By Howard H.B. No. 1964
76R6622 CAS-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to certain state-adopted assessment instruments used in
1-3 public schools.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 39.023(a), Education Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 (a) The agency shall adopt appropriate criterion-referenced
1-8 assessment instruments designed to assess competencies in
1-9 pre-reading, reading, writing, mathematics, social studies, and
1-10 science. All students, except students assessed under Subsection
1-11 (b) or exempted under Section 39.027, shall be assessed in:
1-12 (1) pre-reading, including phoneme awareness, letter
1-13 sound knowledge, and letter knowledge, in pre-kindergarten,
1-14 kindergarten, or first grade, as applicable, based on the level at
1-15 which the student initially enters public school;
1-16 (2) reading and mathematics, annually in grades three
1-17 through eight;
1-18 (3) [(2)] writing, in grades four and eight; and
1-19 (4) [(3)] social studies and science, at an
1-20 appropriate grade level determined by the State Board of Education.
1-21 SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 1999-2000
1-22 school year.
1-23 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-24 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-1 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-2 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-3 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-4 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-5 passage, and it is so enacted.