BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1719 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 18, 2012 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Felipe Fuentes, Chair AB 1719 (Fuentes) - As Amended: March 28, 2012 Policy Committee: Education Vote:10-0 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: No SUMMARY This bill establishes a process for the State Department of Education (SDE) to conduct a review of supplemental materials aligned to the state Common Core Standards (CSS) in English language arts (ELA) and the revised English Language Development (ELD) Standards. Specifically, this bill: 1)Requires SDE to recommend, and the State Board of Education (SBE) to approve, evaluation criteria to guide the development and review of supplemental instructional materials (IM). 2)Requires SDE to develop a list, on a one-time basis and on or before July 1, 2014, of supplemental IM for use in kindergarten through grade eight that are aligned to the state's CSS in ELA and the revised ELD Standards. Further requires the IM to provide a bridge between the CSS in ELA and the standards-aligned IM currently being used by local education agencies (LEAs). 3)Requires SDE to recommend, and SBE to approve, content review experts to review the supplemental IM submitted, as specified. 4)Requires SBE, on or before June 30, 2014, to (a) approve all, or a portion, of the list of supplemental IM proposed by SDE or (b) reject all, or a portion of the list of supplemental IM proposed by SDE, as specified. Further requires the SBE, if it rejects all or a portion or adds an item to the supplemental IM list, to provide written reasons for its actions in a public meeting. AB 1719 Page 2 5)Authorizes LEAs to approve supplemental IM other than those approved by the SBE, if the LEA determines these materials are aligned with the CSS in ELA and the revised ELD standards, as specified. 6)Requires SDE to maintain a list of supplemental IM aligned to the CSS in ELA and the revised ELD Standards, as approved by the SBE, on its Internet website. Sunsets the provisions related to supplemental IM on July 1, 2014. FISCAL EFFECT Moderate GF administrative costs to SDE, likely between $150,000 and $250,000, to conduct a supplemental adoption of materials pursuant to this measure. COMMENTS 1)Background . As a condition of applying for the federal Race to the Top (RTT) grant program, states were required to adopt the CCS in ELA and mathematics by the fall of 2010. In August 2010, the SBE adopted these standards. In 2011, the Legislature approved and the governor signed the following bills with the purpose of integrating the newly adopted CCS in classrooms. a) AB 124 (Fuentes), Chapter 605, Statutes of 2011, established the ELD Advisory Committee for the purpose of aligning the ELD Standards to the CSS in ELA. SDE is currently beginning the process of implementing Chapter 605 and expects the advisory committee to complete its work in the summer of 2012, with final SBE adoption of the revised standards by November 2012. b) SB 140 (Lowenthal), Chapter 623, Statues of 2011, required SDE to develop a list of supplemental IM for grades K-8 aligned with CCS in ELA. The purpose of the supplemental IM is to provide a bridge between the Common Core Standards in ELA and the ELA content. c) AB 250 (Brownley), Chapter 608, Statutes of 2011, required SDE to develop curriculum frameworks and professional development modules aligned to the CCS and prepares the state's assessment system for reauthorization AB 1719 Page 3 and alignment with these new standards. 2)Purpose . Since the adoption of the CCS in August 2010, LEAs have been anxious to understand how these standards will be integrated into existing classroom curriculum. Likewise, they are also concerned with when their pupils and teachers will be held accountable via the assessment system for teaching the standards. Given the state's severe fiscal crisis, the SPI, the SBE, the governor, and the Legislature have been hesitant to make large scale decisions regarding the implementation of these standards. The enactment of SB 140 (Lowenthal) was intended to be a first step in ensuring teachers and pupils have access to quality IM to begin the instructional transition from the existing ELA Standards to the CCS in ELA. These materials are supplemental because the state has currently placed a moratorium on the adoption and purchase of state adopted IM. With the requirement in AB 124 (Fuentes) to revise and align the existing ELD Standards to the CSS in ELA, there is a need to ensure that supplemental IM are developed that are aligned to two sets of standards as well. According to the author, "SB 140 unintentionally omitted the process of aligning these supplemental materials to the ELD Standards. This bill corrects this and simply ensures that districts and teachers have the best tools available to them to instruct all children, including ELL pupils, in the CSS in ELA." 3)AB 2 X4 (Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009 , specified that LEAs are not required to purchase IM through the 2012-13 FY. Consistent with the non-purchasing requirement, Chapter 2 also suspended the requirement for SBE to adopt IM or conduct other procedures associated with adoption (i.e., adopting curriculum frameworks) until the 2013-14 school year. SB 70 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011, extended this suspension until the 2014-15 FY. This bill does not require LEAs to purchase IM. AB 1719 Page 4 Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916) 319-2081