Dive Brief:

• As the school year draws to a close, Mississippi is reflecting on the results of new efforts like its Literacy-Based Promotion Act, which placed 29 literacy coaches in the state's lowest-performing schools and asked that 3rd graders be held back if they are below reading level.  
• Last year, lawmakers created a number of overhaul measures to help the state's dangerously low proficiency rates. In addition to the literacy coaches splitting time between 50 schools, the state gave funding to charter schools and pre-K.  
• The literacy coaches are widely viewed as the most effective of the efforts when measuring for immediate results. The state plans to hire 14 more for next year. 

Dive Insight:

Poverty and illiteracy are a massive issue in Mississippi. According to the 2012 Census, almost 7% of adults have less than a ninth grade education. This fact is compounded when looking at the scores of current students. According to the Mississippi Department of Education, only 21% of fourth graders scored proficient on the state reading exams.  

The literacy coaches have been one of the state's steps in remedying these shortfalls, and it is not alone on such a move.  

Seventeen states with literacy coach programs were analyzed in a report by the U.S. Department of Education, which found that “school-based coaching supports the national priority for improving teacher quality. Best of all, school-based coaching benefits students through providing high-quality instruction.”

In short, literacy coaches push classroom teachers to be better teachers.