 But Douglas Carswell with the Mississippi Center for Public Policy argues that the jump in rankings is almost entirely a reflection of the fact that standards in other states fell. Eight out of ten eighth grade kids in Mississippi are not proficient in maths. Almost seven in ten fourth grade kids in Mississippi are not proficient in reading. The state's chronic absenteeism rate is just shy of 24 percent. That to me tells us that actually we need an honest conversation about where we really are.