BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 575 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 575 (O'Donnell) As Amended August 15, 2016 Majority vote -------------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |41-31 |(June 4, 2015) |SENATE: |38-0 |(August 18, | | | | | | |2016) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: ED. SUMMARY: Re-establishes a sunsetted process for the follow-up adoption of instructional materials, with a sunset of January 1, 2024. The Senate amendments delete the prior contents of the bill and instead re-establish a sunsetted process which authorizes the California Department of Education (CDE) to conduct follow-up adoptions of instructional materials. Specifically, the amendments: 1)Provide that a follow-up adoption is any adoption other than the primary adoption that occurs within the existing eight-year adoption cycle. 2)Require the CDE, before conducting a follow-up adoption in a given subject area, to post an appropriate notice on its website and notify all publishers or manufacturers known to AB 575 Page 2 produce basic instructional materials in that subject area. 3)Require the notice to specify that each publisher or manufacturer choosing to participate in the follow-up adoption be assessed a fee based on 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. 4)Require the fee to offset the cost of conducting the follow-up adoption process and reflect the CDE's best estimate of the cost. 5)Require the CDE to take reasonable steps to limit the cost of the follow-up adoption and to keep the fee modest, recognizing that some of the work necessary for the primary adoption need not be duplicated. 6)Require the CDE, before incurring substantial costs for the follow-up adoption, to require that a publisher or manufacturer who wishes to participate in the follow-up adoption first declare the intent to submit one or more specific programs for the follow-up adoption and specify the specific grade levels to be covered by each program. 7)Require 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. 8)Require the fee to 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. 9)Prohibit a submission from being reviewed for purposes of adoption, either in a follow-up adoption or in any other AB 575 Page 3 primary or follow-up adoption conducted thereafter, until the fee assessed has been paid in full. 10)State legislative intent that the fee not be so substantial that it prevents small publishers or manufacturers from participating in a follow-up adoption. 11)Authorize the State Board of Education (SBE), upon the request of a small publisher or manufacturer, to reduce the fee for participation in the follow-up adoption. 12)Define "small publisher" and "small manufacturer" as an independently owned or operated publisher or manufacturer who is not dominant in its field of operation, and who, 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. 13)Require that revenue derived from fees is budgeted as reimbursements and subject to review through the annual budget process, and authorize the fees to be used to pay costs associated with any adoption and any costs associated with the review of instructional materials. 14)Modify existing provisions regarding the submission of instructional materials from every eight years to at least once but not more than twice every eight years. 15)Require that, if the CDE determines that there is little or no interest among publishers and manufacturers in participating in a follow-up adoption, the CDE recommend to the SBE that the follow-up adoption not be conducted and the SBE may choose to not conduct one. 16)Prohibit the use of General Fund revenue to support follow-up AB 575 Page 4 adoptions. 17)Sunset the authority to conduct follow-up adoptions in 2024. EXISTING LAW: 1)Requires the SBE to adopt basic instructional materials for use in kindergarten and grades one to eight in each of the following subject areas: a) Language arts, including English language development b) Mathematics c) Science d) Social science e) Bilingual or bicultural subjects f) Any other subject which the SBE deems necessary or desirable 1)Authorizes instructional materials to be submitted for adoption in any of the above subject areas every eight years. 2)Requires the SBE to ensure that the submitted basic instructional materials: a) Are consistent with the criteria and the standards of quality prescribed in the curriculum framework b) Comply with the SBE's guidelines for social content AB 575 Page 5 c) Are factually accurate and incorporate principles of instruction reflective of current and confirmed research d) Are aligned to the content standards adopted by the state board in the subject area and the grade level or levels for which they are submitted e) Do not contain materials, including illustrations, that provide unnecessary exposure to a commercial brand name, product, or corporate or company logo 1)Requires the process for review of instructional materials to involve review committees, which must include volunteer content experts and instructional material reviewers, and be composed of a majority of classroom teachers from a wide variety of affected grade levels and subject areas. 2)Requires the rules and procedures for adoption of instructional materials to be transparent and consistently applicable regardless of the format of the instructional materials. 3)Prior law, SB 734 (Torlakson), Chapter 476, Statutes of 2007, which sunset in 2011, provided CDE authority to conduct follow-up adoptions of instructional materials for existing subject areas. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: 1)This bill will likely not result in significant costs to the state. It expands the authority of the CDE to conduct one follow-up instructional material adoption in a subject area if necessary, in addition to the primary adoptions that are supposed to occur every eight years. It allows a fee to be AB 575 Page 6 assessed to publishers who submit materials to offset the cost of the follow-up adoption and prohibits the use of General Fund to support these adoptions. To the extent CDE determines that there is insufficient interest by publishers and manufacturers in participating in the adoption, the CDE will recommend to the State Board of Education not to conduct the adoption. 2)Minor costs to the CDE to recommend to the SBE that a follow-up adoption not be conducted. COMMENTS: Need for the bill. According to the author, "Between 2008 and 2011, the CDE had the authority to conduct follow-up adoptions of instructional materials during the eight-year adoption cycle, providing schools with greater choice and more timely access to standards-aligned programs that met the state's standards of quality and compliance with the law. "This authority sunset during the state's budget crisis, when all instructional materials adoptions were suspended. Since then the suspension has been lifted, and the CDE requires this authority to conduct these follow-up adoptions. Re-establishing this authority would provide schools with access to a broader range of standards-aligned materials in a timely manner." Current need for authority to conduct follow-up adoptions. The CDE reports that its most pressing need for this authority relates to the adoption of mathematics materials. In January 2014, the SBE adopted instructional materials for mathematics, approving 31 California Common Core State Standards-based programs of various grade levels, submitted by 15 publishers. According to the CDE, though this adoption occurred recently, it occurred on an extremely accelerated AB 575 Page 7 timeline that in effect excluded the submission of a broader range of programs. In addition, the adoption occurred before the publishers knew how the assessments would measure proficiency relative to the Standards for Mathematical Practice and the California Common Core State Standards. Statewide assessments for math were first released in 2014 and the results of the first official administration became available in the fall of 2015. For these reasons the CDE believes that another opportunity to adopt instructional materials for mathematics is needed, in order to expand district choice and to provide flexibility for districts that have policies requiring the use of only SBE-adopted instructional materials. Prior use of sunsetted authority. As noted above, the CDE had the authority to conduct follow-up adoptions between 2008 and 2011, when the authority sunset. CDE reports that it used that authority three times during those years. This bill authorizes the CDE to charge a fee to publishers for the review of their materials for follow-up adoption, requires the CDE to rake reasonable steps to keep the fee modest, and authorizes the SBE to reduce the fee for small publishers. According to the CDE, when the authority was used in the three follow-up adoptions that occurred between 2008 and 2001, the fee was $5,000 per program, per grade level submitted. Analysis Prepared by: Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN: 0004922 AB 575 Page 8