BILL ANALYSIS Ķ
AB 1246
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Date of Hearing: January 11, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 1246 (Brownley) - As Amended: January 4, 2012
SUBJECT : Instructional materials
SUMMARY : Revises the process for adopting instructional
materials for use in kindergarten and grades 1-8, inclusive
(K-8). Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes school districts and requires the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI), instead of the Instructional Quality
Commission (IQC), to recommend to the State Board of Education
(SBE) instructional materials for review and adoption, and
requires the following:
a) Instructional materials recommended by the SPI or by a
school district to meet existing criteria, as specified;
b) Recommendations submitted from the SPI and school
districts to include reports of findings that include
information regarding alignment of standards, program
organization, pupil assessments, teacher support, and
support for English learners and pupils with disabilities;
and,
c) Instructional material review committees convened by a
school district for the purpose of making recommendations
to consist of a majority of classroom teachers serving
pupils in the grade in which the instructional materials
are to be used.
2)Makes the instructional materials adoption cycles eight years
long for all content areas and authorizes the submission of
materials on a continuous basis, but authorizes the California
Department of Education (CDE) to assess a fee to a publisher
to conduct a review if those materials are submitted after a
time frame specified by the SBE.
3)Authorizes publishers to submit materials to the SPI and to
school districts and authorizes school districts to submit
district developed or published materials to the SBE.
4)Provides that the process of reviewing instructional materials
shall involve review committees that shall include, but shall
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not be limited to, volunteer content experts and reviewers
that include a majority of classroom teachers.
5)Specifies that the rules and procedures for the adoption of
instructional materials shall be transparent and consistently
applicable regardless of the format of the instructional
materials, which may include, but not be limited to, print,
digital, and open-source instructional materials.
6)Deletes the requirement that the IQC review and recommend
instructional materials for adoption, and instead, authorizes,
at the request of the SBE, the IQC to review instructional
materials reports of findings, hear appeals, and give
independent advice to the SBE on instructional materials.
7)Requires the SBE to hold a public hearing before adopting
instructional materials for use in the elementary schools of
the state.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the SBE to adopt basic instructional materials for
use in K-8 and to ensure that the instructional materials it
adopts meet specified criteria; and requires the criteria be
approved by resolution at the time the resolution adopting the
framework for the current adoption is approved, or at least 30
months before the date that the materials are to be approved
for adoption.
2)Requires the IQC to perform several duties including studying
and evaluating instructional materials and recommending to the
SBE instructional materials which it approves for adoption.
3)Provides that instructional materials may be submitted for
adoption not less than two times every six years in the
following subjects: language arts, mathematics, science,
social science, bilingual or bicultural subjects, and not less
than two times every eight years in any other subject for
which the SBE determines the adoption of instructional
materials to be necessary or desirable.
4)Provides that upon making an adoption of basic instructional
materials, the SBE is required to make available to listed
publishers and manufacturers and all school interests, a list
of those instructional materials by subject and grade level.
AB 1246
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5)Prohibits the SBE from adopting instructional materials or
follow the procedures for the adoption of instructional
materials until the 2015-16 school year.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : With the adoption of the common core academic content
standards, the state must ensure all students have access to
these recently adopted standards. AB 250 (Brownley), Chapter
608, Statutes of 2011, started a comprehensive process for
implementing the common core standards, through the development
of curriculum frameworks and model professional development
modules. A prior version of AB 250 also sought to improve the
instructional materials adoption process, but those provisions
were amended out the bill in the Senate, at the request of the
Administration for further deliberation. This bill contains the
provisions that were amended out of AB 250.
This bill makes changes to the instructional materials adoption
process to streamline it and give school districts the
opportunity to participate in the review of instructional
materials.
The current adoption process has been suspended until the
2015-16 school year, thus no instructional material adoptions
have taken place since the 2008 reading language arts adoption.
A temporary measure, SB 140 (Lowenthal), Chapter 623, Statutes
of 2011, was enacted to ensure availability of supplemental
instructional materials that are aligned to the common core
academic content standards while the process is suspended. The
provisions in SB 140 will sunset on July 1, 2014. The author's
intent is to have an improved process in place by the time the
state restarts the adoption of instructional materials. The
timing for the changes proposed by this bill may be appropriate
given that no adoptions are taking place at the present moment,
and therefore, no disruptions to the process are likely to
result from this bill.
Revising the K-8 instructional materials adoption process : The
K-8 instructional materials adoption process has been criticized
for being overly complex and not giving school districts enough
flexibility and options for instructional materials. This bill
modifies the role of the IQC, formerly the Curriculum
Development and Supplemental Materials Commission, in the
instructional materials adoption process, and requires the SPI
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and allows school districts to submit recommendations to the SBE
for the adoption of instructional materials, instead of the IQC.
The IQC will continue to exist but will be primarily
responsible for developing and revising curriculum frameworks
and criteria, and will have a limited role in the adoption of
instructional materials at the request of the SBE. This bill
authorizes the SBE to request the IQC to review reports of
findings prepared by the SPI or school districts and review
instructional materials, as necessary. The IQC will also serve
as an appeals panel when disputes emerge and in such cases, give
independent advice to the SBE on whether instructional materials
meet the required criteria.
