By Bob Woodson

In 44 public schools in Chicago, not a single student is performing in math at grade level. In 24 Chicago schools, not a single student is reading at grade level.

In Baltimore, not a single student at 13 of its public high schools — 40 percent of the city’s high schools — was grade-level proficient in math last year.

This pattern is repeated in a majority of public school systems throughout the country, even though some of these same schools have among the highest expenditures per pupil. People cast blame all about — for example, at systemic racism or dysfunction within families. But what is the answer? It can be found in one of the poorest states in the union: Mississippi.

At a little school in the state’s Pine Belt, Black children excel regardless of family income. Students are accepted to colleges at rates of at or near 100 percent.

That should intrigue us. Why do some kids from challenging circumstances succeed, while others struggle? More than merely piquing curiosity, it ought to stir us to action. If the failures of Chicago and Baltimore are not inevitable, then neither are they acceptable.

The Piney Woods School has been a bright spot, a hub of educational and moral excellence since its founding more than 100 years ago. Students from the same backgrounds as those struggling through Chicago and Baltimore public schools flourish here.

That’s partly because the school is a community of teachers, staff and students committed to a particular mission, not an experiment imposed upon it from the outside. It is also, in part, because the school provides a comprehensive moral and intellectual education.

The centrality and effectiveness of fostering relationships based on agreed-upon morality has already been demonstrated amply by community-based efforts to reduce crime. The best solutions to a community’s problems will be found within, not without. The same goes for raising levels of educational achievement.

Read the full op-ed on The Hill.