Mississippi’s upward progress has made it the center of conversation in the education world over the past few years. How did one of the poorest states manage such significant jumps in statistics?

Climbing the ranks
Mississippi has risen from 49th in the country on national tests in 2013 to a top 10 state for fourth-grade reading levels in 2024, “even as test scores have fallen almost everywhere else,” said The New York Times. Adjusted for poverty and other demographic factors, Mississippi ranks first in fourth-grade reading and math and is at or near the top in eighth-grade reading and math, according to the Urban Institute.

The state’s overall education ranking rose to 16th nationally last year, its “highest ever,” said the International Business Times. Mississippi’s low-income fourth graders “now perform better than those in every other state.​”

How it happened
The turnaround has many wondering how Mississippi, with its “low education spending and high child poverty,” managed such a change, said the Times. It did not rely on common proposals such as “reducing class sizes or dramatically boosting per-student funding.” Instead, the state made sweeping policy changes, including “changing the way reading is taught,” relying on an approach known as the science of reading. It is also “embracing contentious school accountability policies other states have backed away from.”

Mississippi additionally “raised academic standards and started giving each school a letter grade, A to F,” said the Times. The state takes an “unusually strong role in telling schools what to do.” The Department of Education also deploys literacy and mathematics coaches in low-performing elementary schools. 

Perhaps the most controversial policy is holding back third graders who cannot read proficiently. The state was able to enact changes, in part, because it has “weak teachers’ unions,” said the Times, which have “traditionally resisted accountability linked to standardized testing.”

Next steps
Mississippi is intensifying its efforts, with the education department planning to request $9 million from state lawmakers this year to “expand literacy coaching beyond the early elementary grades,” the Times said. Other states have “gone in the opposite direction” by “backing off accountability and lowering proficiency standards, sometimes in the name of equity.” Still, a handful of states, including Louisiana and Alabama, are “seeing promising results using a similar set of strategies as Mississippi.”

President Donald Trump has renewed his efforts to take over Greenland, and tapping into the Danish territory’s natural resources is a key part of the strategy. But even if Trump were to make Greenland a U.S. territory (something Denmark vehemently opposes), experts say the island’s harsh climate and environment make mining Greenland an unachievable goal.

What natural resources does it have?
Greenland has significant supplies of rare earth elements. These “17 metals, with exotic-sounding names like terbium and neodymium, are vital for many everyday technologies,” said the BBC. Household items like televisions and smartphones “would not work without them.” Trump wants to tap into Greenland’s supply of rare earth minerals as part of an effort to overtake China, the country that currently “controls the world’s supply,” said Tony Sage, the CEO of Critical Metals, to the BBC.

In addition, many “occurrences of graphite and graphite schist are reported from many localities on the island” of Greenland, said Reuters. Other minerals commonly found in the territory include diamonds, gold, nickel, titanium, tungsten and zinc, according to Greenland’s Mineral Resources Authority.

Why is mining its resources so difficult?
Most of Greenland’s natural resources are “located in remote areas above the Arctic Circle,” said CNN. About “80% of Greenland is covered with ice,” and mining the “Arctic can be five to 10 times more expensive than doing it elsewhere on the planet.”

As a result, most of the efforts to mine Greenland’s minerals “generally haven’t advanced beyond the exploratory stage,” said The Associated Press. Even in southern Greenland, where the island is “populated, there are few roads and no railways,” said Diogo Rosa, an economic geology researcher with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, to the AP. Many of these remote areas don’t have consistent electricity. As of now, Greenland only has one fully operational mine. 

It is clear that the “Trump administration might want to dominate the Arctic, not least to gain relative power over Russia and China,” said Lukas Slothuus, a research fellow at the University of Sussex, at The Conversation. But given the mining challenges, any “natural resource extraction is unlikely to feature centrally.”

Macaques soak in an open-air hot spring at Hokkaido’s Hakodate Tropical Botanical Garden. Japan’s northernmost island has been hit by heavy snow and strong winds in recent days, causing chaos for its human residents and visitors.
BJ Warnick / Newscom / Alamy Live News

Not everyone dreams of escaping the cold during the winter months. Whether lounging in luxury in Finland or snowshoeing through the Austrian Alps, these winter breaks are perfect for champions of chilly weather.

Bled, Slovenia
Slovenia’s Lake Bled is beautiful in every season, but this “fairy-tale destination” is especially stunning during the winter months, said Red magazine. The area has plenty of opportunities for ice skating and skiing, and a walk up to Bled Castle is rewarded with “fantastic views of the snowy scenery.” It’s also well worth taking a stroll around the lake to marvel at the “pretty island” in the middle. This is about as “romantic as snowy escapes get.”

Helsinki, Finland
While the Nordic capital is the perfect place to experience Finnish charm, the city has been “stymied by a lack of suitable places to stay,” said The Times. Enter Hotel Maria. The military quarters turned five-star hotel is “what happens when 19th-century architecture meets pared-back design.” It’s home to an “array of pools,” steam rooms and saunas. Head to the lobby for a meeting with the resident “experience concierge,” who will advise you to try that “Finnish essential: a harbor ice dip and sauna.”

Lech, Austria
“Few places can beat Austria for snowy landscapes, and there’s plenty of Tirolean countryside to explore away from the busy ski resorts,” said The Guardian. And Ramble Worldwide’s weeklong guided snowshoeing walk is the perfect way to explore the Austrian Alps (pictured above). The tour includes lunches in “traditional mountain hutten” and a “torchlit evening walk, with plenty of warming gluhwein.”