New House Public Education Committee Chairman Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock (R-Killeen) filed a broad education reform bill this morning that calls for reforms on three fronts; coursework, assessment and accountability. Aycock says the bill, House Bill (HB)5, is meant to be a jumping off point for discussions. Here is the official “one-pager” on the bill:

House Bill 5

Coursework, Assessment and Accountability

Representative Jimmie Don Aycock

• Creates one diploma that affords all students a variety of postsecondary opportunities.  Students may earn an additional endorsement in one of four areas: STEM, Business and Industry, Public Services, and Arts and Humanities.                                                
• Greatly expands course options and allows individual students more flexibility
• Allows districts to partner with community colleges and industry to develop rigorous courses that address workforce needs, provide technical training and count towards graduation 
• Eliminates the requirement that all students must pass Algebra II and ELA III to receive a high school diploma
• Grants current ninth and tenth grade students the benefits of the new structure
• Allows all high school graduates to be eligible for automatic admission to Texas public four-year universities because all students graduate under the same diploma 

• Reduces the number of end-of-course assessments from fifteen to five
• Allows students to meet their graduation assessment requirement by passing ELA II (reading and writing), Algebra I, biology and US History
• Eliminates the requirement that the end-of-course assessments determine fifteen percent of a student's course grade
• Establishes clear graduation requirements for students and parents by eliminating the cumulative score requirement
• Encourages college readiness by allowing satisfactory performance on Advanced Placement exams, SAT exams and the ACT to satisfy graduation requirements

• Evaluates schools on more measures than state standardized assessment
• Establishes a new three category rating system that evaluates schools on academic performance, financial performance and community and student engagement employing understandable labels of A, B, C, D and F
• Directs the agency and districts  to release all three ratings at the same time to provide a clearer understanding of overall school performance
• Allows local communities to engage in the accountability process by requiring districts to set goals and evaluate performance locally in addition to state ratings