Opinion ID: 2434088
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the tecat

Text: On July 3, 1984, the state legislature passed into law House Bill 72. The bill contained numerous educational reforms, including additional school funding, school finance reform, teacher salary increases, and teacher competency testing. The bill is codified as Tex.Educ.Code § 13.047, and it provides in part as follows: (a) The State Board of Education shall require satisfactory performance on an examination prescribed by the board as a condition to continued certification for each teacher and administrator who has not taken a certification examination under Section 13.032(e) of this code. (b) The board shall prescribe an examination designed to test knowledge appropriate to teach primary grades and an examination designed to test knowledge appropriate to teach secondary grades. The secondary teacher examination must test the knowledge of each examinee in the subject areas ... in which the examinee is certified to teach and is teaching. If a teacher is not tested in an area of certification, the teacher must take the examination for that area within three years after beginning to teach that subject. The administrator examinations must test administrative skills, knowledge in subject areas, and other matters that the board considers appropriate. The examinations must also test the ability of the examinee to read and write with sufficient skill and understanding to perform satisfactorily as a professional teacher or administrator. Section 13.047 provides for a testing program by the State Board of Education for continued certification of all educators who have not taken the test required by section 13.032(e) of the Code. However, the section 13.032(e) test was first administered on May 24, 1986; thus, all previously certified teachers, including all members of Project Principle, were required to take the TECAT. Although the legislature mandated in section 13.047(b) that teachers' skills in a number of areas be tested, the legislature only appropriated funds for testing basic reading and writing skills. Tex.H.B. 20, 69th Leg. (1985), art. III, Texas Central Education AgencyPrograms, para. 18, p. III-7. The State Board spent the appropriated funds on a basic reading and writing skills test, the TECAT.