Accelerated Instruction
Texas law requires all students who do not achieve approaches or higher on STAAR grades 3–8 or EOC assessments be provided accelerated instruction. This law – established in HB 4545, 87R – was recently updated with the passage of HB 1416, 88R.
Accelerated Instruction Requirements in Texas
The qualifying students must be:
- Assigned a TIA designated teacher for the subsequent school year in the applicable subject area;
OR
- Provided supplemental instruction aligned with the research on high impact tutoring in the TEKS for the applicable grade levels and subject area in the following manner:
- No less than 15 or 30 hours depending on student performance and is provided in the summer or at least once per week in the school year;
- Limited to two subjects per year, prioritizing math and RLA;
- Provided in a group of no more than four students, unless the parent or guardian of each student in the group authorizes a larger group;
- Designed to assist the student in achieving satisfactory performance in the applicable grade level and subject area and includes effective instructional materials designed for supplemental instruction;
- Provided by a person with training in the applicable instructional materials for the supplemental instruction and provided by one person for the entirety of their accelerated instruction.
Key Changes in Requirements from HB 1416
House Bill 1416 updated accelerated instruction requirements from House Bill 4545 by:
- Removing the requirement for Accelerated Learning Committees while requiring Accelerated Education Plan after student fails to achieve approaches or higher on two consecutive assessments in the same subject area
- Limiting tutoring to 2 subjects and no longer including optional assessment administrations
- Increasing student to tutor ratio from 3:1 to 4:1 ratio for tutoring group size
- Reducing minimum hour requirement from 30 to 15 for some students*
- Providing student to teacher ratio waivers for use of approved online curriculum (approvals available spring 2024)
Resources:
Campuses will be in communication with families regarding the specific support for their learners.