CCS HCS SB 319 -- ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS

This bill prohibits counting the performance of students for
whom English is a second language on statewide assessment tests
until the student has been educated in an English-speaking state
for 3 full school years.  Provisions that require students
scoring at the lowest level of proficiency on statewide
assessment tests to retake the test the next year are repealed.

The bill also completely revises a section that currently
prohibits promoting any student if the student's reading ability
is more than a grade level lower than the student's grade.  Each
school district will give its chosen reading assessment to any
third-grade student or any student who transfers into a district
in grades 4, 5, or 6 who has not been determined to be reading
at grade level during the current school year.  The bill exempts
students who have individualized education plans for special
education, students with limited English proficiency, certain
students receiving services under the Rehabilitation Act of
1973, and students whose cognitive ability does not permit them
to achieve the bill's reading standards.

Beginning with the 2002-2003 school year, each student whose
third-grade assessment shows the student reading below second--
grade level will be provided with a reading improvement plan to
contain a minimum of 30 hours of additional reading instruction
during the fourth-grade year.  The students will be assessed
again near the end of fourth grade and, if reading below third
grade levels, will be retained for one year.  Students may be
retained only once for not meeting the reading level required by
the bill, but districts may retain any student in accordance
with district policy for whom they believe retention is in the
student's best interest.  The assessment-remediation cycle
required by the bill stops at the end of sixth grade.  School
districts are required to offer summer school reading
instruction to students with reading improvement plans, may
adopt policies that permit retention of students who do not
attend required summer school remediation, and may fulfill the
obligation to offer summer school through cooperative
arrangements with neighboring districts.  Districts may be
reimbursed for certain costs of running the reading improvement
programs that exceed the additional funds they receive from the
additional average daily attendance generated by the reading
program.

The bill defines key terms, prohibits the Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education from using information about
the number of students receiving reading improvement instruction
in accreditation matters, and requires districts to make an
effort to inform parents about their methods and materials for
teaching reading.  Districts are required to make available
statistical information about numbers and percentages of
students undergoing reading improvement instruction pursuant to
the bill.

The bill also creates a grant program to provide after-school
programs that focus on reading and assessment, beginning in the
2002-2003 school year, subject to appropriation.

The bill contains an emergency clause.

Missouri House of Representatives
Last Updated November 26, 2001 at 11:47 am