HBA-CCH H.B. 865 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 865 By: Dutton Public Education 4/2/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE While the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test is a good measure of students' academic strengths and weaknesses, it does not provide assistance to students who struggle with the basic skills it measures. Students across the state of Texas continually perform below other states' levels in reading, writing, and mathematics. The trade journal "Education Week" recently gave Texas a grade of "D" in improving teacher quality and a grade of "C" in terms of school climate. Studies indicate that early intervention in helping students achieve academic excellence in basic skills saves millions of dollars in remedial program funding. Alternative basic skills academies are needed to enhance students' mastery of basic skills. House Bill 865 requires a school district with an enrollment of at least 190,000 students to establish a basic skills academy at each elementary school if the school has at least 20 students eligible for special education or is identified as a low-performing school. 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 865 amends the Education Code to require a school district with an enrollment of at least 190,000 students on the last school day of the preceding school year to establish a basic skills academy focusing on reading, writing, and math at each elementary school that is identified as low performing or has at least 20 students identified as eligible for special education. H.B. 865 requires a basic skills academy to serve students in grades three through six. The bill requires the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to establish a level of basic skills at which each student in the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth grade must be proficient and authorizes the board of trustees of a school district to establish a level of basic skills that is different but not lower than the level established by TEA. Each school required to have a basic skills academy is required to administer a diagnostic test to each student in the third grade to determine the student's proficiency in basic skills. The bill requires a school district to place each student who does not meet the applicable level of proficiency in basic skills in the basic skills academy, to identify to TEA each student placed in a basic skills academy, to periodically test each student in a basic skills academy to determine the student's proficiency in basic skills, and to return each student who meets the applicable level of proficiency to the regular academic program. For each school year, H.B. 865 entitles a school district to $4,000 in additional state funding for each student in a basic skills academy. Funding is required to be derived from money appropriated out of the net proceeds of the state lottery. The bill authorizes the board of trustees of a school district to contract for the provision of educational services to students placed in a basic skills academy. A school district's annual report must include the performance rating of each basic skills academy, but the performance of a campus that has a basic skills academy is not based on students placed in the basic skills academy. The bill requires TEA to evaluate against state standards and report the performance of each basic skills academy on assessment tests, student attendance rates, dropout rates, the percentage of students exempted from the assessment program, and any other indicator adopted by the State Board of Education. The bill authorizes compensatory education allotment funds to be used for a basic skills academy as an accelerated instruction program. The bill requires each school district to establish basic skills academies no later than the beginning of the 2002-2003 school year. The provisions of the bill expire September 1, 2005. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.