A School with No Walls 

In the southern region of the US, which in this post includes parts of East Texas, western Louisiana, south Arkansas, southwestern Oklahoma, and Mississippi, is a coniferous forest known as Piney Woods. Hardwoods (think oak and hickory) intermingle with one another in this extensive pine forest.

This large ecoregion includes some of the largest forests, including the Sam Houston and Davy Crockett National Forests. An abundance of pine and hardwood forests, along with rolling hills, provide habitat for extensive wildlife, as I read it.

Despite the richness of this ecoregion, Dixie long has been the region’s poster child for underachievement, be it economic, educational, or otherwise, notes Jason L. Riley in the WSJ.

A defining feature of Mississippi’s past was its violent and persistent opposition to black civil rights. It’s where 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in 1955. It’s where segregationists rioted over black Air Force veteran James Meredith’s attempt to integrate the University of Mississippi in 1962. During Jim Crow, Mississippi’s black voter-registration rate was the lowest in the region. 

Bravo for Mississippi

Among those frightening, disheartening stats, there is good news in a state with the highest number of black residents. Especially in educational achievements for Mississippi, Mr. Riley tells readers, the strides have been admirable.

Ten years ago, it ranked 49th among fourth-graders in reading proficiency on the National Assessment for Educational Progress. Currently, it ranks ninth. Among low-income students, it ranks first. Among black students, it ranks third. Bravo.

And There’s More

Located 20 miles south of Jackson is Piney Woods School, the school was founded in 1909 to educate the descendants of former slaves. The nation’s oldest  black boarding school (in the “Pine Belt”) enrolls about 100 students in grades 8 through 12.

Around a third are Mississippi natives. The rest hail from other states (California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Nebraska, Georgia) and other countries (Somalia, Rwanda, Canada, Brazil, Colombia).

Looking for Love and Protection

You’d be wrong, admonishes Mr. Riley, if you’re thinking, if it’s black, there must be something amiss, like maybe it’s some kind of reform school, the school’s president told Jason Riley on a recent visit.

President Will Crossley explains Piney Wood School’s success by explaining his.

“(Crossley) grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1980s and was raised by his mother after his parents split. “I was approaching my teen years—I’m in seventh grade, this is Chicago—you’re confronting problems,” Mr. Crossley says. “I never joined a gang, but you’re confronting recruitment efforts.”

“You get chased home enough times and you start looking for your group that’s going to offer you some love and protection.”

Like all gossip, Church chatter travels fast, and that’s where Crossley’s mother first heard of the school. After graduating from Piney Wood, Crossley attended the University of Chicago before teaching in local public schools. Next up was earning a master’s degree from Harvard and a law degree from the University of Virginia.

For Crossley, Piney Woods was his lifeline, his good fortune, for which he has never taken for granted.

“I was bothered by the fact that some people like me got a Piney Woods opportunity, but many of my cousins and friends in Chicago didn’t. They weren’t in college. Some of them were incarcerated. That disparity in opportunity is what drove me as a college student and later as a graduate student.” 

After working in the U.S. Education Department during the Obama administration, he was recruited back to Mississippi, where he became the first alumnus to lead Piney Woods School.

Piney Woods is a no-nonsense school, bolstered with high expectations. There’s a dress code, mandatory daily chapel attendance, chores, etc., explains Mr. Crossley.

“Developing a work ethic is part of the curriculum, part of what we’re teaching kids.

The school boasts a 100% graduation rate. College admissions test scores are above the state average and well above the average for other black students in Mississippi.”

Graduates of Phillips Academy can relax, continues Crossley. Piney Woods will never be mistaken for Phillips or Groton. No benevolent givers are likely to anonymously donate for the ongoing upgrades and repairs needed for dorms or the gymnasium. The typical student is from a single-parent family with an annual income of about $40,000.

More than 90% qualify for free lunch. Students attend on scholarships financed through family foundations, corporate sponsors, individual donors and a small endowment that covers about 10% of the school’s operating budget.

Mr. Crossley brags about the success of graduates at Piney Woods: the four-year college graduation rate is double the rate of high-poverty students nationally.

“It doesn’t mean that all the kids are going to a four-year college. We also look at community college as a good next step for some kids. We look at military service. And we look at trade schools. We count all of those as positive outcomes, because we get them on a good start.”

As Jason Rilley notes, the Piney Woods experience upends much of the conventional wisdom on what’s needed to educate low-income black students.

Piney Woods has succeeded

• without fancy amenities
• without large government subsidies
• without a “critical mass” of nonblack students to provide “diversity” in the classroom

Jason Riley also notes how Piney Woods is a model that should be replicated. “Unfortunately, it’s mostly been ignored.”