How to bolster lackluster black student achievement has long perplexed America’s educational institutions.

Liberals, perhaps operating from good intentions, issued a variety of disastrous policy prescriptions to tackle the vast achievement gap between black and white students. For decades, blue states have flooded urban public schools with more money in the hopes of improving black performance. When that demonstrably failed to work, liberals desperately fought for decades to hold on to deeply unpopular affirmative action policies to cover up the miserable performance of America’s black students.

In recent years, it seems that liberals have given up the fight to boost black achievement altogether, resorting to covering up disparities by abolishing advanced coursework and tossing out standardized tests . Liberals also inadvertently pushed black students into a gargantuan hole by enforcing school lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing attempts to open schools were “rooted” in racism.

These so-called “equity” moves not only fail to improve student performance, but they obliterate faith in public schools and motivate parents with means to put their children into private schools or enroll them in third-party educational platforms such as Kumon or the Russian School of Mathematics.

Though widely criticized as hostile environments for black residents, some red states have shown stunningly positive results for their black students. Deep-red Mississippi, America’s poorest state , has seen reading achievement scores soar in recent years after adopting a series of commonsense solutions. Mississippi instructs pupils with a phonics-based reading method, a direct contrast to the “whole word” method touted in liberal states. The state also dispatched coaches to work with teachers at schools with especially poor results.

Third graders must pass a reading exit exam to move on to the next grade, with failing pupils given multiple chances to show their reading ability through a second exit exam or summer-school class. Those who fail to demonstrate reading mastery by the end of third grade are held back for another year, ensuring that students are given a chance to grasp the material rather than being passed along.

The results of Mississippi’s experiment have impressed thus far. The state’s NAEP scores soared from near the bottom of the nation to around the middle of the pack. Moreover, Mississippi ranks 46th in public school spending, showing that shoveling more money into the school system is not necessary to yield positive results and that poverty is not necessarily a barrier to academic achievement.

The Dallas Independent School District has figured out a way to boost black and Latino outcomes in math without watering down standards. In 2019, Dallas ISD shifted its advanced math courses from an “opt-in” policy, a model that requires students to self-select into the courses or find a parent or teacher to support their admission, to an “opt-out” policy. The new model automatically places every student with high-enough scores on state standardized exams into advanced math courses. Those who desire to drop down to a lower track in math must secure permission from a parent. The policy shift has led to higher rates of black students in sixth grade honors math, soaring from 17% in 2018-2019 to 43% in 2022-2023. Encouragingly, black students are also persisting in the course, with 91% passing the state standardized test and 65% scoring at grade level.

Dallas ISD school board Trustee Ben Mackey touted the policy in comments to The 74.

“Within two years of this policy, 94% of eligible students are taking these classes,” Mackey said . “It makes such a drastic difference in terms of whether the student will be college ready and career ready. We need to give every single person a chance to be successful in life, so when they leave us, they are not three steps behind.”

Will liberals learn the lesson of Mississippi and Dallas? The answer, for now, seems to be “no.” For instance, Evanston Township High School, located in deep-blue Illinois, has even brought back segregation in math classes, a bizarre attempt supposedly to help black students improve performance.

The only thing for certain is that black students (and all students) deserve better than what the Left is giving them.

Corey Walker is a Washington, D.C.-based reporter who focuses on institutional capture, education, and public safety.