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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR P. Campos

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/4/08

HB

SHORT TITLE

Language Development & Reading Pilot Program SB 468

ANALYST Haug

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$2,000.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

Department of Finance & Administration (DFA)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 468 appropriates $2,000.0 from the general fund to the Public Education Department

for expenditure in Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010 to establish a pilot research program for a

contractor to provide participating schools and participating students an intensive neuroscience-

driven language development and reading proficiency intervention.

Senate Bill 468 requires the Public Education Department to:

•

Adopt criteria for selection of a contractor which include neuroscience-based,

scientifically validated intervention methods and instructional tools that have been proven

to accelerate learning, cognitive ability and language and reading proficiency.

•

Consider the results for inclusion within a school improvement, corrective action and

school restructuring framework.

•

Report to the Legislative Education Study Committee no later than October 1, 2010 a

description of the assessment of student progress from participation in the pilot program.

Senate Bill 468 – Page

2

Senate Bill 468 requires a school participating in the pilot program:

•

To select high-risk, English-language-learning, special education and below-proficient-

reading students to participate in the program.

•

Assess each selected student before the student enters and after the student leaves the

pilot program to measure the student’s progress.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $2,000.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2010 shall revert

to the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to the PED,

The term “neuroscience-driven language development" is geared toward using multiple

senses in directing instruction. For instance, the program would use the auditory, visual

and language skills in tandem to direct instruction in literacy. These programs are

designed to leverage new neuroscience research and principles in order to increase

student literacy by helping a student’s brain to more efficiently process information. In

addition to building specific skills, these programs work with memory, attention,

processing rate and sequencing. The idea is to re-wire the brains of struggling learners to

establish new neuropathways in the brain so that students can more efficiently learn the

materials expected of them in the classroom.

While this legislation directs the pilot program to use a neuroscience-driven language

development reading intervention program, not all struggling learners may respond to this

methodology. Student needs should determine which intervention program and/or

instructional strategies are to be utilized and would need to be addressed in the RFP

process.

Current best practices endorse the use of a continuum of programs, combined with

flexible grouping, to allow students to achieve proficiency and then move to the next

level of instruction or to exit interventions completely. This continuum of programs also

ensures that students are matched with the most appropriate intervention that is designed

to help those particular individuals make substantial gains. This is especially crucial for

students with disabilities as these students are often many years below grade level in their

reading ability. It is the responsibility of the IEP Team to determine what services the

student needs and how these services are to be provided. The pilot could identify another

type of intervention program to help address students’ needs.

The neuroscience-driven language development assumes that the ability to process

language is a prerequisite to learning content. Therefore, using a multi-sensory approach

of visual and auditory techniques to enrich language development may assist struggling

learners in achieving proficiency.

Senate Bill 468 – Page

3

Paragraph C directs the PED to consider the research from this pilot project for inclusion

within the School Improvement Framework. Currently the school improvement

framework does not identify a specific curriculum, but allows each school to select

scientifically based programs, of which this could be one.

The DFA states in discussing whether these training techniques provide lasting results:

The Society for Neuroscience, in an article entitled, “Brain Plasticity, Language

Processing and Reading," discusses the potential promise of neuroscience-based

techniques for assisting in reading, especially for students who are second language

learners, and students with other reading, speech or hearing difficulties. However, the

article itself highlights the need for continued research, indicating that work with English

Language Learner adults yields positive but possibly short-termed results, stating that the

improvements subjects in one study lasted “at least three months."

The DFA notes that in addition to questions about the long-term effectiveness of neuroscience-

based programs, there are additional issues that should be considered:

•

The Public Education Department is currently engaged in several large-scale

projects designed to assist in improving reading outcomes for students including

Reading First, Kindergarten Plus, Kindergarten-Three Plus and America’s

Choice. It is important to fully understand whether current efforts are producing

results prior to potentially diluting efforts with the addition of another project.

•

The PED will need to establish criteria for the program, develop and run a

Request for Proposals, manage and evaluate the program for two years. PED

reports that they will need an additional FTE in order to manage a pilot program

of this size.

•

A short-cycle assessment will need to be used to establish whether or not students

are making progress. Currently, New Mexico’s school districts are allowed to

select their own short cycle assessment, which means that different assessments

are in use in different schools. In addition, SB 468 does not specify which grade

levels will be participating in a pilot. This means that PED will need to select or

establish a short cycle assessment that accurately measures student reading

achievement levels pre- and post-exposure to the program at all school levels

(elementary, middle and high).

•

PED will need to establish and carry out a comprehensive evaluation plan that

looks at program implementation fidelity in each school to ensure that schools are

implementing the pilot program uniformly, as well as analyzing student progress.

SB 468 does not state that funding can be used for administrative or evaluative

purposes.

GH/bb