing that law in Florida.

Actual facts are that Mississippi will spend $15 million in new money this school year, as compared to Florida’s $10 million its first year. By the way, Florida has more than five-times the number of students.

Mississippi is providing literacy coaches in schools with the greatest need for increased coach support, as Florida still does in year 13 of the policy. Despite what some have said, Florida has never funded a literacy coach for every elementary school.

Florida made the decision not to delay until all the pieces were in place. Delaying would have denied students one more year of the education they deserved and that we had failed to provide. Even without literacy coaches in every school, the results showed huge reading gains for all Florida students, particularly those who struggled the most. By 2010, Florida’s third graders scoring at the lowest achievement level on the statewide reading assessment had declined by 41 percent. The percentage of African-American, Hispanic students and students with disabilities scoring at the lowest achievement level had declined by 37 percent, 46 percent, and 25 percent respectively.

I implore my home state to stay strong and to do what’s right for kids. This will be a tough year, but Mississippi’s children have waited long enough.

 

Mary Laura Bragg is the vice president of advocacy for the Foundation for Excellence in Education.