By Patty Montagno

Staff Writer

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A new law signed by Gov. Gregg Abbott in May will allow more students to walk the stage with their classmates.

Senate Bill 149 allows students who failed two of the five End of Course State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness tests to still graduate if they have completed all of their required course work.

The bill created alternative methods for satisfying certain public high school graduation requirements. It also included the use of individual graduation committees.

SB 149 creates graduation committees to look beyond one graduation requirement and look at the total student. Sachse High School Principal Ray Merrill said the school had 24 students that failed two or less EOC’s.

“The students did projects over a two-week period,” he said. “They worked very hard.”

Merrill said immediately after the bill passed the committees were formed.

Officials cautioned that those students committees were not in place for all students. Students who were chronic failures on the EOC’s did not qualify to be assessed by the committee.

The committees were comprised of the school principal, the student’s teachers, the counselor and the parent or caregiver. They were charged to look at many metrics of a student’s academic career in order to make a decision.

The bill gave educators, parents and ultimately students the chance to be successful using a variety of academic indicators, instead of just one.