AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
In 2011, the 82nd Legislature established the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium (Consortium) by passing S.B. 155 and adding Section 7.0561 (Texas High Performance Schools Consortium) to the Texas Education Code. The purpose of the Consortium is to advise the governor, the legislature, and the Texas commissioner of education on methods to transform public schools and improve learning for all Texas students.
S.B. 1771 adds the State Board of Education to the list of entities receiving reports and recommendations from the Consortium and increases the allowable size of the Consortium.
Finally, the bill clarifies when Consortium reports are due and removes outdated reporting language from statute.
As proposed, S.B. 1771 amends current law relating to the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Sections 7.0561(b), (c), (d), and (j), Education Code, as follows:
(b) Provides that the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium (consortium) is established to inform the governor, legislature, State Board of Education (SBOE), and commissioner of education (commissioner) concerning methods for transforming public schools in this state by improving student learning through the development of innovative, next-generation learning standards and assessment and accountability systems.
(c) Authorizes the commissioner, from among school districts and eligible open-enrollment charter schools that apply using the form and in the time and manner established by commissioner rule, to select not more than 30 participants, rather than 20 participants, for the consortium. Requires an open-enrollment charter school, to be eligible to participate in the consortium, to have been awarded a distinction, rather than an exemplary distinction, designation under Subchapter G (Distinction Designations), Chapter 39 (Public School System Accountability), during the preceding school year.
(d) Prohibits the number of students enrolled in consortium participants from being greater than a number equal to 10 percent, rather than five percent, of the total number of students enrolled in public schools in this state according to the most recent Texas Education Agency (TEA) data.
(j) Requires the school districts and open-enrollment charter schools participating in the consortium to submit reports concerning the performance and progress of the consortium to the governor, the legislature, the SBOE, and the commissioner not later than December 1 of each even-numbered year, rather than requires the commissioner, with the assistance of the school districts and open-enrollment charter schools participating in the consortium, to submit reports concerning the performance and progress of the consortium to the governor and the legislature not later than December 1, 2012, and not later than December 1, 2014. Deletes existing text requiring that the report submitted not later than December 1, 2012, include any recommendation by the commissioner concerning legislative authorization for the commissioner to waive a prohibition, requirement, or restriction that applies to a consortium participant. Deletes existing text requiring that the report also include a plan for an effective and efficient accountability system for consortium participants that balances academic excellence and local values to inspire learning and, at the state level, contingent on any necessary waiver of federal law, may incorporate use of a stratified random sampling of students or other objective methodology to hold consortium participants accountable while attempting to reduce the number of state assessment instruments that are required to be administered to students. Deletes existing text requiring the commissioner to seek a federal waiver, to any extent necessary, to prepare for implementation of the plan if enacted by the legislature. Deletes existing text providing that this subsection expires January 1, 2018.
SECTION 2. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2015.