WEST virginia legislature

2020 regular session

Introduced

House Bill 4365

By Delegates  Higginbotham, Ellington, Jennings, Hanna, R. Thompson, Hamrick and Barnhart

[Introduced January 16, 2020; Referred to the Committee on Education.]

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §18B-14-3, relating to authorizing granting of college credit hours for learning English as a second language; authorizing state higher education institutions to grant college credit hours for English learned as a second language and to accept English learned as a foreign language to satisfy college foreign language requirement.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 14. MISCELLANEOUS.

§18B-14-3. College credit authorized for learning English as second language.

            State Institutions of higher education are authorized to offer college credit hours for English learned as a second language and may accept English learned as a second language to satisfy an institution’s foreign language requirement. To obtain college credit the student must be enrolled in the institution granting credit and be certified as having reached a satisfactory score on the test of English as a foreign language.

            The Higher Education Policy Commission and the Council for Community and Technical College Education shall jointly propose rules to set and identify scores required on the test of English as a foreign language for course credit being offered.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize state institutions of higher learning to grant college credit to students who have learned English as a second language.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.