As of recently, a notice was given out stating that Texas College Bridge must be completed in order to have early/late leave, in other words, off-periods.

Career Military College Specialist Brittany Amos coordinates TCB at Bowie. Amos briefly explains the recent change to TCB and provides information on why TCB was enforced.

“Early releases and late arrivals are privileges for our students when they prove that they are postsecondary ready,” Amos said. “Our campus has a tradition of our students not performing to benchmark standards on the SAT, ACT, or TSIA2 as a part of our college readiness requirements for school accountability.”

Amos summarizes how TCB affects students in a way to where they are able to have benefits for college and how it impacts our campus as a whole.

“Texas College Bridge positively affects students because it proves college readiness and provides TSI exemptions for up to two years after high school graduation for our students that choose to go to college,” Amos said. “It positively affects our campus because it allows our community to see what we produce students that are college ready.”

Math Teacher Katherine Henson and other course related teachers are within TCB to assist students who have not met the standards in their SAT, ACT, or TSIA2. Henson provides information on how the completion of TCB is important for our school.

“Completion of TCB gives our school the credit for CMR points and therefore, our school rating,” Henson said.

Henson replies that these changes can affect students negatively by having a certain deadline on when TCB should be completed and the amount of time students are given to finish.

“These changes stress students out between now and from May to complete TCB,” Henson said.

Junior Hailey Melendez is currently taking both courses for TCB, where she and other students have also received a notice on how off-periods are not offered if TCB is not completed, leading to her not agreeing with the recent change.

“I feel as though it’s really concerning and stressful that if we did not complete some questions, we would not receive off-periods,” Melendez said.

Melendez also believes that these sorts of changes can affect students in a way to have no other choice but to complete these stages if they were wanting to keep off-periods or earn exemptions.

“We feel forced to actually complete it because we feel pressured because of the notice that was sent out about off-periods,” Melendez said.