BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 137
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          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 137 (Buchanan)
          As Amended  June 19, 2013
          Majority vote
           
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          |ASSEMBLY:  |75-0 |(May 9, 2013)   |SENATE: |37-0 |(August 19,    |
          |           |     |                |        |     |2013)          |
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           Original Committee Reference:    ED.  

           SUMMARY  :  Amends the requirement that American government and  
          civics be included in the framework in all history social  
          science courses, as appropriate, and encourages the application  
          of this content to promote civic engagement.

           The Senate amendments  add a reference to the Common Core State  
          Standards, in addition to all other academic content areas, as  
          the standards into which the civics learning is to be  
          integrated. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Senate Appropriations  
          Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.  
             

           COMMENTS  :  While the intent of any civic education is to provide  
          students with an understanding of our national and state  
          governments, civic education goes far beyond an academic  
          understanding of democracy.  The ultimate goal of any civic  
          education program must be to encourage individuals to actively  
          engage in the practice of democracy in the United States and  
          other countries. When using voting as one measure of political  
          participation it is important to note that in January 2013, the  
          Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and  
          Engagement (CIRCLE), released a survey that showed a clear  
          relationship between respondents' high school civics education  
          experiences and their knowledge of campaign issues and political  
          participation in the 2012 presidential election.  Civic  
          education in our K-12 schools is a critical first step to ensure  
          that the principals of democracy continue.

          The history-social science standards were developed in 1998 and  
          the History-Social Science Framework was last revised in 2005.   
          A review and update of this framework was underway and nearly  








                                                                  AB 137
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          complete when the state suspended the process on July 28, 2009,  
          due to fiscal constraints.  The State Board of Education (SBE)  
          is specifically prohibited from reviewing frameworks and  
          adopting instructional materials until the 2015-16 school year.   
          SB 1540 (Hancock), Chapter 288, Statutes of 2012, authorizes the  
          SBE to consider the adoption of a revised curriculum framework  
          and evaluation criteria for instructional materials in  
          history-social science, but prohibits the CDE from conducting  
          any work until after CDE has completed work related to the  
          development of curriculum frameworks for the common core content  
          standards.
           

          Analysis Prepared by  :    Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087 


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