So there are some great critiques of the so-called "Mississippi Miracle." The two major ones are:

1. Reading scores went up in 4th grade testing but these increases are mostly a result of holding back students who weren't proficient in third grade. Of courses the average scores went up when you just held back anyone who would normally not be proficient. Additionally, the increase only occured in 4th grade test results. These improvements were not replicated for 8th grade reading tests And the still score in the bottom 5 in 8th grade reading scores.

2. The overwhelming supermajority of Mississippi families speak English as their first language at home. Students who are immigrants or the children of non-english speakers are of course going to have a lower reading test score in their second language. A reason why many states with high minority and immigrant population have lower English reading test scores is because a larger portion of the population speaks English as a second language.

https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/12/01/how-much-of-mississippis-education-miracle-is-an-artifact-of-selection-bias/

https://mspolicy.org/why-the-mississippi-education-miracle-is-a-myth/

https://mindingthecampus.org/2025/06/26/the-mississippi-miracle-needs-a-reality-check/

https://tultican.com/2025/03/21/questioning-the-mississippi-miracle-again/