Jackson Free Press

The Mississippi Department of Education has released the 3rd Grade Reading Summative Assessment Results. You can view them here.

Of the top ten highest performing schools, three of them were located in Jackson Public Schools. 100% of Casey Elementary, McWillie Elementary and Davis Magnet School third graders passed the test the first time. 79.4% of the district's third graders passed the test the first time. Madison Crossing Elementary School students of Madison County Schools made the top 10 as well.

89.4% of third graders passed the tests, administered in March of April of this year, the first time. Those students who did not pass the test the first time will have two more opportunities to take the assessment: first from May 16 through May 22, and then between June 27 and August 5 of this year.

From a May 12, 2016 MDE press release:

"Local school districts will determine which of their students who did not pass qualify for one of the good cause exemptions for promotion to 4th grade. The remaining students will be retested before a decision is made about their promotion or retention."

Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act requires that a student scoring at the lowest achievement level on the 3rd Grade Reading Summative Assessment be retained in 3rd grade, unless the student meets the good cause exemptions specified in the law.

The Literacy-Based Promotion Act was amended in 2016 and will require students starting in the 2018-2019 school year to score above the lowest two achievement levels in order to be promoted to the 4th grade.

Also, starting in the 2015-2016 school year, students who have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or a 504 plan who have received either intensive remediation for more than two years or who were previously retained for one year can now qualify for a good cause exemption."

In an extensive interview with the Jackson Free Press, state superintendent Dr. Carey Wright said she was pleased with the increased proficiency standards in the amended Literacy-Based Promotion Act.

Sierra Mannie is an education reporting fellow for the Jackson Free Press and The Hechinger Report. Email her at [email protected].

The only Power Five conference without 12 or more members and a conference title game is the Big 12; however, it did get permission from the NCAA to hold a title game with just 10 members earlier this year.

That would help the conference crown a true champion. But it would have helped in 2014 when both Baylor University and Texas Christian University both finished with one conference loss and were declared co-champions.

Even with a title game, the Big 12 is exploring adding more members to better position itself for the college-football playoff. The conference was shutout in 2014, but the University of Oklahoma got one of the four spots in 2015.

Adding more members will also help the conference in its next TV deal and could lead to the Big 12 developing its own channel. Right now the Big Ten and SEC have leveraged their channels to big dollars for their conferences.

The Pac-12 also has its own channel but hasn’t seen the success the Big Ten and SEC yet. Not having a deal with Directv has hurt the growth.

There has been plenty of talk that the Big 12 would like to add two schools, which would likely come from American Athletic Conference.

The AAC has some interesting teams and had some solid success last season.

Temple University in Philadelphia could be attractive to the Big 12 because of the team's large media market and the fact that the Owls beat Pennsylvania State University out of the Big Ten and nearly upset the University Notre Dame.

The University of Cincinnati beat the University of Miami in Florida out of the ACC and played Brigham Young University tough. Both the University of Connecticut and the University of Central Florida are interesting options, even though they have struggled on the field the last couple of seasons.

The University of Houston fits the Big 12 geographically and had a standout season last year with wins over Vanderbilt University in the SEC, the University of Louisville in the ACC and Florida State University in the ACC a bowl game.

The University of Memphis beat the University of Mississippi out of the SEC and University of Kansas out of the Big 12 last season. The Naval Academy would be an interesting choice as well.

Colorado State University is being linked with the Big 12 out of the Mountain West Conference. The Big 12 used to have a presence in Colorado with the University of Colorado until it left to join the Pac-12.

Mountain West team Boise State University could also be in the mix at some point. The only reason the Broncos would be left out in the cold is the small TV market in its location.

The University of Texas will have a lot to say about what school the conference adds. It might object to say the University of Houston because the Cougars could cut into recruiting. The …