H-1742.1

SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1445


State of Washington	64th Legislature	2015 Regular Session

By House Higher Education (originally sponsored by Representatives Reykdal and Magendanz)

READ FIRST TIME 02/20/15.

AN ACT Relating to using computer sciences to satisfy world language college admission requirements; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) Within existing resources, the student achievement council in collaboration with an organization that represents the public four-year institutions of higher education shall facilitate a dialogue with state universities, the regional universities, each as defined in RCW 28B.10.016, and The Evergreen State College and report to the legislature by November 1, 2017, on the curriculum, courses, and course sequencing necessary in the K-12 secondary schools to allow two years of computer sciences to count as two years of world languages for the purposes of admission into a four-year institution of higher education as defined in RCW 28B.10.016.

(2) The student achievement council shall study and include in the report to the legislature required in this section what elements a world language competency-based assessment would need to include in order to successfully measure a student's ability to proficiently read, write, and speak a world language other than English. The world language competency-based assessment should be designed with the intention that high school students could meet college academic distribution requirements for admission purposes into the state universities, regional universities, and the state college, each as defined in RCW 28B.10.016, via a competency-based assessment in lieu of two credits of world language course work in high school.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall conduct a study to assess the implication of adding ten minutes of instruction to the school day, as defined in RCW 28A.150.203, for grades one through eight for the purpose of learning a world language other than English. The study must address the costs associated with the additional instruction time, the impacts on teachers and districts, the benefits of introducing a world language at a younger age, the anticipated effects of requiring additional curriculum, and any other measures the office of the superintendent of public instruction deems appropriate. The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall report the findings of the study to the legislature by November 1, 2017.