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The 80th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 1031, which eliminates TAKS tests at the high school level and substitutes the following 12 end-of-course (EOC) assessments starting with 9th grade students in the 2011-12 school year. TAKS testing for grades 3-8 will continue. The bill has been sent to the governor for signature.
| English | Mathematics | Science | Social Studies |
| English I | Algebra I | Biology | World Geography |
| English II | Geometry | Chemistry | World History |
| English III | Algebra II | Physics | US History |
In order to graduate, students in the Recommended and Advanced High School Programs must earn a cumulative score within each of the four core subject areas equal to earning a grade of 70 on each exam. Students in the Minimum High School Program must also earn a cumulative score equal to earning a grade of 70 on each exam, but will only be required to take the EOC exams for courses required by the Minimum High School Program.
Students scoring below 70 will receive accelerated instruction and have the opportunity to be re-tested. Students must score at least 60 on an individual test in order to count the score toward the cumulative number.
The score a student achieves on the EOC exam will be worth 15% of the student’s overall grade for that course.
If a school district finds that a student, on completion of grade 11, is unlikely to achieve the required cumulative score, the student must take the corresponding content-area college preparation course, if available. The EOC for that course would be weighed between 0 and 40 points, and those points could be added to the cumulative score. TEA will adopt EOCs for each of the college preparation courses necessary under this requirement.
As determined by the Commissioner of Education, satisfactory performance on Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, Scholastic Assessment or other rigorous tests can be substituted for an EOC exam.
The test assessment schedule must require TAKS to be administered at least two weeks later than the date on which the first TAKS test was administered during the 2006-2007 year, and the spring administration of EOCs must occur not earlier than the first full week in May, except for English I, II, and III, which can be administered earlier.
All assessments (grades 3-12) will be developed in a manner that allows a measure of student improvement to be calculated.
Assessments include a separate series of questions to measure college readiness and the need for developmental coursework in higher education. Exams in lower level courses will have questions to determine readiness for advanced coursework.
All students will complete a college readiness diagnostic assessment in the 8th and 10th grades and students may choose to take a college entrance exam in the 11th grade, all at state expense.
Pursuant to a TCTA-initiated amendment as modified by the conference committee, TEA may conduct separate field testing of existing tests no more than once every other year effective with the 2008-09 school year. TEA must notify each school district before the beginning of the school year of any required participation in field testing. Under the new legislation, tests will be released every three years (instead of the current every other year).
Schools will be prohibited from spending more than 10% of the instructional year administering district-required tests.
While the bill provides that disclosure of part of a test is a Class C misdemeanor, a TCTA-initiated amendment ensures that unintentional disclosure would not be an offense.
A committee has been established to review the accountability system and make recommendations regarding how the system should be structured. The Legislature will be required to adopt a new public accountability system aligned with the new assessments by Sept. 1, 2011.
Updated: 12/03/07
