project rationale
Project Rationale
House Bill 1, passed by the 79th Texas Legislature, initiated the Texas College Readiness Standards, a joint project with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
The bill, entitled "Advancement of College Readiness in Curriculum," mandated the creation of Vertical Teams (VT), consisting of faculty from both secondary and post-secondary institutions for the purpose of developing standards specifying the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in entry-level courses at institutions of higher education. EPIC's role is the facilitation of the development and implementation of the College Readiness Standards (CRS) in four content areas: English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Additional deliverables include Best Practices Course Models and Senior Level Assignments and Scoring Guides.
A series of VT meetings between February and October 2007 culminated in a draft of the CRS. A six-week public comment period was launched in October to allow input from Texas educators, administrators, parents, students, and citizens. VTs reconvened in early January 2008 to review the public feedback and take the comments into consideration in their development of the final version of the CRS. This final version was presented to the Commissioner of Higher Education and the Commissioner of Education in January 2008 and was adopted by the THECB on January 24, 2008.
