Amend CSHB 3675 by adding the following appropriately
numbered SECTIONS to the bill and renumbering subsequent SECTIONS
of the bill accordingly:
      SECTION ____.  Section 39.022, Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
      Sec. 39.022.  ]SASSESSMENT PROGRAM  .  The State Board of
Education by rule shall create and implement a statewide assessment
program that is knowledge-based <primarily performance-based> to
ensure school accountability for student achievement that achieves
the goals provided under Section 4.002.  After adopting rules under
this section, the State Board of Education shall consider the
importance of maintaining stability in the statewide assessment
program when adopting any subsequent modification of the rules.
      SECTION ____.  Section 39.023, Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
      Sec. 39.023.  ]SADOPTION AND ADMINISTRATION OF INSTRUMENTS  .
(a)  The agency shall adopt appropriate criterion-referenced
assessment instruments designed to assess essential knowledge and
skills <competencies> in reading, writing, mathematics, social
studies, and science.  All students, except students assessed under
Subsection (b) or exempted under Section 39.027, shall be assessed
in:
            (1)  grade level reading ability and grade level
mathematics ability, including knowledge-based tests of basic
arithmetic, computation skills without the aid of technology, and
automaticity of basic mathematics skills, annually in grades three
through eight;
            (2)  writing, including grade level spelling and
grammar, in grades four and eight; and
            (3)  social studies and science, at an appropriate
grade level determined by the State Board of Education.
      (b)  The agency shall develop or adopt appropriate
criterion-referenced assessment instruments to be administered to
each student in a special education program under Subchapter A,
Chapter 29, who receives instruction in the essential knowledge and
skills identified under Section 28.002 but for whom the assessment
instruments adopted under Subsection (a), even with allowable
modifications, would not provide an appropriate measure of student
achievement, as determined by the student's admission, review, and
dismissal committee.  The assessment instruments required under
this subsection must assess essential knowledge and skills
<competencies> and growth in reading, mathematics, and writing.  A
student's admission, review, and dismissal committee shall
determine whether any allowable modification is necessary in
administering to the student an assessment instrument required
under this subsection.  The assessment instruments required under
this subsection shall be administered on the same schedule as the
assessment instruments administered under Subsection (a).
      (c)  The agency shall also adopt secondary exit-level
assessment instruments designed to assess essential knowledge and
skills <competencies> in mathematics and English language arts.
The English language arts section must include the assessment of
essential knowledge and skills in writing <competencies>.  If a
student is in a special education program under Subchapter A,
Chapter 29, the student's admission, review, and dismissal
committee shall determine whether any allowable modification is
necessary in administering to the student an assessment instrument
required under this subsection or whether the student should be
exempted under Section 39.027(a)(2).  The State Board of Education
shall administer the assessment instruments.  The State Board of
Education shall adopt a schedule for the administration of
secondary exit-level assessment instruments.  Each student who did
not perform satisfactorily on any secondary exit-level assessment
instrument when initially tested shall be given multiple
opportunities to retake that assessment instrument.
      (d)  The agency shall adopt end-of-course assessment
instruments for students in secondary grades who have completed
Algebra I, Biology I, English II, and United States history.  If a
student is in a special education program under Subchapter A,
Chapter 29, the student's admission, review, and dismissal
committee shall determine whether any allowable modification is
necessary in administering to the student an assessment instrument
required under this subsection or whether the student should be
exempted under Section 39.027(a)(2).
      (e)  Under rules adopted by the State Board of Education, and
except as provided by this subsection, the agency shall release the
questions and answer keys to each assessment instrument
administered under Subsection (a), (b), (c), or (d) after the last
time the instrument is administered for a school year.  To ensure a
valid bank of questions for use each year, the agency is not
required to release a question that is being field-tested and was
not used to compute the student's score on the instrument.  The
agency shall also release, under board rule, each question that is
no longer being field-tested and that was not used to compute a
student's score.
      (f)  <The assessment instruments shall be designed to include
assessment of a student's problem-solving ability and
complex-thinking skills using a method of assessing those abilities
and skills that is demonstrated to be highly reliable.>
      <(g)>  The State Board of Education shall <may> adopt one
appropriate, nationally recognized, norm-referenced assessment
instrument in reading and mathematics to be administered to a
selected sample of students in the spring.  The <If adopted, a>
norm-referenced assessment instrument must be a secured test.  The
state shall <may> pay the costs of purchasing and scoring the
adopted assessment instrument and of distributing the results of
the adopted instrument to the school districts.  A district that
administers the norm-referenced test adopted under this subsection
shall report the results to the agency in a manner prescribed by
the commissioner.
      (g) <(h)>  The agency shall notify school districts and
campuses of the results of assessment instruments administered
under this section at the earliest possible date determined by the
State Board of Education but not later than the beginning of the
subsequent school year.
      (h) <(i)>  The provisions of this section are subject to
modification by rules adopted under Section 39.022.  Each
assessment instrument adopted under those rules must be reliable
and valid and must meet any applicable federal requirements for
measurement of student progress.
      (i) <(j)>  The State Board of Education shall administer the
end-of-course assessment instruments under Subsection (d) in
Algebra I and Biology I. Not later than the 1998-1999 school year,
the State Board of Education shall administer the end-of-course
assessment instruments under Subsection (d) in English II and
United States history.  This subsection expires September 1, 2001.
      (j) <(k)>  Notwithstanding Subsection (e), the agency shall
initially release under Subsection (e) the questions and answer
keys to each assessment instrument administered under Subsection
(b) during the third school year in which the instrument is
administered after the last time the instrument is administered for
that school year.  This subsection expires September 1, 2004.