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.