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Raising the bar for reading

The state is getting more aggressive with its third-grade reading requirements, reports Trisha Powell Crain of the Alabama Daily News.

The state Board of Education has voted to raise the score requirement for third-graders on the state reading test. If they score below the required score, they risk being held back a year.

Until now the cutoff has been 435. Under the plan, the cutoff would rise to 444 for this academic year and the next. Then it would rise to 454 for the 2026-27 school year.

Note that making a score of 473 or above is considered reading on grade level. The Alabama Literacy Act of 2019 requires third graders read on grade level to move on to fourth grade, but there are a few other ways for students to demonstrate their proficiency should they not reach the cut score.

This past spring, 91% of third graders scored 435 or higher on the test. That persuaded State Superintendent Eric Mackey to throw his support behind raising the required score. The Board voted in favor 7-2, and the two members who voted “no” felt the score the superintendent recommended was still too low.

See, the concern that remains is that gap between the cut score and the reading-on-grade-level score. Students in that gap are being promoted but are still struggling to keep up in reading.

Representing Alabama in NYC

The Marching Pride will be in the Big Apple next year.

AL.com’s Howard Koplowitz reports that the University of North Alabama’s marching band will perform at the 2025 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It’ll be the Marching Pride’s first appearance at the iconic event, and it comes in the parade’s 99th year.

Macy’s gave the band $10,000 to help with fundraising for the trip.

Scary in Alabama

An Alabama house is in the mix for HGTV’s “Scariest House in America,” reports AL.com’s Lawrence Specker.

The show is a spinoff of the network’s “Ugliest House in America” series and is airing as Halloween approaches.

The home we’re talking about is a creek-side concrete structure in Gulf Shores. It’s believed to have been built during the first few years of the 20th century and is rumored to have been built by Al Capone’s brother-in-law and that it served as a gangland hideout. However, the names and dates don’t easily fall into place for a seamless story.

So let’s just call it a legend, which doesn’t preclude at least some truth.

The 4,000-square-foot home is also said to be haunted, of course. No self-respecting hundred-year-old southern swamp house is without a ghost or two.

The episode of “Scariest House in America” featuring the Gulf Shores home will air Oct. 25. If it beats the other eight homes, its owners will receive a $150,000 renovation.

Most conservative campus …

Niche.com ranked American colleges on a scale of most conservative to most liberal, based on surveys of students. The rankings give 80% percent weight to students’ description of their own political leanings and 20% to students’ perception of other students at their school.

The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa was found to be the most conservative college campus in Alabama and 14th-most-conservative in the nation. Auburn was close behind at No. 18 nationally.

… and most liberal campus

On the other end of the political spectrum, the University of North Alabama in Florence was determined to be the 25th most liberal college campus in the U.S. — good for No. 1 in Alabama.

More Alabama News

Born on this date

In 1916, jazz trumpeter Al Killian of Birmingham.

In 1944, current Gov. Kay Ivey of Camden.

The podcast

Leigh Morgan joins us to talk about the serious arrival of fall.

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