Minds of Mississipppi
continued as their whole community was “wiped off the map” in 2005, and has beensustained at the highest levels by staying focused on the map for improving students’ thinking. The district continues to shine in 2013 receiving the highest state ratings for a school district in Mississippi. Thinking Foundation proudly presents the Minds of Mississippi documentary film. This documentary film tells the story of how a skillfully led process of comprehensive system-wide transformation in teaching and learning survived the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. The accompanying professional learning guide provides key questions and activities for engaging educators and other school stakeholders in learning from the Mississippi experience and considering how similar strategies can be used in their own schools for building a foundation of thinking to create meaningful, sustainable outcomes for student learning.We have also included on this page links to documents, research, and video clips about how Thinking Maps have been used across Mississippi over the past dozen years. The pre-post doctoral research at the community college level by Dr. Marjann Ball is significant for those interested in reading comprehension at every level, kindergarten to college.
You may want to explore our website to see how Thinking Maps have become a language for learning across the United States and in several other countries around the world. Minds of Mississippi is a larger story about our common and innate capacities 
as human beings to think and to significantly improve our thinking over time. We believe, as “The Pass” has proven, that we must reframe educational outcomes toward the direct and explicit focus on developing every students’ thinking and problem solving abilities as a foundation for learning in the 21st century. Thinking IS the Foundation.
