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| SPONSOR: | Lopez | DATE TYPED: | 03/16/01 | HB | |||
| SHORT TITLE: | Reading Courses For Teacher Certification | SB | 395/aHEC | ||||
| ANALYST: | Fernandez | ||||||
| Recurring
or Non-Rec |
Fund
Affected | ||||
| FY01 | FY02 | FY01 | FY02 | ||
| NFI | |||||
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates HB281
Relates to HB39 and HB81
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
State Department of Public Education (SDE)
Commission on Higher Education (CHE)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of HEC Amendment
The House Education Committee amendment strikes language which would have allowed the State Board of Education to establish or accept equivalent requirements for reciprocal certification or minimum requirements for alternative certification.
Synopsis of Original Bill
Senate Bill 395 amends the Public School Code to require the State Board of Education to mandate that applicants for elementary licensure complete 6 semester hours in reading and persons seeking secondary certification complete 3 semester hours in reading. The new provisions apply to students first entering a college or university in the fall of 2001.
Significant Issues
According to SDE, the State Board of Education's competencies for teacher preparation in elementary education, secondary education, and special education include the areas of reading and literacy. Institutions of higher education must include reading and literacy courses in order to receive board approval. All applicants for New Mexico licensure who complete a teacher preparation program at a New Mexico post-secondary institution will be required to complete coursework in reading and literacy.
SDE also indicates this bill would require out-of-state applicants to show proof of completion of the required reading courses to be eligible for licensure. Approximately one-half of the initial licenses issued by SDE were to out-of-state applicants.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
SDE indicates the administrative impact would be minimal. The department would need to conduct a more in-depth review of transcripts to identify the appropriate reading courses.
CONFLICT/DUPLICATION/COMPANIONSHIP/RELATIONSHIP
Duplicates HB281.
Relates to HB39 and HB81. Both bills focus on preparing teachers to teach reading.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
As indicated by SDE, this bill may be viewed as a barrier to attracting out-of-state applicants since it would require applicants to show proof of completion of the required courses in order to receive a teaching license in New Mexico.
This bill is supported by the Legislative Education Study Committee
CTF/ar/njw