BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center S.B. 1016
AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
The current Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) system reflects student achievement and addresses a student’s performance on a certain grade level, but does not contain any measurement of the academic progress a student has made from one school year to the next. Measuring and reporting such progress is an important indication of a school’s performance, especially for those schools serving a high percentage of at-risk students who come to school with academic skills significantly below those required for their grade level. These students often make significant progress from one year to the next that is not reflected by their performance on TAKS.
As proposed, S.B. 1016 requires the state to measure individual student growth rates as a criterion for rating school performance in addition to TAKS results.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
Rulemaking authority previously granted to the State Board of Education is modified in SECTION 2 (Section 39.022, Education Code), of this bill.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 28.006(j), Education Code, to make a conforming change.
SECTION 2. Amends Section 39.022, Education Code, to require a statewide assessment program required to be created and implemented by the State Board of Education (SBOE) by rule to ensure school accountability for academic growth, in addition to other requirements.
SECTION 3. Amends Section 39.023, Education Code, by amending Subsections (l) and (n) and adding Subsection (o), as follows:
(l) Makes a conforming change.
(n) Makes conforming changes.
(o) Requires the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to adopt or develop appropriate criterion-referenced assessment instruments, separate from the assessment instruments under Subsection (a), designed to assess reading progress by tracking changes in a student’s performance during the school year. Authorizes a school district or open-enrollment charter school to administer such instruments. Requires a campus that administers a reading assessment under this subsection to report the results to TEA.
SECTION 4. Amends Sections 39.051(b), (c), and (d), Education Code, as follows:
(b) Requires the set of indicators of the quality of learning on a campus adopted under this section to include annual improvement in student achievement as measured under Section 39.034 (Measure of Annual Improvement in Student Achievement), aggregated by grade level and subject, and the results, aggregated by grade level, of the assessment instruments administered under Section 39.023(o), if applicable, in addition to other requirements. Makes conforming changes.
(c) Requires performance on the indicator under Subsection (b)(2) (annual improvement in student achievement) to be compared to state standards, required improvement, and comparable improvement. Makes conforming changes.
(d) Makes conforming changes.
SECTION 5. Amends Section 39.052(b), Education Code, to make a conforming change.
SECTION 6. Amends Sections 39.072(b) and (c), Education Code, to make conforming changes.
SECTION 7. Amends Section 39.0721(c), Education Code, to require the performance standards on which a gold performance rating is based to include annual improvement in student achievement as measured under Section 39.034, in addition to other requirements.
SECTION 8. Amends Sections 39.073(a), (b), and (f), Education Code, to make conforming changes.
SECTION 9. Amends Section 39.074(e), Education Code, to make a conforming change.
SECTION 10. Amends Section 39.114(b), Education Code, to make a conforming change.
SECTION 11. (a) Requires TEA to collect information concerning annual improvement in student achievement for the purposes of Section 39.051(b)(2), Education Code, as amended by this Act, not later than the 2008-2009 school year.
(b) Requires TEA to include annual improvement in student achievement under Section 39.051(b)(2), Education Code, as amended by this Act, in evaluating school district, campus, and open-enrollment charter school performance, not later than the 2009-2010 school year.
SECTION 12. Provides that this Act applies beginning with the 2008-2009 school year.
SECTION 13. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2007.