BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 524
AUTHOR: Lara and Steinberg
AMENDED: April 17, 2013
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 24, 2013
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lynn Lorber
SUBJECT : Pathways Curriculum task force.
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
to appoint and staff a 12-member task force to develop
voluntary K-12 curriculum regarding postsecondary
opportunities and financial aid.
BACKGROUND
Current law establishes the Early Commitment to College
programs, a voluntary program with the purpose of
motivating students to prepare for college, increasing high
school graduation rates, help families understand that
college is attainable, providing a clear path and direct
assistance for students beginning in middle school, and
preparing a highly skilled workforce. The Superintendent
of Public Instruction is required to designate College
Opportunity Zones based on percentage of low-income
students and develop the "Save Me a Spot in College"
pledge, which assures students who sign it that the student
can continue his or her education at a California Community
College and receive financial aid as long as that student
continues to meet eligibility requirements. The Early
Commitment to College program sunsets on January 1, 2019.
(Education Code 54710)
Most segments and individual campuses of California's
public and private institutions of higher education
separately administer various outreach programs, many
directly to K-12 students. Many private proprietary
institutions also conduct outreach activities directed at
the general population. Some examples include the
California State University's Early Assessment Program,
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Summer Bridge/Transition programs, Troops to College, and
MESA.
The California Student Opportunity and Access Program
(Cal-SOAP) is administered by the California Student Aid
Commission. It was statutorily established in 1978 and is
directed to improve the flow of information about
postsecondary education and financial aid while raising the
achievement levels of low-income, elementary and secondary
school student or geographic regions with documented low
eligibility or college participation rates, and who are
first in their families to attend college. The Cal-SOAP
currently funds projects operating in 17 locations through
the state by consortia made up of secondary and
postsecondary schools and community agencies. Projects
annually apply to CSAC for funds and, by law, must provide
equal or greater matching funds. Some common services
provided by the consortia include advising, tutoring,
parent outreach and college awareness workshops. (EC �
69560)
The Cash for College program, administered by the
California Student Aid Commission, is designed to target
outreach and assistance for low-income and first-generation
college-bound students with financial aid applications by
conducting financial aid workshops and forming regional
partnerships between outreach communities, business and
student groups. (EC � 69550)
Student Aid Commission outreach and early awareness
programs: http://www.csac.ca.gov/doc.asp?ID=22
College and career planning information:
http://www.csac.ca.gov/doc.asp?id=205
Various programs exist across the United States aimed at
preparing disadvantaged and underrepresented students for
college, including Advancement via Individual
Determination, TRIO, Upward Bound, and GEAR UP.
ANALYSIS
This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) to appoint and staff a 12-member task force to
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develop voluntary K-12 curriculum regarding postsecondary
opportunities and financial aid. Specifically, this bill:
Task force
1) Requires the SPI to appoint and staff a Pathways
Curriculum Task Force to develop a voluntary K-12
curriculum that will provide students and their
families with a basic understanding of postsecondary
educational institutions, options, programs, and
opportunities in California.
2) Requires the task force to address, at a minimum, all
of the following topics:
a) The variety of college,
university, and technical education in
California.
b) The importance of postsecondary
education and training.
c) Ways to finance postsecondary
education and training, and attention to
cost-benefit analysis.
d) The A-G course sequence required for
admission to the University
of California, postsecondary education admission
requirements, and the community college transfer
process.
3) Requires the task force to establish learning goals
for students at elementary, middle, and high school
levels and develop curriculum to help students achieve
those goals.
4) Requires the task force to solicit and consider input
from a broad range of interested people, agencies, and
organization, including the Student Aid Commission,
the Bureau of Private Postsecondary Education,
specialists in elementary and secondary curriculum,
school counselors, experts in federal and state
financial aid and college admissions, and civil rights
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and non-profit organizations whose missions are
related to career preparation and college access,
business, labor, parents, and students.
5) Requires the task force to appoint a subgroup to
consult with specialists in high school economics
curriculum to develop a unit on postsecondary
education.
a) Requires the task force to consist of 12
members, as follows:
b) Four people representing postsecondary
education.
c) Four people representing elementary and
secondary education.
d) Two public members.
e) One person representing non-profit
organizations whose missions
are focused on increased participation in
postsecondary education.
f) The person with expertise in career
preparation or apprenticeship.
6) Encourages the SPI to include people with specific
knowledge and background in college admissions,
financial aid, postsecondary educational
opportunities, and development of K-12 curriculum.
Pathways curriculum
1) Requires the pathways curriculum to accomplish all of
the following:
a) Be as concise and clear as possible so as to
easily integrate with other curriculum
objectives, while still helping students gain a
comprehensive understanding of postsecondary
educational opportunities.
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b) Include complementary materials for families
to learn what steps in elementary, middle and
high school they may take to assist their
students reach college and career goals, as well
as suggested questions to ask of school
officials.
c) Provide a cumulative resource for students
and their families who come to California from
other states and other countries and enter the
California school system at various grade levels.
d) Provide pathway curriculum materials as well
as suggestions for college and work site field
trips, guest speakers, and other innovative means
of inspiring and informing students and their
families about college and career pathways.
e) Provide information on the availability of,
and access to, the most current information on
postsecondary educational opportunities,
including federal and state websites devoted to
postsecondary educational opportunity and how
best to navigate those sites.
2) Requires the task force to complete the pathways
curriculum within one year of its first convening, and
do the following:
a) Send copies of the curriculum to the
Legislature, the State Board of Education, the
Regents of the University of California (UC), the
Trustees of the California State University
(CSU), the Board of Governors of the California
Community Colleges (CCC), the Student Aid
Commission, and the Instructional Quality
Commission (IQC) for a three-month review and
comment period.
b) Consider comments and make changes deemed
appropriate.
