Mississippi has so often fared so poorly on comparative national statistics that it produces a double take when it doesn’t.
The state, though, got a boost out of the latest report on children’s well-being from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The foundation’s KIDSCOUNT Data Book, which was released this week, ranked Mississippi 30th among the 50 states in education.
That’s two spots better than in 2023, nine spots better than in 2022 and a remarkable 18 spots better than in 2014. Over a decade’s time in this respected annual survey, Mississippi has gone from one of the lowest-ranked states for educating its children to the middle of the pack.
As would be expected, though, there are some qualifiers to this progress.
Part of the rise in the education rankings is based on real gains, such as a 3-percentage-point improvement on the share of students graduating from high school on time.
But part of the rise is also a result of other states showing bigger declines than Mississippi from the severe academic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, while the percentage of eighth graders not proficient in math in Mississippi increased by 6 percentage points, from 76% to 82%, between 2019 and 2022, the national average during that same time period increased by 7 percentage points, from 67% to 74%. In other words, it’s nice that Mississippi showed a smaller decline, but no one should pat themselves on the back when four out of five eighth graders are weak in math.
That’s much the same picture in other non-education categories measured by the survey, such as economic well-being, health and family structure. Mississippi is showing progress in several areas but not enough to do better than a 49th place in overall child well-being.
So while state leaders, particularly those who work in education, can be encouraged by Mississippi’s rise in the survey rankings, there is still a long way to go before children in this state fare as well as those in much of the rest of the country.
