BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
                                          
          
          AB 1246 (Brownley) - Instructional Materials.
          
          Amended: As Proposed to be AmendedPolicy Vote: Education 6-2
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: August 16, 2012                               
          Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez                       
          
          SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.

          
          Bill Summary: AB 1246 makes numerous changes to the processes 
          for, and rules governing, reviewing and approving K-8 
          instructional materials.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              Codified legislative intent: $200,000-$400,000 to conduct 
              the feasibility study and produce the related report, 
              reliant on private funds. If private funds are not 
              available, this creates cost pressure for the General Fund 
              to conduct the study, and potentially to implement 
              recommendations.
              Reviews: Significant state costs, which will be fully 
              recovered by publishers' fees.
              Instructional materials: Substantial cost pressure for 
              local educational agencies (LEAs) to purchase new 
              instructional materials.

          Background: Academic content standards define the knowledge, 
          concepts and skills that pupils should learn at each grade 
          level. Curricular frameworks serve as a blueprint for how to 
          implement the standards and provide guidance to publishers, 
          along with evaluation criteria, for the development of 
          instructional materials. The processes for the revision of 
          curricular frameworks and adoption of instructional materials 
          are suspended until the 2015-16 school year.  (EC § 60200.7)

          Notwithstanding the suspension, current law requires the 
          development of frameworks specific to the Common Core standards 
          in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics, and evaluation 
          criteria relative to supplemental instructional materials that 
          are aligned to the Common Core standards. (EC § 60207 and § 
          60605.86)








          AB 1246 (Brownley)
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          The currently suspended process for the review and adoption of 
          instructional materials involved the submission of materials by 
          publishers for review by committees of the Instructional Quality 
          Commission, public hearings of both the Commission and the State 
          Board of Education (SBE), and adoption by the SBE. That process 
          typically took 30 months to complete.  

          The SBE is required to adopt instructional materials for grades 
          1-8, pursuant to Article IX, Section 7.5 of the California 
          Constitution.  

          Proposed Law: This bill makes changes to various aspects of K-8 
          instructional materials adoptions. Specifically, this bill:

             1)   Codifies legislative intent for the SPI to conduct a 
               study, using private funds, to determine the feasibility of 
               a statewide system of digital distribution of instructional 
               materials, and submit a specified report to the 
               Legislature.

             2)   Establishes an 8-year review cycle for instructional 
               materials for all subjects.

             3)   Authorizes districts to purchase instructional materials 
               that are not on the state-adopted list, as specified.  

             4)   Provides that any instructional materials purchased by 
               local educational agencies (LEAs) during the flexibility 
               period shall be aligned with state standards, instead of 
               being state-adopted.  

             5)   Authorizes publishers to submit revisions to currently 
               adopted instructional materials, and authorizes the 
               California Department of Education (CDE) to assess a fee on 
               publishers to have their materials reviewed.  

             6)   Requires the SBE to consider recommendations for 
               instructional materials from the SPI, and consider comments 
               from other advisory bodies and the public. 

             7)   Delays the adoption of the math framework to November 
               30, 2013. Authorizes the math evaluation criteria to be 
               adopted separately from the framework, by March 31, 2013.








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             8)   Authorizes the SBE to adopt math instructional materials 
               for K-8 aligned to the Common Core standards by February 
               28, 2014.

             9)   For purposes of the math adoption, authorizes the CDE to 
               assess a fee on publishers to have their materials reviewed 
               and authorizes the SBE to reduce the fee for small 
               publishers, upon request. Requires the fee to be in an 
               amount that does not exceed the reasonable costs to the CDE 
               in conducting the process.  Authorizes the use of the funds 
               to be used for substitute costs and stipends for content 
               review experts.  

             10)  Stipulates that instructional materials for math that 
               are aligned to the national Common Core standards shall be 
               deemed to be standards-aligned for purposes of the 
               settlement of Williams v. California.

             11)  Shortens an existing requirement that evaluation 
               criteria be approved at least 30 months prior to the 
               adoption of instructional materials to 12 months.  

          Related Legislation: SB 1200 (Hancock) authorizes the review and 
          modification of the Common Core standards for grade 8 
          mathematics and the adoption of the common core college and 
          career readiness standards. This bill is pending in the Assembly 
          Appropriations Committee.

          Staff Comments: This bill codifies legislative intent that the 
          SPI conduct a study, which may include a pilot program, to 
          determine the feasibility of a statewide system of digital 
          distribution of instructional materials, and report to the 
          Legislature on its findings by December 31, 2014. The 
          legislative intent specifies that the study would use private 
          funds. 

          The CDE estimates that such a study would cost 
          $200,000-$400,000. It is unclear what the actual cost would be, 
          because the description of the study and report are vague. The 
          CDE does not have private funds secured for this purpose. This 
          codified legislative intent creates cost pressure for the CDE to 
          either seek out private funds for this purpose or, to the extent 
          that the CDE has private funds that can be used more broadly, 








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          use those private funds for this purpose. Additionally, the 
          SPI's eventual recommendations regarding digital instructional 
          materials could create cost pressure to implement related 
          policies and programs.

          This bill allows publishers to submit revisions to currently 
          adopted instructional materials for review. It also allows 
          publishers to submit mathematics instructional materials for 
          review, and establishes a process for recovering costs through 
          fees charged to publishers in order to have their materials 
          reviewed. The CDE has indicated that the process ensures that 
          the CDE will fully recover its costs for these activities. 

          Various provisions of this bill provide greater flexibility for 
          LEAs to select which instructional materials to purchase. For 
          example, while the SBE's instructional materials adoption 
          process is suspended, this bill authorizes districts to purchase 
          instructional materials that are not on the state-adopted list 
          as long as they are aligned with Common Core standards. This 
          authority and flexibility creates cost pressure for LEAs to 
          begin purchasing new instructional materials. Currently, 
          instructional materials block grants are subject to categorical 
          flexibility, intended to help LEAs better manage their budget 
          reductions; this bill creates pressure to use those funds for 
          their original purpose instead of other educational priorities.

          Proposed Author Amendments: Clarify private funding requirements 
          for feasibility study. Make minor clarifying changes to 
          instructional materials provisions.  

          Committee Amendments: Delete the legislative intent for the the 
          SPI to conduct a feasibility study. Make the bill contingent 
          upon the enactment of AB 1719 (Fuentes).