By Greenberg                                    H.B. No. 1195

      75R5869 JSA-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to required courses in reading instruction for elementary

 1-3     teacher certification.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 21.050, Education Code, is amended by

 1-6     adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:

 1-7           (c)  The board shall require not less than nine of the

 1-8     semester credit hours required for a teaching certificate for

 1-9     teaching at the elementary level under Subsection (b) to be in

1-10     courses that include substantial training in research-based reading

1-11     instruction using a balanced and integrated approach to reading

1-12     instruction to assist students to master language sound structures

1-13     and contextual reading comprehension skills.

1-14           SECTION 2.  Section 21.050(c), Education Code, as added by

1-15     this Act, does not apply to a person who begins a teacher

1-16     certificate program before the 1997 fall semester.

1-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-23     passage, and it is so enacted.