HOUSE BILL 313

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2014

INTRODUCED BY

Rick Miera

AN ACT

RELATING TO EDUCATION; CREATING THE STATE BILINGUAL ADVISORY COUNCIL; PROVIDING DUTIES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. A new section of the Bilingual Multicultural Education Act is enacted to read:

     "[NEW MATERIAL] STATE BILINGUAL ADVISORY COUNCIL--MEMBERSHIP--DUTIES.--

          A. The "state bilingual advisory council" is created to advise the secretary and the department on the effective implementation of the Bilingual Multicultural Education Act. The council shall consist of fifteen members who have technical knowledge of and expertise in bilingual education as follows:

                (1) three members who represent Indian nations, tribes and pueblos;

                (2) eleven members who represent teachers, principals, superintendents, higher education and education administrators who are from different geographical areas of the state; and

                (3) one bilingual parent.

          B. Council members shall be appointed by the secretary from a list of nominees submitted by the director of the bilingual multicultural education bureau of the department after consultation with various stakeholder groups. Members shall serve staggered three-year terms; provided that the secretary, when making initial appointments, shall determine the stagger.

          C. The council shall:

                (1) study issues of bilingual multicultural education and provide advice to the department to:

                     (a) strengthen the quality of bilingual multicultural education programs;

                     (b) promote rigorous culturally and linguistically responsive instruction in bilingual multicultural education programs; and

                     (c) support effective classroom teaching for participating bilingual education and federally funded Title 3 program students, particularly English language learners; and

                (2) advise the bilingual multicultural education bureau on issues such as:

                     (a) identifying best practices for training highly effective teachers to work effectively with English language learners, regardless of whether students are placed in bilingual multicultural education programs;

                     (b) developing and training highly effective bilingual teachers;

                     (c) building the capacity of education administrators to lead effective bilingual multicultural education programs;

                     (d) training all educators to properly consider and address the language and learning needs of English language learners;

                     (e) working to develop solutions for streamlining and strengthening program management, implementation and monitoring of bilingual multicultural education programs; and

                     (f) creating better outcomes based on data for bilingual multicultural students, including English language learners and immigrant students."

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