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House Bill 5 |
House Author: Aycock et al. |
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Effective: See below |
Senate Sponsor: Patrick et al. |
House Bill 5 amends the Education Code to replace the minimum, recommended, and advanced high school programs with a foundation high school program consisting of a total of 22 credits, including 5 elective credits, in the curriculum's subject areas as specified by the State Board of Education (SBOE), with the added condition that any advanced English, mathematics, and science courses required under the program's curriculum prepare students to enter the workforce successfully or postsecondary education without remediation.
House Bill 5 allows a student to earn a distinguished level of achievement under the foundation high school program by successfully completing additional mathematics and science courses, including an Algebra II course among the mathematics courses completed, and earning an endorsement on the student's diploma and transcript and allows a student to earn such an endorsement by successfully completing the specific curriculum requirements for that endorsement, with endorsements available in the following categories: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); business and industry; public services; arts and humanities; and multidisciplinary studies. The bill also authorizes a student to earn a performance acknowledgment on the student's diploma and transcript for outstanding performance in a specified area or for earning a recognized business or industry certification or license. The bill includes the percentage of graduating students who meet the course requirements for the foundation high school program, the distinguished level of achievement, and each diploma endorsement among the indicators of the quality of learning in a district and on campuses for purposes of preparing parent and educator reports.
House Bill 5 requires each district to make an Algebra II course available to each district high school student as a condition of accreditation and authorizes a district to offer a locally developed and approved course or other activity for credit without obtaining SBOE approval if the course or activity allows students to enter a career and technology training or apprentice program, an institution of higher education without remediation, or an internship required for an industry-recognized credential or certificate for course credit.
House Bill 5 requires each school district to partner with at least one institution of higher education to develop and provide college preparatory mathematics and English language arts courses for students whose academic performance indicates a lack of college readiness and authorizes the use of course credit earned in such college preparatory courses to satisfy curriculum requirements for advanced mathematics and English language arts courses.
House Bill 5 provides for the preparation of a personal graduation plan for each student entering ninth grade based on information prepared by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), in consultation with the Texas Workforce Commission and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, on the distinguished level of achievement and the diploma endorsements. The bill requires each district to make that information available to students and their parents in the language with which the parents are most comfortable; requires a high school principal to designate a school counselor to review the plan options with each student and the student's parent; and requires each plan to identify a course of study that promotes college and workforce readiness and career placement and advancement and facilitates the transition from high school to college.
House Bill 5 requires a school district, each time a district student fails an end-of-course test, to provide that student accelerated instruction in the applicable subject area using funds appropriated for the purpose and increases from 21 to 26 the age below which a student at risk of dropping out of school is eligible for compensatory, intensive, or accelerated instructional services. The bill extends the requirement for a school district to post notice regarding the law on automatic college admissions to apply also to each open-enrollment charter school that operates a high school and expands the requirement to include notice of the curriculum requirements for state student financial aid. The bill authorizes use of the instructional materials allotment to purchase instructional materials for college preparatory courses and authorizes a district or open-enrollment charter school to place a limited order for instructional materials before the start of the fiscal year and to receive the materials before payment based on an estimate by the commissioner of education of the district's or school's entitlement for that fiscal year.
House Bill 5 requires TEA to redevelop the alternative tests given to students in special education programs for administration to students with significant cognitive disabilities in alignment with federal law; reduces the number of high school end-of-course tests by eliminating the Algebra II, geometry, chemistry, physics, English III, world geography, and world history tests; requires the English I and II tests each to assess reading and writing in the same test and to provide a single test score; and removes requirements for school district policies requiring a student's end-of-course test score to account for 15 percent of the student's final course grade. The bill also prohibits end-of-course test scores from being used to determine class ranking or entitlements to automatic college admission or as the sole criterion in college admissions and provides for the adoption and discretionary administration of Algebra II and English III postsecondary readiness tests.
House Bill 5 requires each school district board of trustees to adopt and strictly enforce a policy limiting the removal of students from class for remedial tutoring or test preparation and, with certain exceptions, prohibits a district from giving to any student more than two benchmark tests in preparation for a state-administered test and requires that an English language learner be enrolled for at least 60 consecutive days in a school year for that school year to count as one year in a United States school in determining whether to give that student an accommodated or alternative state-administered test or a test exemption.
House Bill 5 prohibits the commissioner from appointing a person retained or employed by a test vendor to an advisory committee on the public school accountability system or on the content or administration of a state-administered test and makes it a Class B misdemeanor for an agent of an entity contracted to develop or implement state-administered tests to make or authorize a political contribution to or take part in the campaign of any person seeking election to or serving on the SBOE or to serve as a member of an advisory committee established by the commissioner, TEA staff, or the SBOE with respect to the state's testing program.
House Bill 5 expands the set of performance indicators of student achievement adopted by the commissioner, requires the commissioner to adopt rules for evaluating school district and campus performance and assign each district a performance rating of A, B, C, D, or F, with A, B, and C letter ratings reflecting acceptable performance and D and F letter ratings reflecting unacceptable performance. The bill also requires the commissioner to assign each campus a rating of exemplary, recognized, acceptable, or unacceptable and prohibits a district from receiving an A rating if any district campus is rated unacceptable.
House Bill 5 requires each school district, using evaluation criteria developed by a local committee for such purposes, to evaluate specific programs or categories of performance at each campus with respect to community and student engagement as well as the records of the district and of each campus regarding compliance with statutory reporting and policy requirements; to assign district and campus performance ratings of exemplary, recognized, acceptable, or unacceptable for both overall performance and each individual evaluation factor; and to report each rating to TEA.
House Bill 5 adds the occurrence of a disproportionate number of students of a particular demographic group graduating with a particular endorsement or of an excessive number of students graduating with a particular endorsement as grounds for a special accreditation investigation. The bill requires the financial accountability rating systems for school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to include processes for anticipating the future financial solvency of each; requires the commissioner to assign a point value to each indicator in that system to be used in a scoring matrix; and requires each school district and charter school to be assigned a financial accountability rating. The bill requires the commissioner, by rule and in consultation with the comptroller of public accounts, to determine the criteria for each designated performance rating, sets out criteria for a failing rating, requires the commissioner to assign a preliminary rating before assigning a final rating, and sets out procedures for finalizing a rating.
House Bill 5 requires a district or open-enrollment charter school assigned a failing rating under the financial accountability rating system to submit to the commissioner a corrective action plan to address the district's or school's financial weaknesses and authorizes the commissioner to impose appropriate accreditation sanctions against a district or charter school failing to submit or implement a plan.
House Bill 5 requires TEA to develop and maintain the Texas School Accountability Dashboard as a separate website specifically for public access to school district and campus accountability information and requires the commissioner to adopt performance indices relating to student achievement, student progress, the closing of performance gaps, and postsecondary readiness for use on the dashboard. The bill requires the district and campus ratings with respect to student achievement, community and student engagement, compliance, and financial accountability to be made publicly available not later than August 8 of each year and to be posted on TEA's Internet website not later than October 1 of each year.
House Bill 5 revises certain eligibility requirements for automatic admission into a general academic teaching institution for students who qualify for such admission under the state's top 10 percent rule to include the successful completion of the curriculum requirements for the distinguished level of achievement under the foundation high school program or its equivalent or completion of that portion or its equivalent that was available to the student. The bill revises the conditions under which a graduating student who does not qualify for automatic admission may apply to any general academic teaching institution.
House Bill 5 takes effect June 10, 2013, except as otherwise provided and except for various repealers, which take effect September 1, 2013, and September 1, 2014, and a nonsubstantive change that takes effect beginning with the 2014-2015 school year.