Comment. The coalition of 11 organizations expressed support for the additional year for CBE providers to meet the development and validation criteria for examinations that do not have a state EOC examination. TAMSA, 18 administrators, 1 parent, and 2 university representatives supported this comment.

Response. The SBOE agrees and took action to adopt the rule as amended.

Comment. One parent expressed support for the proposed amendment to §74.24. The commenter stated that control of CBEs should not be relinquished to districts and that CBE requirements should not become less rigorous.

Response. The SBOE agrees and has determined that the rule as adopted helps to ensure that CBE providers are developing high quality and appropriately rigorous examinations aligned to the TEKS.

Comment. Two university administrators and one school district administrator stated that the requirement in proposed §74.24(c)(3)(B)(ii) that CBEs yield comparable results for all subgroups was not possible to attain. The commenters also stated that it is difficult for the university CBE providers to collect data from all subgroups because of the small sample sizes for some examinations.

Response. The SBOE disagrees that it is not possible to attain comparable results for all subgroups. However, in response to this and other comments, the SBOE took action to amend adopted §74.24(c)(4)(B)(iii) to read, "yield comparable distribution of results across tested subgroups." The SBOE also took action to add new §74.24(c)(5) to read, "If the number of students who take an examination in a given year is not sufficient to determine comparable results among subgroups, the provider may obtain approval from the State Board of Education to demonstrate comparable results over a specified number of years."

Comment. One counselor, six administrators, and two parents stated that local districts should be allowed to develop CBE tests or use Texas Tech University or The University of Texas at Austin CBEs without interference from the state. The commenters stated that the expectation to create examinations that match the psychometric expectations of the STAAR® or nationally normed assessments poses an unrealistic and unnecessary burden on Texas school districts. The commenters added that districts do not have the funds to pay for psychometric reviews.

Response. The SBOE agrees that CBE providers should not be required to develop CBEs for courses with state EOC examinations that have comparable item difficulty to state EOC assessment instruments. In response to this and other comments, the SBOE eliminated proposed §74.24(c)(3)(B)(iii).

Comment. Two administrators expressed concern that the proposed amendment to §74.24(c)(2)(D) that would require developers of CBE tests to externally validate the examinations to ensure validity and reliability may limit the flexibility of districts to develop examinations for languages that are not commonly spoken and that do not have corresponding CBE tests available by the university providers.

Response. The SBOE disagrees and has determined that an evaluation to determine the validity and reliability of CBEs was appropriate. In response to this and other comments, however, the SBOE took action to eliminate the requirement that this evaluation be conducted externally.

Comment. One administrator and two parents expressed support for the second reading of the amendment to §74.24.

Response. The SBOE agrees and took action to adopt the rule as amended.

Comment. One administrator and one parent expressed support for the second reading of the amendment to §74.24. The commenters stated that (1) CBEs allow students to accelerate through mathematics courses to pursue the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) endorsement pathway, (2) CBEs allow students whose native language is one other than English to accelerate and earn course credit for their native language, (3) districts should have the flexibility to develop their own CBEs for languages that do not have CBEs available from university providers, (4) decisions regarding course credit should remain with local school districts, and (5) the university providers develop CBEs for hundreds of courses and provide options for students enrolled in districts that do not have the capacity to develop their own CBEs.

Response. The SBOE agrees and has determined that the rule as adopted allows districts flexibility to create their own CBEs in order to meet the needs of students and maintain high quality and appropriately rigorous examinations aligned to the TEKS.

Comment. Two university administrators and one school district administrator stated that students with prior instruction are often taking CBEs for very different reasons from students who have never taken the course before. The commenters recommended that the SBOE require CBE providers to report descriptive information on student performance on CBEs disaggregated by students who have had prior instruction and those who have had no prior instruction.

Response. The SBOE agrees and took action to add new §74.24(c)(6)(D) to read, "results for all tested subgroups disaggregated by students who receive prior instruction and students with no prior instruction and including descriptive data for small subgroups."

Comment. One school district administrator stated that the external validation process needs clarification.

Response. The SBOE agrees and took action to amend §74.24(c)(2)(D) and §74.24(c)(3)(B), renumbered as §74.24(c)(4)(B), to clarify the requirements for evaluating or validating CBEs.

Comment. One administrator stated that districts would need at least a year to implement the proposed changes to §74.24 correctly.

Response. The SBOE agrees that more time is required in order to implement the requirements for CBEs for courses that do not have a state EOC examination. The adopted rule requires all CBE providers to meet the requirements in §74.24(c)(2) beginning with the 2019-2020 school year. The adopted rule implements the requirements for CBEs for courses with a state EOC examination effective August 27, 2018.

STATUTORY AUTHORITY. The amendment is adopted under the Texas Education Code (TEC), §7.102(c)(12), which authorizes the State Board of Education (SBOE) to establish guidelines for credit by examination; and TEC, §28.023, as amended by House Bill 789, 85th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2017, which establishes that districts must develop or select for review examinations for acceleration for each primary school grade level and for credit for secondary school academic subjects based on guidelines established by the SBOE.

CROSS REFERENCE TO STATUTE. The amendment implements the Texas Education Code, §7.102(c)(12) and §28.023.