BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 201
AUTHOR: Liu
INTRODUCED: February 7, 2013
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 3, 2013
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lynn Lorber
SUBJECT : Instructional materials.
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes the State Board of Education to adopt,
by November 30, 2015, K-8 instructional materials that are
aligned to the common core English language arts standards
and common core English language development standards.
BACKGROUND
Pursuant to Education Code � 60605.8, the State Board of
Education (SBE) adopted the common core academic content
standards (in mathematics and English language arts) in
August 2010.
Current law:
Requires the SBE to adopt, by September 30, 2012,
new English language development standards that are
aligned to the English language arts common core
standards. (EC � 60811.3)
Establishes processes for the development of
supplemental instructional materials in English
language arts (by September 30, 2012), English
language development (by June 30, 2014), and
mathematics (by September 30, 2012 & July 30, 2013).
(EC � 60605.86, � 60605.87 & � 60605.88)
Authorizes the SBE to conduct an adoption of basic
instructional materials in mathematics, by March 30,
2014. (EC � 60207)
Prohibits the SBE from adopting instructional
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materials, update curricular frameworks, or evaluation
criteria until the 2015-16 school year.
(EC � 60200.7)
Prohibits the SBE from adopting basic instructional
materials in English language arts or mathematics in
the year succeeding the year in which the SBE adopts
basic materials in the other subject for the same
grade levels. (EC � 60200)
ANALYSIS
This bill authorizes the State Board of Education (SBE) to
adopt instructional materials for grades K-8 that are
aligned to the common core English language arts standards
and common core English language development standards.
Specifically, this bill:
1) Authorizes the SBE to adopt basic instructional
materials for K-8 that are aligned to the common core
English language arts standards and the common core
English language development standards, by no later
than November 30, 2015.
2) Lifts the restriction on the back-to-back adoption of
instructional materials in mathematics and English
language arts.
3) Requires all of the following, for purposes of
conducting the adoption:
a) The California Department of
Education (CDE) to provide notice to all
publishers or manufacturers known to produce
basic instructional materials in language arts
and English language development, post an
appropriate notice on its Internet website, and
take other reasonable measures to ensure that
appropriate notice is widely circulated to
potentially interested publishers and
manufacturers.
b) The notice to specify that each
publisher or manufacturer choosing to participate
in the adoption shall be assessed a fee based on
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the number of programs the publisher or
manufacturer indicates will be submitted for
review and the number of grade levels proposed to
be covered by each program.
c) The CDE, before incurring
substantial costs for the adoption, to require
that a publisher or manufacturer that wishes to
participate in the adoption first declare the
intent to submit one or more specific programs
for adoption and specify the specific grade
levels to be covered by each program.
d) The CDE, after a publisher or
manufacturer has declared the intent to submit
one or more programs and the grade levels to be
covered by each program, to assess a fee that
shall be payable by the publisher or manufacturer
even if the publisher or manufacturer
subsequently chooses to withdraw a program or
reduce the number of grade levels covered.
e) The fee assessed to be in an
amount that does not exceed the reasonable costs
to the CDE in conducting the adoption process.
The CDE is required to take reasonable steps to
limit costs of the adoption and to keep the fee
modest.
f) A submission by a publisher or
manufacturer is prohibited from being reviewed
for purposes of adoption until the fee has been
paid.
g) The SBE, upon the request of a
small publisher or small manufacturer, is
authorized to reduce the fee for participation in
the adoption.
h) The CDE, if it determines that
there is little or no interest in participating
in an adoption by publishers and manufacturers,
to recommend to the SBE whether or not the
adoption shall be conducted, and the SBE is
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authorized to choose not to conduct the adoption.
i) Revenue derived from fees to be
budgeted as reimbursements and subject to review
through the annual budget process, and are
authorized to be used to pay for costs associated
with any adoption and for any costs associated
with the review of instructional materials,
including reimbursement of substitute costs for
teacher reviewers and to cover stipends for
content review experts.