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c) Send the curriculum to the CDE, where it is
to be available for use by schools and where it
is to be maintained. This bill requires the
Superintendent of Public Instruction to assume
leadership responsibilities for dissemination of
the curriculum to school districts, professional
educational organizations, and civic
organizations throughout the state.
3) Requires the task force to recommend, and requires the
CDE to determine and implement, an annual process for
the pathways curriculum to remain current. This bill
requires the Chancellor of the CCC and Chancellor of
the CSU, and requests the President of the UC, to
provide cooperation and support to the CDE in this
effort.
4) Requires the CDE to work with the IQC and appropriate
framework committees to integrate the pathways
curriculum into each subject matter curriculum
framework as it is revised or updated.
5) Authorizes schools and school districts to use and
deliver pathways curriculum in a manner that best
suits local needs and resources.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, "The path
to college and career is increasingly complex.
Students and families struggle to obtain accurate
information about options and often changing
requirements. High school seniors often graduate with
little understanding of their options, poor knowledge
of financial aid programs, and few tools for making
wise postsecondary choices. The least informed pupils
are often from disadvantaged backgrounds, the first in
their families to go to college, and with poor
academic records. The lack of information about
postsecondary opportunity erodes the effectiveness of
California's investment in higher education, and
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exacerbates attempts to educate skilled workers."
2) Existing outreach efforts . Several sources of
information and direct outreach to the K-12 community
currently exist. This bill requires a task force to
work with existing outreach efforts to transform the
many points of information into one curriculum that is
appropriate for K-12 students and their families.
3) Development of curriculum . The development of
curriculum in core academic subjects typically
involves the development of standards, frameworks,
evaluation criteria, instructional materials and
professional development. The process for the
development of general curriculum is not necessarily
as lengthy or encompassing as to include standards,
frameworks, etc. This bill requires the California
Department of Education to work with the Instructional
Quality Commission and appropriate framework
committees to integrate the pathways curriculum into
each subject matter curriculum framework as it is
revised or updated.
Model curriculum is currently available in various topics,
such as Human Rights and Genocide, the environment
(Education and the Environment Initiative), and the
Life and Works of Cesar Chavez.
4) Common core curriculum . The California Department of
Education (CDE) is currently working on several common
core-related activities (approving supplemental
instructional materials, evaluating mathematics
instructional materials), is scheduled to update the
history-social science framework and adopt updated
science standards, and is sponsoring legislation to
implement additional common core activities.
This Committee recently voted to approve legislation to
require the State Board of Education to consider the
adoption of a revised curriculum framework and
evaluation criteria for instructional materials based
on the Next Generation of Science Standards. (SB 300,
Hancock).
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Considering the urgency in the completion of work on
implementing the common core, staff recommends an
amendment to require the Pathways Curriculum Task
Force to be convened only after the CDE has completed
work related to the development of curriculum
frameworks and approval/adoption of instructional
materials for the common core academic standards, as
well as the recently-authorized revision of the
history-social science framework.
5) Role for the Legislature . This bill requires the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) appoint all
12 members to the Pathways Curriculum Task Force. The
author may wish to consider reducing the SPI's
appointments and allotting a number of appointments to
the Senate Rules Committee and Speaker of the
Assembly. The author may also wish to consider
providing additional details about the membership of
the task force, such as which segments of
postsecondary, elementary and secondary education each
member is to represent, and whether the public members
are to have specific expertise.
6) Clarifying amendments . This bill requires the task
force to send copies of the curriculum to, among
others, the Legislature, and the Board of Governors of
the California Community Colleges. Staff recommends
amendments to clarify that the curriculum is to be
submitted to the appropriate policy and appropriations
committees of the Legislature, and the Chancellor of
the Community Colleges in addition to the Board of
Governors.
7) Related legislation . SB 552 (Calderon) authorizes
social science instruction in grades 7-12 to include
instruction on violence awareness. SB 552 is
scheduled to be heard by this Committee on April 24,
2013.
SB 330 (Padilla) requires the creation of a distinct
category on mental health instruction during the next
revision of the health framework. SB 330 is scheduled
to be heard by this Committee on May 1, 2013.
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SB 696 (Block) among other things adds civics learning
objectives to the history-social science framework.
SB 696 is pending in the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
AB 137 (Buchanan) requires the inclusion of strategies to
increase instruction in civics whenever the
history-social science framework is updated. AB 137
is pending in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 391 (Wieckowski) requires the history-social science
framework, when updated, to include financial
literacy, and requires the one-semester instructional
program on consumer economics to be updated to include
instruction in specified areas of financial literacy.
AB 391 is pending in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee.
AB 424 (Donnelly) requires instruction in the social
sciences to include the development of democracy and
the history of the development of the United States
Constitution and requires specified historical
documents be included in the history-social science
framework. AB 424 failed passage in the Assembly
Education Committee on April 3, 2013, on a 2-5 vote.
AB 700 (Gomez) requires the adopted course of study in
history-social science to include beginning with the
2014-15 school year, a voter education component
providing instruction in how to register and cast
votes in local, state, and federal elections, and how
to use the voter information pamphlet and other
materials to become an informed voter. This bill also
requires the California Department of Education, by
July 1, 2014, to develop and adopt a model curriculum
framework for a voter education component in social
studies classes to be implemented beginning with the
2014-15 school year. AB 700 is scheduled to be heard
by the Assembly Education Committee on May 1, 2013.
SUPPORT
California State PTA
Campaign for College Opportunity
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OPPOSITION
None on file.