By Alexander                                          H.B. No. 2583
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to assessment of student performance in public schools.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 13.302(a), Education Code, is amended to
    1-5  read as follows:
    1-6        (a)  The State Board of Education shall adopt an appraisal
    1-7  process and criteria on which to appraise the performance of
    1-8  teachers.  The criteria must be based on observable, job-related
    1-9  behavior, including teachers' implementation of discipline
   1-10  management procedures.  The criteria may not be based on the
   1-11  performance of a teacher's students on the assessment instruments
   1-12  required by Sections 35.023(a) and (b).
   1-13        SECTION 2.  Section 13.303(a), Education Code, is amended to
   1-14  read as follows:
   1-15        (a)  In appraising teachers, each school district shall use:
   1-16              (1)  the appraisal process and performance criteria
   1-17  that:
   1-18                    (A)  are developed by the school district
   1-19  utilizing the procedures established in Sections 21.930 and 21.931;
   1-20                    (B)  do not include reliance on the performance
   1-21  of a teacher's students on the assessment instruments required by
   1-22  Sections 35.023(a) and (b); and
   1-23                    (C)  are approved by the commissioner of
    2-1  education.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  This Act applies beginning with the 1995-1996
    2-3  school year.
    2-4        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-10  passage, and it is so enacted.