BILL ANALYSIS
By: McClendon
Committee Report (Unamended)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
H.B. 3934 would enable the Alamo Community College District to establish a student outcomes pilot program to evaluate and measure placement and achievement information. Through this project, schools will learn how their students do as they transition from one educational system to another. Diverse expectations exist at levels K-12, community colleges, and universities regarding what students should know before entering the next grade level or institution.
Participants in this pilot program (the "student success pathway") will be the San Antonio Independent School District, Alamo Community Colleges, and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).
This program will allow for sharing and analyzing data as students move through their educational continuum. It will help the educators understand student performance, improve instruction and increase student success. It will establish a mechanism to bring systems together to document the transition from high school to college success by identifying gaps in curriculum, and aligning expectations between high school completion and entry into college level work.
This pilot project is modeled after the California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-PASS). The Cal-PASS program has had success in aligning high school Algebra I with Algebra II, and in aligning English community college courses with those of four-year universities. For instance, the community college courses place greater emphasis on the production of written work, compared with the universities which emphasize the sequential steps involved in critical reading and research. Other curriculum alignments between educational systems have lead to greater student success as students transition from one education system to another.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
SECTION 1: Subchapter A, Chapter 130 of the Education Code is amended by adding Section 130.0105. Authorizes the Alamo Community College District to establish a pilot program to collect and analyze statistical data regarding student outcomes at the college. The data shall be collected in order to facilitate accountability of the college by determining the efficacy of instruction by the college and examining the transition of students to four-year institutions of higher education and further ongoing education excellence initiatives by the college. This section expires September 1, 2017.
SECTION 2: Effective date.
EFFECTIVE DATE
Upon passage, or, if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2007.