BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 2836 |
By: Ratliff |
Public Education |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is currently required to adopt and develop statewide standardized tests that assess a student's knowledge and skills in reading, writing, mathematics, social studies, and science. Interested parties contend that under federal regulations only reading, mathematics, and science tests are required to be administered in grades three through eight and that the state is taking away invaluable instruction time and putting unnecessary stresses on teachers and students by requiring extra tests that are not federally mandated. There is additional concern that the use of both readiness standards and supporting standards in determining a school's accountability rating results in a teacher losing invaluable instruction time. C.S.H.B. 2836 seeks to make standardized tests developed by TEA more effective.
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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.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 2836 amends the Education Code to remove social studies from the subjects for which statewide standardized tests are required to be adopted by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and to remove the requirement that students be assessed in writing in grade seven. The bill requires statewide standardized tests adopted or developed by TEA, before being administered, to be determined to be valid and reliable, on the basis of empirical evidence, by an entity that is independent of TEA and of any other entity that developed the tests. The bill requires TEA to ensure that statewide standardized tests are designed to primarily assess the essential knowledge and skills identified by the State Board of Education of the subject and for the grade level for which the tests are administered. The bill authorizes such a test, only to the extent necessary or helpful for diagnostic or reporting purposes, to also assess supporting knowledge or skills that are introduced or referenced in the subject and for the grade level for which the test is administered but that are identified as essential knowledge or skills primarily of a different subject or for a different grade level. The bill prohibits the related student achievement indicator adopted by the commissioner of education from including student performance as to such supporting knowledge or skills.
C.S.H.B. 2836 requires standardized tests to be designed so that, if administered to students in grades three through five, 85 percent of students will be able to complete the test within 120 minutes and, if administered to students in grades six through eight, 85 percent of students will be able to complete the test within 180 minutes. The bill caps the amount of time allowed for administration of a test at eight hours and authorizes the administration to occur on only one day. The bill's provisions apply beginning with the 2013-2014 school year.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 2836 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and highlighted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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