Texas lawmakers are seeking to support kindergarten readiness and bolster literacy and numeracy skills with legislation aimed at improving students’ reading and math knowledge in earlier grade levels.
House Bill 123, which the lower chamber passed Wednesday with overwhelming bipartisan support, builds on previous legislation aimed at increasing teacher training and providing supports for students.
The $315 million proposal would revise requirements for teachers to attend and complete literacy and numeracy academies and require skills assessments for students in Kindergarten through third grade. The bill would also mandate tutoring interventions for certain students, based on their performance on the assessments.
Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, said the bill supports programming meant to strengthen basic skills for students early on to set them up for success later in their academic careers.
“Between Pre-K and third grade, you learn to read, and after that, you read to learn,” Dutton said. “If you never learn to read, reading to learn is going to become next to impossible.”
Only 41% of third graders met state standards for math and 49% met state standards in reading in 2024, according to results from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test.
While reading has largely recovered from pandemic-era lows, math scores for third-grade students in Texas continue to struggle to meet pre-pandemic levels.
In 2019, 48% of third graders met state standards.
Some lawmakers raised concerns about increased mandates to test students.
Required testing is a persistent debate among Texas parents, some of whom worry that state-required standardized tests can place undue stress on students.
“I’ve seen what all the standardized testing does,” said Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg. “I see what it does to my family. I see the stress it puts on my children.”
Dutton insisted HB 123 doesn’t require tests akin to the STAAR test but instead requires teacher-led assessments to understand students’ proficiency level in basic skills.
Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, noted that teachers may struggle to teach a classroom full of students at different learning levels with just one lesson.
“It’s hard to teach 20 kids in one classroom at the same level,” Thompson said. “So, what the tutoring does is pin each and every student individually.”
Texas first introduced reading academies in 2019, as part of what was a major overhaul to education funding at the time. The bill required a swath of elementary and special education teachers, as well as principals, to attend the academies to teach the science of reading, an evidence-based instructional method..
The Texas Senate received HB 123 on Thursday. As of Monday, the proposal had not yet been assigned to a committee.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas House passes bill focused on early literacy, math skills