Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas This bill is intended to ensure that Texas school districts may not require teachers to artificially inflate a students grade including report card grades or other cumulative grade averages said Texas State Senator Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) after the Senate passed SB 79 which protects the authority of teachers to assign grades based on merit. The bill authored by Nelson now goes to the House.
In 2009 Senator Nelson authored Senate Bill 2033 prohibiting minimum grade policies in schools after teachers reported that they had been instructed not to assign grades lower than a minimum of 50 60 and -- in some cases -- 70 percent.
In an effort to block its implementation eleven school districts sued the Texas Education Agency contending that the bill only applies to individual grades
and not to averages or report card grades. The judge ruled that the law is unambiguous in its applicability to average grades.
Senate Bill 79 codifies that ruling by making clear that the provisions of SB 2033 apply to averages.
Senator Nelson represents Senate District 12 which includes portions of Denton and Tarrant counties. She is Chairman of the
Senate Health & Human Services Committee.
