BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                     AB 146


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          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS


          AB  
          146 (Cristina Garcia)


          As Amended  September 1, 2015


          Majority vote


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          Original Committee Reference:  ED.


          SUMMARY:  Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to  
          consider including content on the deportation of citizens and  
          lawful permanent residents of the United States to Mexico during  
          the Great Depression in the next revision of the history-social  
          science framework and related materials.


          The Senate amendments remove the requirement that the specified  
          content be included in curriculum resources for teachers.


          EXISTING LAW:  


          1)Establishes the Instructional Quality Commission (formerly  
            called the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials  
            Commission) as an advisory body to the SBE on matters related  
            to curriculum, instructional materials, and content standards.








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          2)Requires the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) to  
            consider incorporating into the history-social science  
            framework content on specific historical events, including the  
            Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides and the  
            Great Irish Famine of 1845-1850.


          3)Encourages the Department of Education to incorporate into  
            publications that provide examples of curriculum resources,  
            age-appropriate materials on the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur,  
            and Rwandan genocides.  Encourages the incorporation of  
            survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into  
            the teaching of human rights, the Holocaust, and genocide.


          4)Encourages state and local professional development activities  
            to provide teachers with content background and resources to  
            assist them in teaching about civil rights, human rights  
            violations, genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust.


          FISCAL EFFECT:  According to the Senate Appropriations  
          Committee, one-time costs to the California Department of  
          Education (CDE) of approximately $19,000 to the extent that  
          additional information is included in the history-social science  
          curriculum framework on this subject.  (General Fund)


          COMMENTS:  


          Origin of this bill.  This bill was the winning proposal in a  
          legislative proposal competition sponsored by the author.  It  
          was submitted by a 5th grade class at Bell Gardens Elementary  
          School in the Montebello Unified School District. 


          Draft History-Social Science Framework revision includes  
          references to this event.  The draft revision to the  
          History-Social Science Framework released in September, 2014  








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          includes some references to the deportation event.  In the  
          chapter of course descriptions for grades Kindergarten through  
          Grade 5, the following reference is included in a section on  
          Modern California:  "Students can also learn about other  
          important events in California's civil rights history, such as ?  
          the forced repatriation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans to  
          Mexico that took place during the Great Depression."  In the  
          chapter of course descriptions for grades nine through twelve,  
          the following reference is made in a section on the Great  
          Depression:  "The economic crisis also led to the Mexican  
          Repatriation Program, in which the Secretary of Labor directed  
          government agents to force nearly 400,000 Mexican migrants (both  
          legal and illegal) out of the country."


          History-social science framework adoption delayed.  The  
          History-Social Science standards currently in use were adopted  
          in 1998, and the most recent framework was published in 2005.   
          The Curriculum Commission (now the IQC) began work revising the  
          History-Social Science Framework in January of 2008.  A  
          significant amount of the process had been completed (focus  
          groups, selection of evaluation criteria committee members, five  
          drafting meetings) when in 2009 the state's fiscal emergency led  
          to a statutory suspension (AB 2 X4 (Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes  
          of 2009, Fourth Extraordinary Session) of instructional  
          materials adoptions and framework revisions until the 2013-14  
          school year.  That suspension was later extended until the  
          2015-16 school year (SB 70 (Budget and Fiscal Review Committee),  
          Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011).


          The IQC began work again on the revision in July 2014 and  
          released the draft History-Social Science framework for field  
          review in September 2014.  The draft generated extensive public  
          comment it generated (nearly 700 comments).  The IQC also  
          determined that more subject matter expertise was needed for  
          certain areas (including some mandated for inclusion by  
          legislation), and submitted a budget request for $124,000 to  
          hire experts through an interagency agreement.  These events  
          have caused significant delays in the production of the revised  
          framework.  Originally scheduled for adoption in May 2015, this  
          framework is now set to be recommended to the State Board by  








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          March 2016, with final publication in fall 2016.


          Analysis Prepared by:                                             
                          Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087  FN:  
          0001993