Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Politics and International Relations

Reader 1

Thomas Kim

Reader 2

Vanessa Tyson

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

Ella T Alpert

Abstract

In 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th in the nation for fourth-grade literacy rates, and by 2024, the state had risen to 8th place. This dramatic improvement, dubbed the “Mississippi Miracle,” has largely been attributed to the state’s 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA). This thesis interrogates this narrative by analyzing National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data disaggregated by race, socioeconomic status, and disability status, alongside student dropout data for the same subgroups. This thesis argues that although overall reading scores have improved, the aggregate gains emphasized in the Mississippi Miracle narrative obscure persistent, and in some cases widening, inequalities. Moreover, this framing fails to situate the LBPA within the state’s larger history of educational disinvestment, racial exclusion, and structural inequalities. When examining disaggregated data within this broader historical context, what emerges is not a miracle, but a more complicated story: measurable progress coexists with disparities but leaves the structural conditions that generate inequality largely unaddressed.

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