BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 199
AUTHOR: Ducheny
AMENDED: March 31, 2009
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 15, 2009
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Beth Graybill
SUBJECT : Teacher Professional Development: Subject Matter
Projects
SUMMARY:
This bill authorizes the establishment of three additional
California Subject Matter Projects, deletes the sunset date
on existing projects, authorizes projects to provide
assistance to teachers in multiple pathway programs, and
reduces the membership of advisory boards for individual
subject matter projects.
BACKGROUND
Existing law provides for the establishment and maintenance
of six California Subject Matter Projects (CSMP) for the
purpose of developing and enhancing teachers' subject matter
knowledge and pedagogical skills. Current law, Education
Code section 99201, authorizes the following subject matter
projects:
a) The California Writing Project
b) The California Reading and Literature Project
c) The California Mathematics Project
d) The California Science Project
e) The California History-Social Science Project
f) The World History and International Studies
project.
Existing law requires the Regents of the University of
California (UC), with the approval of an intersegmental
Concurrence Committee, to establish and maintain the projects
and specifies the composition of the concurrence committee to
be representatives of the various segments of education.
Existing law authorizes the UC to establish other subject
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matter projects and specifies that no funds allocated in the
annual Budget Act shall be used for subject matter projects
in subjects not specified in Education Code Section 99201.
Existing law makes the CSMP inoperative on June 30, 2012, and
repeals the authorizing statute on January 1, 2013.
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Adds the following projects to the list of authorized
subject matter projects:
a) The California Physical Education-Health
Project
b) The California Arts Project
c) The California Foreign Language Project
2) Deletes the inoperative and repeal dates, thereby
extending the operation of these provisions
indefinitely.
3) Authorizes the CSMP to provide assistance to academic
teachers and career technical education (CTE) teachers
to develop and enhance the content knowledge and
pedagogical skills necessary to develop and deliver
instruction in multiple pathway programs.
4) Reduces the number of representatives serving on the
advisory committee for each project and specifies that
representatives selected by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) and State Board of Education (SBE)
shall be educators (instead of teachers) with expertise
in the subject areas addressed by the project.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) What are the CSMP ? The CSMP provide intensive,
content-rich and discipline-based professional
development designed to develop and enhance teachers'
content knowledge and instructional strategies for the
purpose of improving student learning and academic
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performance as measured against the state's K-12
academic content standards. In addition, the CSMP
provide teachers with instructional strategies for
working with English learners and help teachers use
research and data to improve student learning and
achievement.
In addition to the six projects authorized in statute, the
UC has maintained projects in art, foreign language, and
physical education. Together, the nine projects serve
over 800 school districts and close to 100 sites
statewide on campuses of the UC, California State
University, and independent colleges and universities.
According to the UC, the projects annually provide
training to over 40,000 teachers, administrators, and
university faculty.
2) Background . Prior to 1998, the Education Code
provided for the establishment and maintenance of
subject matter projects in each subject area of teachers
in the public schools and established priority for
funding according to subjects required for high school
graduation and subjects that coincided with state
curriculum initiatives. With the adoption of K-12
academic content standards in the late 1990s, the state
narrowed the focus of the CSMP to the core content areas
of English language Arts, mathematics, science, and
history-social science. AB 1734 (Mazzoni, Chapter 333,
Statutes of 1998), authorized the six projects currently
specified in Education Code Section 99201.
While AB 1734 authorized the UC to establish additional
subject matter projects, the legislation prohibited such
projects from receiving funding in the annual Budget
Act. SB 611 (Ducheny), Chapter 857, Statutes of 2003,
expressed legislative intent that maintenance-level
funding be provided for projects in academic fields
seeking standards approval from the State Board.
Accordingly, the UC has continued to operate subject
matter projects in the arts, foreign language, and
physical education/health.
3) Prior legislation . Although the SBE has adopted K-12
academic content standards in visual and performing arts
(2001), physical education (2005), health education
(2008) and world languages (2009), previous attempts to
authorize projects in arts, physical education-health
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and foreign language have been unsuccessful.
Legislation aimed at authorizing the three projects
include SB 232 (Ducheny, 2007), which was amended in the
Senate Appropriations Committee to delete these
provisions, SB 1073 (Simitian, 2006), which was held
under submission by the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, and AB 108 (Mazzoni, 2000), which was vetoed
by Governor Davis with the following message:
The UC currently provides support for the arts,
foreign language, and physical education projects. I
believe that highest priority for the use of state
funds should be to support the existing subject matter
projects aimed at improving student academic
performance in English, mathematics, science, and the
social sciences.
4) Multiple pathways . This bill authorizes projects to
provide support to teachers in multiple pathway programs
as a means of addressing the needs of teachers who are
developing and delivering instruction in courses that
integrates "information-rich" content and
"experience-rich" application. Given the mandate of the
CSMP to develop and enhance both content knowledge and
instructional strategies and in light of the fact that
the SBE has adopted model curriculum standards for
career technical education, expanding the focus of the
subject matter projects seems appropriate. Yet could
the focus on multiple pathway teachers be too narrow?
Staff recommends amendments to 1) delete the language
concerning academic and career technical education
teachers and 2) to clarify that the support available
through CSMP includes CTE teachers.
5) Author amendments . Staff understands that it is the
author's intent to allow the SPI to appoint two
representatives instead of one to project advisory
boards, and to change the composition of the CSMP
Concurrence Committee by adding a representative
selected by the SPI, who is not currently represented on
the committee. Staff recommends the bill be amended to
reflect the author's intent.
6) Fiscal impact . The 2009-10 Budget Act allocates
$9.35 million in state and federal funding to support
the six existing CSMPs. Of this amount, $4.35 million
is federal funding from Part A of Title II of the
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Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Teacher and
Principal Training and Recruiting
Fund), and $5 million in state General Funds. By
authorizing the arts, foreign language, and physical
education-health projects in statute, this bill could
create cost pressure to increase funding for the CSMP in
the annual Budget Act.
SUPPORT
Association of California School Administrators
California Alliance for Arts Education
California Alliance for Arts Education
California Association for Health, Physical Education,
Recreation and Dance
California Language Teachers Association
California Postsecondary Education Commission
California Teachers Association
Californians Together
The California State University
University of California
OPPOSITION
None received.