HB 3 Required School Board Plans and Goals

December 2, 2020 | Grants Management

Has your Texas Charter School Board adopted the two required plans under House Bill 3 – Early Childhood Literacy/Math Plan (EC-LM) and College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) Plan? The original timeline was for both plans to be adopted and in place by the end of the 2019-20 school year, but the deadline has been extended due to the COVID crisis. The NEW deadline to have the plans complete is January 31, 2021. Today’s Tip will familiarize you with the requirements for the goals under each plan and direct you to valuable resources. We are releasing this Tip early in the year to align with your Campus and District Improvement Plan timelines.

At Charter School Success we have the expertise to guide you to success with meeting HB3 requirements! We help our clients plan better and smarter!

Early Childhood Literacy and Math Plan (EC-LM)*

The purpose of the EC-LM plan is to ensure that students are performing a the “meets” grade level (or above) expectations on the third grade STAAR Reading and Math state assessments. The goals in Reading and Math should begin in PK and continue through each grade leading up to the third-grade assessments. The plan must include targeted professional development for campuses that the Board identifies as not meeting expected progress toward meeting the annual progress measures.

TEA is supporting the Reading part of this initiative by requiring that all K-3 teachers and principals attend State HB3 Reading Academies by the end of the 2022-23 school year. In addition, the state is providing funding allotments for Early Education found in the Summary of Finances for program intent (PIC) 36. These funds may be used to pay for the Reading Academies or instructional activities to support reaching the third-grade goals in Reading and Math. Lastly, TEA provides assessment tools in PK-2 that LEAs can use to measure student achievement levels and provide intervention to struggling students (see FAQ link below).

*The EC-LM Plan would not be required for LEAs that do not include K-3.

CCMR Plans

The purpose of the CCMR plan is to achieve the graduation standard of all high school seniors graduating “college, career, or military ready.” This is more specifically defined as graduating without the need for remediation and achieving (1) an industry-accepted certificate aligned with a living wage job; or (2) enrolling in post-secondary education; or (3) enrolling in the military. It is recommended to have a progress measure for each of these three under the CCMR main goal; however, LEAs that do not have high school campuses will need to identify goals for CCMR as appropriate for their grade level. For example, charter districts serving only elementary grade levels might establish a goal of every student completing a career interest inventory or completing a career investigation project that could be graded and data collected.

What else is required?

As student progress is tracked in both plans, all data must be disaggregated by student groups the same as the groups in the “closing the gaps” domain of the State accountability system. Groups with less than 25 students should not be publicly reported due to small size privacy concerns.
Assign at least one district-level administrator or employee of the regional education service center to oversee the coordination of each plan
Set specific, quantifiable, annual goals for five years at each campus
Be reviewed at least annually by the board at a public meeting
Post annual report on district and campus websites
Board member training called Evaluating the Improvement of Student Outcomes (EISO) is required for ISDs, but optional for Charter Districts. EISO training can be contracted with authorized providers to give Board members the knowledge and skills to develop the goals, progress measures (one per goal required), and conduct monitoring at regularly-scheduled intervals.

More Resources

Do you need more help? Please email us:

Sharon Benka sbenka@charterschoolsuccess.com
Sheila K. Sherman ssherman@charterschoolsuccess.com