By:  Duncan                                            S.B. No. 759
         99S0403/1                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the assessment of certification examination
 1-2     performances in educator preparation programs.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsection (c), Section 21.045, Education Code,
 1-5     is amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (c)  The board shall propose rules establishing performance
 1-7     standards for the Accountability System for Educator Preparation
 1-8     for accrediting educator preparation programs.  At a minimum,
 1-9     performance standards must be based on Subsection (a), except that,
1-10     for accreditation purposes, standards relating to certification
1-11     examination pass rates shall be assessed in the aggregate for all
1-12     students rather than by sex or ethnicity.  The board shall propose
1-13     rules for the sanction of educator preparation programs and shall
1-14     annually review the accreditation status of each educator
1-15     preparation program. In proposing rules for the accreditation
1-16     status for educator preparation programs based on certification
1-17     examination minimum pass rates, the board shall make reasonable
1-18     allowances for programs having a small number of candidates.
1-19           SECTION 2.  The commissioner of education shall adopt rules
1-20     for determining the accreditation status of educator preparation
1-21     programs as required under Subsection (c), Section 21.045,
1-22     Education Code, as amended by this Act, as soon as practicable
1-23     after the effective date of this Act.  The rules shall apply to
1-24     accreditation status reviews following the 1999-2000 school year.
 2-1           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-6     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-7     passage, and it is so enacted.