What’s Next for Mississippi First
Leveraging What Works for Mississippi Students Together
By Angela Bass
As I reflect on the first 90 days of my leadership at Mississippi First, I am humbled and energized by the opportunity to lead an organization so deeply aligned with my lifelong commitment to educational equity and opportunity.
This commitment began when I was a child, growing up in what was once considered the poorest county in the United States, Tunica, MS. From my upbringing, I inherited a strong sense of community that is built not just in physical proximity to each other, but a deep care for one another. Even though we weren’t well off, my community shared what we had with each other, and there was a sense of collective responsibility for each other’s well-being. My parents instilled in me that my success was tied to my neighbor’s. We rise and we fall together.
My commitment deepened as a young adult. I attended Spelman College, where the tagline is “A choice to change the world,” and being in that environment strengthened my dedication to building a community that creates the change we want to see. Putting my beliefs into practice, I returned home to Mississippi, the place where I saw the greatest opportunity to make a difference, and I have spent the past 17 years working in the one field with the most power to disrupt the status quo and create lasting change: education.
And what a fulfilling experience it has been working to advance Mississippi education over nearly two decades! My work as a classroom teacher, a nonprofit leader, and a policy director in Mississippi has deeply strengthened my belief in the power of education to change lives. From where I sit now as the executive director of Mississippi First, I am proud to lead an organization that has such a strong legacy and role in driving the state’s educational progress.
In 2013, Mississippi First championed the Early Learning Collaborative Act and established a state-funded pre-K program ranked #1 in the country for quality. We also provided technical assistance to communities and state leaders to ensure a successful implementation of the program. Today, the program serves nearly 1 in 4 of the state’s 4-year-olds, and those children are more likely to enter school ready to learn.
In that same year, we championed the Charter Schools Act, opening the door for new public school options in communities that had been historically underserved for generations. Since then, we have worked to ensure that Mississippi’s charter school sector remains high-quality and responsive to the needs of students and families. Today, families have access to public school choice in five communities across the state, from Clarksdale and Greenwood in the Delta to Jackson, Canton, and Natchez.
In 2014, Mississippi First was a leading advocate for more rigorous literacy and math standards, putting us on the path to outperform 37 other states in the nation on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP). Since 2014, we have literally moved from the bottom of the charts in education to the top quartile in 2025, the highest we’ve ever been ranked. Some reports, adjusting for demographics, show that we are ranked #1 in multiple subject areas on NAEP. In other words, we are now a Mississippi First in education!
Where do we go from here?
We stay the course on what works.
As I think about what is next for Mississippi First, we remain grounded in our values and the proven practices that have carried our state this far. We will continue to respond to the most pressing issues affecting Mississippi’s students and communities, advancing bold, evidence-based ideas that can transform outcomes for all children. We remain steadfast in our commitment to policies rooted in equity, transparency, and accountability. We continue to believe that partisanship has no place in education, and we will work to advance policies that are best for children no matter which side of the aisle they originated from. We are also committed to working collaboratively with other values-aligned organizations and engaging communities and stakeholders as we design policy solutions and advocacy strategies.
In the next year, we’ll be putting these commitments into action by focusing on key priorities we’ve championed over the years:
- We will protect and expand the Early Learning Collaboratives, ensuring that all state investments in pre-K strengthen the high-quality, mixed-delivery model that has driven Mississippi’s success.
- We will advocate for the expansion of public charter schools, ensuring that children in any district across the state can access a high-quality public school that meets their needs.
- We will advocate for a teacher pay raise, strategic staffing models, and stronger supports for educators, guided by insights from our statewide teacher survey and with the intention of removing barriers to teacher retention.
- We will maintain a vigilant presence at the Capitol to ensure that education policies are grounded in what is best for students in Mississippi’s public schools.
- After leading the effort to pass the Mississippi Student Funding Formula, we are assessing its first-year impact to ensure it delivers on its promise for Mississippi’s students and schools.
- We will begin to operationalize our vision towards a more stable and interconnected early childhood system by drafting a policy solution that establishes sustainable funding for programs serving 0-5 year olds.
- We will develop a blueprint for a statewide longitudinal data system designed to inform and empower stakeholders and decision makers across Mississippi.
Ultimately, our mission is to champion transformative policy solutions that ensure excellence for every Mississippi child, and we feel more compelled than ever to pursue it with urgency and purpose. I encourage you to engage with our work. Let us learn from and with you, give us feedback on how we can leverage our resources to better support your work, and respond to our team when they reach out. Our team can be reached at contact@mississippifirst.org or 601-398-9008. We rely on the data, feedback, and stories that we collect from the community to bring strong, evidence-based perspectives into policy discussions and shape the future of education not for you, but with you.
Much like the community that shaped me in Tunica many years ago, we are strongest when we come together and share in the responsibility of taking care of each other. At Mississippi First, we know that our collective success is dependent on everybody playing their part. Together we can make a huge impact in the lives of kids, because when adults get on the same page for the right reasons–our kids’ futures–we can make great things happen.
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