The Legislative Analyst's Office notes in a 2007 report titled,
"Reforming California's Instructional Materials Adoption
Process," that removing the Curriculum Commission from the
process "would constrain the state-level tendencies to override
the evaluation decision of teachers and other experts. In so
doing, it likely would increase the number of district options
and reduce instructional materials costs." This bill will give
school districts the opportunity to participate in the process
of reviewing and adopting instructional materials and in turn
would provide more flexibility and options for school districts.
This bill moves away from the existing system which provides
school districts limited options to choose from and instead
allows districts to participate early in the process and to make
recommendations to the SBE relative to instructional materials.
The intent of this provision is to provide for a process that is
similar to the process used in the adoption of high school
instructional materials, whereby local school districts review
and adopt their own materials. However because the California
Constitution requires the SBE to adopt instructional materials
for use in K-8, this bill maintains the authority for the SBE to
approve or reject instructional materials submitted by school
districts. The bill requires the instructional materials meet
the SBE approved criteria. However a question may be raised as
to whether the bill should provide specificity on how the SBE
will ensure that the instructional materials submitted by school
districts are aligned to the standards and meet the evaluation
criteria. Others may argue that the SBE should have the
authority to develop policies and regulations for that purpose,
which this bill allows.
A public and transparent process : The existing process involves
content experts and field reviewers that make recommendations
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based on the extensive reviews they conduct. The intent is to
continue a similar open and public process that the SPI would
coordinate. Together the SPI and school districts would have
the opportunity to make recommendations that would in turn
potentially result in a comprehensive list of state-adopted
instructional materials that gives several program options for
school districts to choose from.
After textbooks are adopted by the SBE, school districts have to
conduct their own evaluation of instructional materials and to
select the materials that best meet the needs of their students.
Districts are given virtually no information to compare the
state-adopted materials when they conduct their own reviews.
This results in school districts spending additional time and
resources to duplicate, in many instances, the efforts of
experts who have already reviewed materials at the state level.
To address the lack of information and to increase transparency,
this bill requires a report of findings from school districts or
the SPI along with specified information be made available to
districts and posted on CDE's Internet Web site. For purposes
of transparency, this bill also requires the SBE to hold a
public meeting prior to the adoption of instructional materials.
Additionally, arguments have been made that the current adoption
process stifles rather than stimulates innovation, and that an
ongoing or rolling process might provide opportunities to update
materials more efficiently. To that end, this bill allows for
the continuous submission of instructional materials, but would
authorize the SBE to specify a timeframe during an eight year
cycle during which the reviews would be conducted per existing
practice of not charging a review fee, as currently done and
after that specified timeframe, publishers would be assessed a
fee to have their materials reviewed. This is similar to how
follow-up adoptions were handled in the past. Publishers had to
pay a fee to have materials reviewed during follow-up adoptions.
Arguments in support : The Association of California School
Administrators writes, "AB 1246 proposes a number of important
reforms to the instructional materials development and approval
process for K-8 instructional materials including greater local
control to recommend quality materials by school districts to
the state. We believe it's important to have a vehicle moving
forward to improve and reform the current process as California
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move towards the implementation of Common Core State Standards
as we as the upcoming reauthorization of California's assessment
and accountability system in four years."
Previous legislation : AB 250 (Brownley), Chapter 608, Statutes
of 2011, establishes a structure for the implementation of the
common core state standards by developing and adopting
curriculum frameworks and professional development opportunities
that are aligned to the common core state standards. An earlier
version of AB 250 contained similar provision as those found in
this measure.
SB 140 (Allan Lowenthal) Chapter 623, Statutes of 2011, requires
the CDE, on a one-time basis, to develop a list, on or before
July 1, 2012, of supplemental instructional materials (SIMs) for
use in K-8 that are aligned with California's common core (CCC)
academic content standards in language arts and for kindergarten
and grades 1 to 7, inclusive, that are aligned with CCC
standards in mathematics.
AB 314 (Brownley) of 2009 makes various changes to the state
instructional materials adoption process for K-8 and requires
school districts to provide pupils with newly adopted materials
within three years instead of two years. AB 314 was held in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 2315 (Mullin) of 2008 makes various changes to the
instructional materials adoption process, and provides
flexibility and more information to districts in the purchase of
IM. AB 2315 was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger with the
following message:
"The State Board of Education (SBE) recently addressed the issue
of greater transparency and clear timelines and procedures in
the instructional materials adoption process. Those SBE
regulations were intended to set forth the process by which the
SBE adopts curriculum frameworks, evaluation criteria, and
instructional materials. Moreover, I see no need to change the
process or the people involved in this important work. The SBE
should maintain the authority of selection and appointment of
instructional materials reviewers and content review experts."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
AB 1246
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Association of California School Administrators
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Marisol Aviņa / ED. / (916) 319-2087