BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.B. 1777
	By: Campbell
	Education
	4/6/2019
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

A national survey in 2012 from Xavier University found that one in three Americans would fail the civics portion of the naturalization test. In order to combat this statistic, S.B. 1777 would require that 10 questions on the U.S. History end of course assessment, or STAAR Test, be replaced with 10 questions from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Citizenship test. These questions must align with the current U.S. History TEKS and the data on student performance on these questions would be collected and aggregated by the Texas Education Agency by school, district and statewide.

As proposed, S.B. 1777 amends current law relating to the United States history end-of-course assessment instrument for public high school students.

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 Section 39.023, Education Code, by adding Subsection (c-7), as follows:

(c-7) Requires the United States history end-of-course assessment instrument adopted under Subsection (c) (relating to adoption of end-of-course assessment instruments for certain secondary-level courses) to include 10 questions randomly selected by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) from the civics test administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of the naturalization process under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. Section 1101 et seq.). Requires TEA to:

(1) ensure that only questions aligning with the United States history curriculum adopted under Subchapter A, Chapter 28 (Courses of Study; Advancement), are included in the end-of-course assessment instrument; and

(2) annually report which questions were included in the end-of-course assessment instrument under this subsection, their answers, and the campus, district, and statewide data associated with students' performance under this subsection.

SECTION 2. Provides that this Act applies beginning with students who enter the ninth grade during the 2019�2020 school year.

SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2019.