BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 300 (Hancock) - Science Curriculum Frameworks
Amended: As introduced Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: April 22, 2013
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 300 requires the State Board of Education (SBE)
to consider the adoption of a revised curriculum framework and
evaluation criteria for instructional materials based on the
Next Generation of Science Standards, by November 30, 2015.
Fiscal Impact:
Develop science frameworks and evaluation criteria:
Potential costs of up to $1.1 million to the CDE, including
workload costs of up to $880,000 incurred over the 2.5 year
process.
Cost pressure: Significant cost pressure for the SBE to
adopt instructional materials in science, and for school
districts to purchase new instructional materials.
Background: Existing law prohibits the SBE from adopting new or
revised content standards, instructional materials, curricular
frameworks, or evaluation criteria until the 2015-16 school
year, with certain exceptions. (EC § 60200.7)
Existing law requires the SBE to consider the adoption of new
science standards by November 30, 2013. (EC § 60605.85)
The Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), in consultation
with the SBE, has convened a group of science experts for the
purpose of recommending science content standards for adoption
to the SBE which are required to be based upon the Next
Generation Science Standards. Those science standards, which
were developed by a consortium of states, managed by a
non-profit organization called Achieve, and based on the
Framework for K-12 Science Education developed by the National
Research Council, were released on April 10. The SBE is required
to consider the adoption of new science standards by November
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30, 2013.
The CDE is currently working on several Common Core
standards-related activities (including approving supplemental
instructional materials and evaluating mathematics instructional
materials). The CDE is scheduled to update the history-social
science framework and adopt updated science standards, and is
sponsoring legislation to implement additional Common Core
activities.
Proposed Law: SB 300 requires that the CDE create revised
science frameworks and evaluation criteria for instructional
materials, as specified, to be considered for adoption by the
SBE, by November 30, 2015.
Related Legislation: SB 1540 (Hancock) Ch. 288/2012 requires the
SBE to consider adopting a revised curriculum framework and
evaluation criteria for instructional materials in
history-social science, by July 1, 2014.
SB 300 (Hancock) Ch. 624/2011 required the SPI to recommend
revised science standards to the SBE by March 30, 2013. It
further requires the SBE to consider the adoption of those
content standards, as specified, by July 30, 2013.
Staff Comments: This bill requires the SBE to consider the
adoption of a revised framework and evaluation criteria for
instructional materials which, in turn, requires the CDE to
develop a revised framework for consideration by the SBE. The
lengthy process for developing frameworks includes, among many
activities: 1) the CDE convening focus group meetings; 2) the
SBE appointing a Curriculum and Framework Evaluation Criteria
Committee (CFCC); 3) the CFCC drafting the framework; 4) the
Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) reviewing, editing,
posting a draft of the framework online, and then recommending a
framework to the SBE for adoption.
Implementing the provisions of this bill will require the
restoration of the IQC, which had its activities suspended in
2009, as part of budget reductions. The CDE has already
submitted a Budget Change Proposal (BCP) requesting $290,000 to
restore the IQC (which would be necessary to complete the new
Common Core mathematics and ELA frameworks approved in statute).
The BCP does not request additional staff or overtime to
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complete these activities.
The CDE estimates its workload costs for implementing this
bill's provisions to be approximately $880,000. This figure is
primarily a projection of the amount of time that numerous
existing departmental staff would spend providing staff support
for developing the frameworks; the CDE has indicated it would
not require additional staff to implement the provisions of this
bill. The CDE has also indicated it would incur new costs for
web hosting (as required by law), travel reimbursement for focus
group meetings, office expenses and document preparation,
totaling approximately $124,000. Additionally, the department
would contract out for the actual writing of the framework,
which it estimates will cost $80,000.
The CDE recently submitted a budget request for development of
mathematics and ELA frameworks that included no funding for
staff time. It is unclear why the department would need
additional funding for the staff time necessary to develop
science frameworks pursuant to this bill, but not for the staff
time necessary to develop frameworks for mathematics and ELA.
This bill does not address the adoption of basic instructional
materials or the approval of supplemental materials. The
development of instructional materials typically follows the
adoption of evaluation criteria but requires legislation to
grant authority to the SBE to conduct an adoption.
As the bill's legislative findings and declarations indicate,
there is no requirement in the bill to purchase new
instructional materials that reflect the updated framework. This
activity has, however, traditionally followed the adoption of a
new framework and is tied to the implementation of a new
curriculum framework. Moreover, this bill specifically requires
the creation (for SBE consideration) of evaluation criteria for
determining appropriate instructional materials to implement the
framework, which creates pressure to adopt and (for districts
to) purchase new instructional materials.
At a minimum, this bill allows the process toward eventual
adoption of new instructional materials to proceed, and the
expenses related to that, to occur earlier. Absent the bill, the
CDE could not update science frameworks until the 2015-16 school
year, which would push the costs of potentially adopting new
instructional materials out even further. The costs of the
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materials adoption process are significant. The CDE indicates
that the direct state costs for the previous instructional
materials adoption cycle in this subject area were approximately
$1.3 million; recently, instructional materials adoptions have
been funded by publishers' fees.