86R2440 MM-D
By: Sherman, Sr., Allen, Allison H.B. No. 3820
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to requiring school districts to administer college
readiness assessment instruments to certain students at state cost.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 39.0261(a) and (e), Education Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(a) In addition to the assessment instruments otherwise
authorized or required by this subchapter:
(1) each school year and at state cost, a school
district may administer to students in the spring of the eighth
grade an established, valid, reliable, and nationally
norm-referenced preliminary college preparation assessment
instrument for the purpose of diagnosing the academic strengths and
deficiencies of students before entrance into high school;
(2) each school year and at state cost, a school
district may administer to students in the 10th grade an
established, valid, reliable, and nationally norm-referenced
preliminary college preparation assessment instrument for the
purpose of measuring a student's progress toward readiness for
college and the workplace; [and]
(3) each school year and at state cost, a school
district shall administer to students in a grade level determined
by the commissioner who have been administered the Algebra I
end-of-course assessment or English I and English II end-of-course
assessments as described by Section 39.023(a-2)(2) one of the
valid, reliable, and nationally norm-referenced assessment
instruments used by colleges and universities as part of their
undergraduate admissions processes for the purpose of fulfilling
federal requirements regarding assessment at the high school level;
and
(4) high school students in the spring of the 11th
grade or during the 12th grade, other than students administered an
assessment instrument under Subdivision (3), may select and take
once, at state cost, one of the valid, reliable, and nationally
norm-referenced assessment instruments used by colleges and
universities as part of their undergraduate admissions processes.
(e) Subsection (a)(4) [(a)(3)] does not prohibit a high
school student in the [spring of the] 11th grade or during the 12th
grade from selecting and taking, at the student's own expense, one
of the valid, reliable, and nationally norm-referenced assessment
instruments used by colleges and universities as part of their
undergraduate admissions processes [more than once].
SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 2019-2020
school year.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2019.