BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION Alan Lowenthal, Chair 2011-2012 Regular Session BILL NO: SB 994 AUTHOR: Vargas AMENDED: March 29, 2012 FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 25, 2012 URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Lynn Lorber SUBJECT : California Latino curriculum. SUMMARY This bill requires the California Department of Education to establish the California Latino Curriculum Committee for the purpose of developing California Latino curriculum. BACKGROUND Academic content standards define the knowledge, concepts, and skills that pupils should acquire at each grade level. Curricular frameworks are the blueprint for implementing the standards, and include criteria by which instructional materials are evaluated. The processes for reviewing frameworks and adopting instructional materials have been suspended since July 28, 2009. The State Board of Education (SBE) is specifically prohibited from reviewing frameworks and adopting instructional materials until the 2015-16 school year. (Education Code § 60200.7) The history-social science framework was last adopted in 2005. A review of this framework was underway and nearly complete when the state suspended the process in July 2009, due to budget constraints. The history-social science standard was adopted in 1998. ANALYSIS This bill requires the California Department of Education to establish the California Latino Curriculum Committee SB 994 Page 2 for the purpose of developing California Latino curriculum. Specifically, this bill: 1) Requires the CDE, before January 1, 2014, to establish the California Latino Curriculum Committee for the purpose of developing California Latino curriculum pursuant to Education Code § 51204.5. 2) Requires the California Latino curriculum to be consistent with the history-social science curriculum framework and academic content standards. 3) Provides that the California Latino curriculum is for use in K-12 public schools. 4) Requires the California Latino Curriculum Committee to be composed of the following individuals: a) The Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the University of California, Los Angeles. b) The senior curator of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. c) A representative of the California Teachers Association. d) A representative of the Association of California School Administrators. e) A representative of the California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators. f) The President of the California Latino School Boards Association. g) A representative of the CDE. h) A member of the Association of Mexican American Educators. i) A member of the California Rural Network. SB 994 Page 3 j) A superintendent of a northern California school district. aa) A superintendent of a southern California school district. bb) The San Diego Superintendent of Schools. STAFF COMMENTS 1) Need for the bill . According to the author, "Diverse cultures have helped shape our state over the past 243 years and have contributed enormously to its history and culture. Yet the historical record of Latinos in California currently taught in our state schools is very limited. As a result, many important aspects of Latino history and life are absent altogether from California's historical record. The workgroup created by this bill would create a curriculum guide that identifies Latino influence and contributions to California history for inclusion in K-12 curriculum, state and local governing board adopted instructional materials, and next revision of the California Content Standards for History-Social Science." 2) Outside of existing process . This bill requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to establish the California Latino Curriculum Committee to develop California Latino curriculum. The Instructional Quality Commission (formerly known as the Curriculum Commission) is responsible for the review and revision of curriculum frameworks, and provides to the State Board of Education (SBE) recommendations for modifications to the frameworks. The deficiencies with the current process have not been clearly articulated. 3) Outside of existing curriculum framework ? This bill does not specify how the California Latino curriculum will be included in instructional materials or provided to pupils. Is the California Latino curriculum to be stand-alone and separate from the history-social science framework? The author's SB 994 Page 4 statement indicates that the California Latino curriculum is to be included in the next revision of the history-social science framework. However, this bill does not make any provision for the inclusion of California Latino curriculum in the history-social science framework. 4) Update of History-Social Science framework was underway . The Curriculum Commission approved the draft update of this framework for field review on July 17, 2009. However, suspension of the framework and instructional material processes was implemented beginning July 28, 2009, meaning that no actual field review or online survey has occurred for this framework. Many stakeholders and ethnic groups support the resumption of this process because the updated frameworks are a culmination of months of research and negotiations. The updated framework includes information relative to the role of Sikhs and Korean Americans, among others. 5) Revision of standards . The author's statement references the inclusion of the California Latino curriculum in the next revision of the history-social science standard. The standards have never been revised (other than the recent adoption of common core standards in English language arts and math), nor does the SBE have the authority to do so. In January of 2005, the Legislative Counsel issued an opinion that the State Board does not have the authority to revise the standards under current law. Counsel noted that current law permits the Board to "modify any proposed ? standards prior to adoption" but that the authority to revise the standards appears to end with their adoption. 6) Why just one ethnic group ? This bill requires the establishment of a committee to develop California Latino curriculum pursuant to current law, which requires instruction in social sciences to include the early history of California and a study of the role and contributions of: a) Both men and women. b) Native Americans. c) African Americans. SB 994 Page 5 d) Mexican Americans. e) Asian Americans. f) Pacific Islanders. g) European Americans. h) Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. i) Persons with disabilities. j) Members or other ethnic and cultural groups. Staff recommends an amendment to strike the provisions of this bill and instead require the SPI to convene a workgroup to examine curricula related to the early history of California and the role and contributions of groups of people described in current law, including but not limited to California Latinos. This workgroup could report any recommendations to the Instructional Quality Commission for consideration in the next revision of the history-social science framework. 7) Related legislation . SB 1540 (Hancock) requires the SBE to consider, by June 30, 2014, the adoption of the currently stalled history-social science framework. SB 1540 is pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee. SB 993 (De Leon) authorizes social science instruction to include instruction on the Bracero program. SB 993 is pending on the Assembly Floor. SB 1080 (Lieu) provides that instruction in economics may include instruction related to personal finances and would require the CDE to develop a personal finances curriculum in the next adoption cycle of the mathematics and history-social science curriculum frameworks. SB 1080 is pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee. SB 1325 (Wyland) requires the SPI and SBE to consider methods to enhance the knowledge of our history and form of government, and increase levels of civic participation. SB 1325 is pending in this Committee. AB 580 (Davis) requires instruction on the role and contributions of people of all races, colors, SB 994 Page 6 genders, sexual orientations, national origins, religions and marital status to include updated references. AB 580 is pending in the Senate Rules Committee. AB 1756 (Knight) authorizes schools to elect not to provide social science instruction on the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. AB 1756 failed passage in the Assembly Education Committee. AB 2546 (Donnelly) recasts existing provisions relative to instruction on the role and contributions of people with specified characteristics to exclude mention of sexual orientation, and instead require, among other things, the study of a person in social science instruction to be accurate and based solely on historical significance rather than membership in a protected class. AB 2546 is pending in the Assembly Education Committee. 8) Prior legislation . SB 48 (Leno, Chapter 81, 2011) requires instruction in social science to include the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. SB 300 (Hancock, Chapter 624, 2011), at one time included provisions relative to the completion of the history-social science framework. The final version of SB 300 requires the SBE to adopt revised standards in science. SB 1278 (Wyland, 2010) would have required the SBE to adopt a revised framework and evaluation criteria for history-social science in 2011. SB 1278 was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. AB 2069 (Carter, 2010) would have required the SBE to adopt a revised framework and evaluation criteria for history-social science by July 1, 2011. AB 2069 was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. SUPPORT California Communities United Institute SB 994 Page 7 OPPOSITION California Council for the Social Studies