Blinn College House Bill 5 FAQ
The ISD instructor or administrator will contact the Blinn College Dual Credit Office, (hb5help@blinn.edu, 979-209-8218), prior to December 1st for Fall and May 1st for Spring requesting the assessment and scoring instructions from Blinn College.
HB5 College Preparatory ELA Course
All questions should be directed to dualcredit@blinn.edu
Students who successfully complete the ELA course are certified college-ready in Reading and Writing and are eligible to enroll in ENGL 1301 upon high school graduation.
The college ready English course focuses on skills needed to be successful in transfer courses. It does not cover the literature in English 4.
Instructors should have the secondary English certification required to teach high school level ELA courses, a Bachelor’s degree, and secondary English certification.
Blinn’s Dual Credit Office will provide materials guidance, and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) specifies course content.
Ideally, the course will last one academic year.
Blinn’s Dual Credit office will provide grading guidance, and the MOU specifies the evaluation criteria.
- These students are encouraged to take or retake the TSI. Test preparation material is available on Blinn’s testing web site: https://www.blinn.edu/testing/index.html
- Students will need TSI placement test scores to enroll in IRW courses at Blinn, which will provide an alternative pathway to TSI completion.
- The course final must be completed in a two-week window. Blinn’s Dual Credit Office will send the final to the school.
- The final exam prompt specifies preparatory work to be done in class.
- The final exam essay is written in a proctored two-hour time period similar to dual credit.
- No part of the final exam preparatory work may be taken home for discussion, tutoring, or completion.
- ELA requires the following for each student
- Final Exam Essay
- Final Exam Annotated Bibliography
- Final Exam Annotated Articles
- Final Exam Scoring Rubric
- Course Grades Summary
- All finals must be submitted electronically to the Dual Credit Office
The HB 5 ELA liaison at Blinn College certifies student work.
- A waiver will be applied for TSI completion in the appropriate section(s), which will be listed on their official transcript. This exemption is valid for two years from the date of high school graduation provided the freshmen level mathematics or ELA course is taken during the first year of enrollment at Blinn. Successful completion of the college level course will complete their TSI status for the section(s).
- For example, completing a college level composition course (ENGL 1301) with a grade of C or better during the two-year waived period results in college readiness in both reading and writing.
- Student date of birth and contact information must be included on the roster.
HB5 College Preparatory Math Course
All questions should be directed to dualcredit@blinn.edu.
Students who successfully complete the course are certified college ready in Mathematics and are eligible to enroll in their first college level mathematics course appropriate to their major.
Instructors should have the secondary math certification required to teach high school level mathematics courses, a Bachelor’s degree, and secondary mathematics certification.
The MOU specifies course content. There are no specific materials required as long as all student learning objectives are covered.
There are two courses as described in the MOU, course A and course B. Each course is recommended to be taught in one semester with course A offered first followed by course B.
The MOU specifies some evaluation criteria as related to the final exam. The district may otherwise make appropriate determination regarding grading calculation and evaluation.
- These students are encouraged to take or retake the TSI. Test preparation material is available on Blinn’s testing web site: https://www.blinn.edu/testing/index.html
- Students will need TSI placement test scores to enroll in Mathematics courses at Blinn, which will provide an alternative pathway to TSI completion.
- The course final must be completed in a two-week window. Blinn’s Dual Credit Office will send the final to the school approximately two weeks prior to the end of the ISD school year upon request by the district. A final exam key will be provided by Blinn College. The district will be responsible for maintaining the security and integrity of the final exam materials. The district will be responsible for grading the final exam and reporting the results to Blinn College.
- Mathematics requires the following for each student, using full name and date of birth for each student
- Final Exam Scores
- Course Grades Summary
- A waiver will be applied for TSI completion in the appropriate section(s), which will be listed on their official transcript. This exemption is valid for two years from the date of high school graduation provided the freshmen level mathematics or ELA course is taken during the first year of enrollment at Blinn. Successful completion of the college level course will complete their TSI status for the section(s).
- Student date of birth and contact information must be included on the roster.
The HB5 certification can be submitted through Admissions Forms on the student’s myBLINN account.
Texas College Bridge
The Texas College Bridge can be submitted through Green Light by the high school, or the student can upload the certificate through Admissions Forms on the student’s myBLINN account.