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House Bill 18 |
House Author: Aycock et al. |
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Effective: 6-19-15 |
Senate Sponsor: Perry et al. |
House Bill 18 amends the Education Code and Labor Code to set out measures to support public school student academic achievement and high school, college, and career preparation. These measures include the expansion of participants in the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium; the Texas Education Agency's required development and distribution of public outreach materials to promote awareness of curriculum changes resulting from House Bill 5, 83rd Legislature, Regular Session, 2013; a requirement that each school district provide instruction to students in grade seven or eight in preparing for high school, college, and a career; and a requirement that the Center for Teaching and Learning at The University of Texas at Austin develop and make available postsecondary education and career counseling academies for school counselors and other postsecondary advisors employed by a school district at a middle school, junior high school, or high school.
House Bill 18 prohibits the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board from adopting a rule that limits the number of dual credit courses or dual credit course semester credit hours in which a high school student may enroll. The bill requires an institution of higher education that administers a test under the Texas Success Initiative to report to each school district from which tested students graduated high school all available information regarding student scores, test performance, and student demographics. The bill also requires a course offered for joint high school and junior college credit to be taught by a qualified instructor approved or selected by the public junior college, sets out the applicable qualifications, and makes a school district eligible for an award from the skills development fund to be used under an agreement with a lower-division institution of higher education.