HBA-LJP H.B. 3620 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3620 By: Delisi Higher Education 4/2/2001 Introduced HBA-LJP H.B. 3620 77(R) 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 certain standards on either exit-level exams, or the American College Test (ACT) or Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) college entrance exams. Currently, some students are unable to pursue education beyond high school because they are required to take developmental education courses after failing a portion of the TASP test. TASP was developed to measure whether potential undergraduates are capable of doing college-level work and to determine the necessity of developmental or remedial courses to be taken in conjunction with regular courses. There is concern that TASP may not adequately meet these goals. House Bill 3620 restructures TASP as the Developmental Education Program (DEP) and provides for additional exemptions from the DEP test. 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 House Bill 3620 amends the Education Code to rename the Texas Academic Skill Program (TASP) the Developmental Education Program (DEP). The bill provides that requirements under DEP do not apply to: _a deaf or blind student; _a student who is a member or retiree of the armed forces of the United States or of the state military forces; _a student who is a working or retired nurse; _a student who is a working or retired peace officer or a full-time, part-time, volunteer, or retired firefighter in this state; _a student who is a full-time, part-time, substitute, or retired teacher or educational aid of a public or private school; _a student who is an employee or retiree of this state or a state agency, an institution, or a political subdivision of this state; _a student who has been diagnosed as having dyslexia or a related disorder, or a specific learning disability in mathematics by a qualified professional; or _a student who will be 55 years of age or older on the first class day of a term or semester for which the student will enroll. The bill removes provisions relating to the authority of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to prescribe an alternative test instrument for an institution to use. The bill also removes the prohibition on a student enrolling in any upper division courses that would give the student 60 or more semester hours or the equivalent on completion until the test results of the student meet or exceeded the minimum standards in each skill area that the developmental education requires or the student has earned certain grades. The bill removes the requirement that THECB prescribe circumstances under which a student is exempt from being tested for reading, writing, and mathematics skills prior to enrolling in any coursework at an institution. The bill provides that a student who performs at the state average performance level on the exit-level assessment and the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) is exempt from the DEP test. The bill also removes the restrictions that an exemption is effective for three years after the student performs at a certain standard on the exit-level assessment and for five years after the student performs at a certain standard on ACT or SAT. The bill provides that an entering or transferring student who, before admission to an institution of higher education (institution) as a regular student, has successfully completed 12 hours of college coursework in residence at the institution or by placement test is exempt from the DEP test. The bill removes the requirement that a student either be concurrently enrolled at another institution or has graduated from an institution for a student to be exempt from the DEP test as a temporary student. The bill provides that the institution determines what is the acceptable evidence for a student to prove temporary student status. The bill removes the requirement that THECB encourage students to take the required test while enrolled in high school. The bill repeals the provision that students who are deaf who enroll in an institution must take the Stanford Achievement Test. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.