BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 137
Page 1
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
FN: 0001391