BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1613

By: Guillen

Higher Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's Texas Success Initiative (TSI) assessment at the end of a college preparatory course measures the college readiness of high school students seeking higher education. Unless otherwise exempted, students who are entering a Texas college or university must take a TSI exam and receive a passing score in order to enroll in credit-bearing courses. Interested parties contend that TSI assessments are equal, if not superior, in rigor to state-administered end-of-course tests covering the same subject matter and, as such, it is unnecessarily duplicative for students who demonstrate subject mastery on TSI assessments to be required to take an end-of-course test covering the same subject. H.B. 1613 seeks to eliminate duplicative testing for high school students who are able to demonstrate performance at college readiness levels on the TSI assessment at the end of a college preparatory course.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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

H.B. 1613 amends the Education Code to exempt a student enrolled in a college preparatory mathematics or English language arts course who satisfies the Texas Success Initiative college readiness benchmarks prescribed by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board on a test designated by the coordinating board and administered at the end of the course from the administration of the Algebra I or the English I and English II end-of-course tests, as applicable, even if the student did not perform satisfactorily on a previous administration of the applicable end-of-course test. The bill specifies that such a student also satisfies the requirements concerning those end-of-course tests and authorizes a student who fails to perform satisfactorily on the test designated by the coordinating board for purposes of the success initiative to retake that test for purposes of satisfying the end-of-course testing requirements or to take the appropriate end-of-course test.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2015.