I just saw two posts in rapid succession proclaiming that Mississippi “changed its curriculum” to match the Science of Reading, or based on careful analysis of curriculum performance. In fact, curriculum reform is arguably a weak spot in Mississippi’s work, and explains the reasons the state made major surges in 4th grade but hasn’t improved much in 8th grade reading performance (only in 2024 did Mississippi register 8th grade gains).

Louisiana and Tennessee did start with curriculum reform, and the latter registered swift gains for it.

The devil is in the details, folks. You can only imitate what you understand.

This piece is long and gory, but worth a read if you want to know what these states did, in enough detail to be damgerous.