HBA-LJP C.S.H.B. 125 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 125 By: West, George "Buddy" Higher Education 3/27/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, a student who is admitted to a public institution of higher education (institution) must take the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) test if the student performs below standard on either exitlevel exams, or the American College Test (ACT) or Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) college entrance exams. According to the report "The Relationship of the Texas High School Curriculum to College Readiness: An Update, the Implications for Increasing Student College Participation and Success" by Omar Lopez of the College Success Initiative, high school students should begin to test for college enrollment exams such as the TASP test as early as the 11th grade to allow enough time for a student to fail, retest, and master all aspects of the exam. Most students are already taught skills in reading, writing, and mathematics in high school to prepare for exit-level exams and these skills are similar to the areas covered in the TASP test. When students are required to take the TASP test after enrolling at an institution, students have one chance to take an exam that covers similar skills, but is a different test from the exit-level exams. C.S.H.B. 125 replaces the TASP test with a test administered by an institution that uses English language arts and mathematics instruments administered by the Texas Education Agency to students in the 11th grade. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 125 amends the Education Code to rename the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) as the higher education remedial program (program) and to replace the TASP test instrument prescribed the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) with specified portions of the test administered by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to students in the 11th grade. If an institution of higher education (institution) permits a student to enroll without taking the test administered by TEA to students in 11th grade, the bill then requires the student to take the secondary exitlevel assessment test that is administered by the institution under the program and which uses the English language arts and mathematics assessment instruments adopted by TEA no later than the end of the first semester of enrollment (Sec. 51.306). The bill adds components of Algebra II to the test administered by an institution and TEA (Sec. 39.023). The bill removes the authority of THECB to prescribe an alternative test from the test administered under the program. The bill requires THECB to include in a summary report the number of students at each high school who took the applicable exit-level assessment instruments constituting the test administered by TEA while enrolled in high school and who at that time satisfied the standards set by THECB for the test administered by an institution under the program. The bill deletes the provision that the program does not apply to a student who accumulated three or more college level semester credit hours prior to the 1989 fall semester (Sec. 51.306). EFFECTIVE DATE June 1, 2004. The Act applies beginning with the fall semester 2004. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 125 modifies the original by replacing the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) test with a test administered by an institution of higher education that uses specified portions of the test administered by the Texas Education Agency to students in the 11th grade, rather than eliminating TASP and eliminating the Stanford Achievement Test for students who are deaf (Secs. 51.306 and 51.3061). The substitute adds the provision relating to the summary report (Sec. 51.306).