Ruling may alter some of College Station schools' policies

The College Station School District is once again having to revisit its end-of-course exam policies with a new ruling from the Texas Education Agency.

The TEA recently nullified some policies that districts across the state had already begun to put in place for the school year.

Greg McIntyre, deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction, told the school board Tuesday night that the new guideline eliminates the district's option to consider a student's course credit separately from the yearly numerical course grade.

The district now must include the end-of-course assessment score as 15 percent of the final course grade.

McIntyre said the school board did have some options that will need to be decided quickly. The state allows students to retake the EOC -- which must be passed before graduation -- as many times as desired. The district gets to decide if a student retakes an EOC test, how many retakes are permitted and whether to average that into the final grade

This is the first year for the EOC exams, a state-generated test covering all material learned over the year. The EOC will be phased in over the next several years, beginning with freshmen or any eighth- or ninth-grader taking high school-credit classes such as Algebra 1.

Also at the meeting, the trustees discussed a new state law making it easier for members of the military and overseas voters to cast ballots.

The district has two options to comply with the law: hold elections every year in November or every other year in May.

November elections would allow members to keep three-year terms and would extend current members' terms by six months. The option would be less expensive because of the opportunity to share election costs with Brazos County.

May elections would be held every other year, increase the length of terms to four years, and potentially be more expensive since the county already holds its elections in November.