BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
97 (Torlakson)
Hearing Date: 08/27/2010 Amended: 08/20/2010
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 97 would establish a process for the review
and revision of content standards in the subject areas of
science and history-social science.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-12 Fund
Content standards revision $360 General
Frameworks revisions $920 General
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
The academic content standards specify the content that students
are expected to acquire at each grade level from kindergarten to
grade twelve and are the foundation for the accountability
system, instructional materials and staff development programs.
The curriculum frameworks (which guide instruction), teacher
training and professional development, textbooks, student
assessments, and the state's accountability and intervention
programs are all aligned to the academic content standards.
While current law provides for a periodic review and revision of
curriculum frameworks as part of the instructional materials
adoption process, there is currently no process for reviewing
academic content standards, except for language arts and
mathematics (as described below). Panels have previously been
established to develop content standards in the subject areas of
English language arts, Mathematics, History-Social Science,
Science, Visual and Performing Arts, Career Technical Education,
Health Education, World Languages, and Physical Education Model
Content Standards for review and approval by the State Board of
Education (SBE). As the authority for these panels have
expired, the content standards for some core academic areas have
not been reviewed since the 1990s.
SB 1 (Steinberg, Ch. 2, 2009-10 Fifth Extraordinary Session),
among other things, established a 21-member Academic Content
Standards Commission for the purpose of developing academic
content standards in language arts and mathematics that are at
least 85% the same as the common core standards being developed
by the Common Core State Standards Initiative. As required by
SB 1, the Commission reported its recommendations to the SBE by
July 15, 2010, and the SBE accepted the standards on August 2,
2010.
This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction
to establish the Academic Content Standards Commission to review
and propose revisions to the content standards for science and
history-social science. Within 90 days of receipt, the
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AB 97 (Torlakson)
SBE would be required to review the Commission's proposals to
revise the standards and either adopt or reject them, but would
have no authority to revise the work of the panel. The bill
further provides that the science and history-social science
content areas would be reviewed upon a schedule adopted by the
SBE, and when funding permits.
According to the Department of Education, the costs for the
review and revision of each content standard would be
approximately $180,000, totaling $360,000 for both areas. There
may ultimately be additional subsequent costs of $920,000 to
revise the curriculum frameworks to reflect changes to the
content areas. Total costs, then, to update the science and
history-social science content areas would be approximately $1.3
million. It's also likely that there would be significant
downstream costs relating to revisions of the state's assessment
and accountability systems and professional development
programs. These costs would likely be in the millions.
A different version of this bill - which would have established
a process for revising the content standards in English language
arts and mathematics - was held on this committee's suspense
file in 2009.
SB 1278 (Wyland) would allow the Department of Education to
complete the revision of the history-social science curriculum
framework that was halted by legislation in 2009. That bill was
held by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Other recent bills have outlined procedures for reviewing and
revising the content standards. AB 1454 (Richardson) of 2007
failed passage in the Senate Education Committee. AB 1100
(Mullin) of 2005 was held by the Assembly Appropriations
Committee. AB 2744 (Goldberg, 2004), was vetoed by the
Governor. In 2008, SB 1097 (Torlakson) was vetoed by the
Governor, whose message expressed concern about dilution of the
authority of the Governor and of the State Board of Education.