4) Defines "small publisher" and "small manufacturer" as
an independently owned or operated publisher or
manufacturer that is not dominant in its field of
operation and that, together with its affiliates, has
100 or fewer employees, and has average annual gross
receipts of $10 million or less over the previous
three years.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, "The
State Board of Education (SBE) adopted the common core
standards in English language arts and mathematics in
2010. The SBE adopted updated standards for English
language development that are aligned with the common
core in 2012. The legislature recently authorized the
approval of separate supplemental instructional
materials English language arts and for English
language development. The next step is to authorize
the adoption of basic instructional materials that are
aligned to both the common core English language arts
standards and the common core English language
development standards."
2) Common core implementation timeline . California's
common core initiative includes the adoption or
approval of new standards, frameworks, criteria by
which instructional materials are evaluated,
supplemental instructional materials, basic
instructional materials, and a new assessment system.
California is currently pilot testing new assessments
and expects full implementation of new assessments in
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English language arts and mathematics in spring 2015.
This bill provides a due date of November 30, 2015 for
instructional materials that are aligned to both the
common core English language arts and common core
English language development standards. The CDE is
currently working on other common core-related
activities (approving supplemental instructional
materials, evaluating mathematics instructional
materials), which precludes the CDE from initiating
another adoption prior to the date established in this
bill. While state-adopted materials for K-8 will not
be available to school districts prior to the expected
administration of the new assessments, supplemental
materials in English language arts and English
language development (separately) are currently
available. Further, current law authorizes school
districts to use instructional materials that are
aligned to California's original academic content
standards or California's common core standards,
including materials that have not been adopted by the
SBE.
3) Back-to-back adoptions . Current law prohibits the SBE
from adopting basic instructional materials in English
language arts or mathematics in the year succeeding
the year in which the SBE adopts basic materials in
the other subject for the same grade levels.
Instructional materials for both subjects are very
expensive for districts to purchase; a gap of at least
one year put districts in a better financial position
to purchase a full adoption in both subjects. In
addition, prior statutes required districts to
purchase instructional materials within a certain
timeframe after those materials were adopted by the
SBE. That requirement no longer stands.
A new adoption of basic instructional materials in
mathematics was authorized in the last legislative
session. The SBE is authorized to adopt those
materials by March 30, 2014. This bill authorizes the
adoption of basic instructional materials in English
language arts/English language development, and lifts
the restriction on back-to-back adoptions of such
materials. Funding for the purchase of instructional
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materials is within categorical flexibility, and
districts are no longer required to purchase materials
adopted by the SBE. Therefore, lifting the
restriction on back-to-back adoptions should not
create financial hardships for school districts.
4) Fee-based adoption . This bill establishes a fee-based
adoption, whereby instructional materials publishers
are assessed a fee based on the number of subjects,
number and types of materials, and grade levels.
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee's
analysis of prior legislation that also calls for a
fee-based adoption, the CDE indicates that the process
ensures the CDE will fully recover its costs of the
adoption. Some publishers of instructional materials
have expressed concern that this process requires a
significant investment of resources to develop the
materials and pay for consideration by the CDE and SBE
without any assurance that school districts will
purchase those materials (particularly without a
requirement for districts to purchase nor specific
resources for districts to do so). The recently
authorized adoption of mathematics materials is
fee-based. It may be reasonable to monitor that
process to determine if publishers face insurmountable
obstacles.
5) Governor's Local Control Funding Formula . As part of
the 2013-14 Governor's Budget, the administration
proposes to restructure the existing K-12 finance
system and eliminate over 40 existing programs while
also repealing, what the administration determines are
countless "discretionary" provisions of statute, while
implementing a new formula known as the Local Control
Funding Formula (LCFF). The LCFF would consolidate
the vast majority of state categorical programs and
revenue limit apportionments into a single source of
funding (12 categorical programs, including Special
Education, Child Nutrition, Preschool, and After
School programs, would be excluded). The LCFF
proposal would also eliminate the statutory and
programmatic requirements for almost all existing
categorical programs - the programs would be deemed
"discretionary" and programs in any of these areas
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would be dependent on local district discretion. To
the extent that the LCFF or a modified version of it
is adopted as part of the budget, the majority of
currently required categorical activities would be
left to local districts' discretion. Therefore, the
changes proposed by this bill for instructional
materials could be diluted, eliminated, rendered
obsolete or discretionary at the local level.
SUPPORT
California Federation of Teachers
California School Boards Association
State Superintendent of Public Instruction
OPPOSITION
None on file.