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) Page 1 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. AB 1246 (Brownley) Page 2 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, AB 1246 (Brownley) Page 3 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).