[casey2]

From your article

>It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the lion’s share of the effects of the “Mississippi miracle” are yet another case of gaming the system. There is no miracle to behold. There is nothing special in Mississippi’s literacy reform model that should be replicated globally. It just emphasizes the obvious advice that, if you want your students to get high scores, don’t allow those students who are likely to get low scores to take the test.

Holding students back a grade is how things worked previously, it leads to students dropping out of school 20%-50% for once, 80-95% for twice. They also found that any improvement in test scores fades to below average by middle school.

If a student is failing to learn the same material 180 days in a row, why would 180 more days help? For any mentally normal child 180 days is already well more than enough.