Download the 2025 Annual Report
Annual Report 2025
Director's letter
Celebrating Good News
Though much is amiss in our schools, flashes of sunlight regularly break through the clouds.
Here are some worth noting:
• Despite school closures during the pandemic,U.S. reading and science performance has remained steady on the prestigious Program on Individual Assessment (PISA). Over the longer term (2000–2022), achievement in these subjects has risen significantly. Math scores slipped when schools closed, but the U.S. drop was less than that in most other industrialized nations.
• Mississippi has implemented a phonics-focused approach to reading widely said to be scientifically based. Over the past ten years, its performance on a national 4th grade reading test has leaped from the second lowest among all states to the national average. The “science of reading” approach to reading is now spreading rapidly across the country.
• For the first time, government assistance is now helping over a million students attend a private school of their choice.
• School districts are beginning to use artificial intelligence to track student progress in real time, allowing for early intervention when challenges are identified.
• At PEPG, we continue to support advanced-degree students, cover the latest reform developments in our award-winning journal, , and explore new terrain through regular seminars and conferences. Read all about it in the pages that follow.
—Paul E. Peterson
Annual Report 2025
