As Mississippi has become a national model for literacy reform – posting some of the largest reading gains in the country – a Tupelo elementary school recently opened its doors to showcase how it is helping students learn how to read.
Rankin Elementary invited the media to the school on Friday to highlight how its “most struggling students” are now making measurable gains.
At the center of the effort is an intervention program called Reading Horizons Elevate, which provides intensive, targeted instruction beyond general classroom teaching for students who are considered two or more grades behind in reading. For example, rather than asking students to sound out words, the program essentially teaches students how to decode words as a route to reading.
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Lessons at Rankin Elementary often include students working at a whiteboard, physically marking letters as they apply rules involving vowels, consonants, and phonetic patterns. The program also incorporates games and movement into instruction to help maintain engagement during intervention blocks.
Principal Dr. Taylor Sparks said fourth- and fifth-grade students who are more than two grade levels behind – identified as Tier 3 students – who have used the program for at least two years recently showed significant progress on assessments. About 63% of Tier 3 students demonstrated measurable growth on district common assessments and diagnostic tests aligned with the state’s Mississippi Academic Assessment Program benchmarks, with some students advancing multiple levels.
“These results are significant. When a child in Tupelo learns to read, it changes what’s possible for them,” Sparks said. “Reading is not just a skill. It is the door that opens everything else: learning, opportunity, a future.”
Sparks said early gains in reading are directly tied to long-term outcomes such as graduation rates. National data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation backs that up as students who read proficiently in fourth grade are four times more likely to graduate from high school.
“It means kids will graduate, go on to college or a career, and become healthy, productive adults in this community. That is what we are really working toward here in Tupelo,” he said.
Consultants from Reading Horizons were also on site during the media event. Katrina Baines said the gains seen in Tupelo reflects a broader effort to strengthen literacy not only in Mississippi but nationwide.
“As a former teacher, I know firsthand what it means when a struggling student finally breaks through. What is happening at Rankin Elementary is not an accident,” she said. “It is what happens when a community decides that every child deserves to learn to read and educators are given the tools and support to make that happen. The outcomes here are proof of that commitment.”
According to the 2024 National Assessment for Educational Progress, just over 30% of fourth graders nationwide are reading proficiently. In Mississippi, the figure is about 32%, ranking ninth in the nation.
