INTENSIVE READING OR LANGUAGE INTERVENTION PILOT PROGRAM

(a) In this section, "pilot program" means the intensive reading or language intervention pilot program. (b) The commissioner by rule shall establish a pilot program in which a participating campus provides intensive reading or language intervention to participating students. (c) A campus may apply to the commissioner to participate in the pilot program. The commissioner may select for participation in the pilot program only campuses that have failed to improve student performance in reading according to standards established by the commissioner. The standards established by the commissioner for purposes of this subsection must be based on reading performance standards considered for student promotion under Section 28.021. (d) The commissioner shall adopt minimum criteria that a program must meet to be selected by a participating campus for use in providing intensive reading or language intervention. The criteria must include neuroscience-based, scientifically validated methods, scientifically based reading interventions, or instructional tools that have been proven to accelerate language acquisition and reading proficiency for struggling readers. A participating campus shall submit a summary of the campus's proposed intensive intervention program to the commissioner for approval. The commissioner may approve only a program that follows the minimum criteria adopted under this subsection. (e) The principal of a participating campus, in consultation with classroom teachers at the campus, shall select students to participate in the pilot program based on assessment data. Benchmark measures shall be administered at the beginning and end of the program. (f) Not later than December 31, 2008, any vendor of an intensive intervention program approved under Subsection (d), in consultation with the agency and each school district with which the vendor contracts under this section, shall provide the legislature with a report describing student progress under the assessments administered to participating students under Subsection (e). (g) Notwithstanding any other law, the commissioner shall provide funding for the pilot program using not more than $6 million of funding appropriated for purposes of Section 28.0211. (h) The commissioner shall adopt rules necessary to implement this section. (i) The commissioner shall make the pilot program available to participating campuses during the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years.