BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1204
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 8, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Patrick O'Donnell, Chair
AB 1204
(Chau) - As Introduced February 27, 2015
SUBJECT: Instructional Quality Commission: membership: pupil
members
SUMMARY: Adds a voting student member to the Instructional
Quality Commission (IQC) and increases the number of appointed
classroom teachers from seven to eight. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Expands the IQC membership from 18 to 19 members, by
increasing the number of public members from 13 to 14.
2)Requires, so far as it is practical and consistent with the
duties assigned to the IQC by the SBE, that one of the 14
members be a student.
3)Requires that the student member be a voting member with full
rights and duties as other members of the IQC.
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4)Requires the student member to be enrolled in good standing in
a public high school
5)Requires that student members be appointed for a single,
one-year term
6)Increases from 7 to 8 the number of current classroom teachers
appointed by the SBE to the IQC
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the IQC as an advisory body to the State Board of
Education (SBE), and authorizes it to study problems of
courses of study in the schools of the state, and, upon
request of the SBE, recommend to the adoption of minimum
standards for courses of study in preschool, kindergarten,
elementary, and secondary schools. Requires that courses of
study in the public schools conform to such minimum standards
when adopted.
2)Establishes the membership of the IQC as follows:
a) A member of the Assembly appointed by the Speaker of the
Assembly
b) A member of the Senate appointed by the Senate Committee
on Rules
c) One public member appointed by the Speaker of the
Assembly
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d) One public member appointed by the Senate Committee on
Rules
e) One public member appointed by the Governor
f) 13 public members appointed by the SBE upon the
recommendation of the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) or the members of the SBE
1)Requires that at least 7 of the 13 public members appointed by
the SBE be recognized authorities or experienced practitioners
in their fields.
2)Requires that at least seven of the public members be current
classroom teachers.
3)Encourages the SBE to consider the role of other
representatives of the educational community in the
development of curriculum and instructional materials,
including administrators, school board members, and parents
who are reflective of the various ethnic groups and types of
school districts in California.
4)Requires the Governor to appoint a student member to the SBE,
with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate, and
establishes the process for selecting the student member.
5)Establishes the term of office of the student member as one
year, beginning on August 1.
6)Requires the student to be at the time of his or her term, a
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student enrolled in good standing in grade 12 in a public high
school. The student member shall be selected from three
students recommended by the State Board of Education.
7)Establishes the student as a voting member with the full
rights and duties of the other 10 members of the board.
8)Allows the SBE, whenever it is required by law to appoint
members to a board, commission, or other statutorily created
body, to also appoint a nonvoting student member to that body.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
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|Need for the bill. The author's office states, "The current |
|membership structure of IQC does not include student |
|participation as members. It's important to recognize that |
|students are the largest stakeholders in the state's education |
|system and deserve an opportunity to participate in the |
|development of curriculum, standards, and instructional material |
|recommendations through representation on the IQC. |
| |
|The student member of the State Board of Education provides |
|student opinion to the Board. However, the student perspective |
|is not included, aside from public comment, in the development |
|of curriculum and instructional materials by the IQC that are |
|used to instruct millions of students in California. Adding one |
|student member to the IQC will recognize the students' |
|perspective on how and what they are taught." |
| |
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| |
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Process for selecting a student member. Current law specifies
the process for selecting the student member for the SBE. It
involves the following steps:
The SBE notifies every school district governing board,
district superintendent, high school principal, high school
student activities director, and student body president by
September 15 of each year that applications are being
accepted for the student member's position.
Applications for the student member's position are
submitted to the SBE no later than October 31 of each year.
A screening committee of the SBE selects 12
semifinalists for the student member's position.
Local school board student members select six candidates
from the 12 semifinalists.
The SBE, by December 31 of each year, selects three
finalists for the Governor's consideration and ranks the
finalists according to their preference. The Governor then
chooses the student to appoint and submits the name to the
Senate for confirmation.
This bill does not specify a process for the selection of the
IQC student member. The author indicates that his intent is to
allow one of the two semifinalists not chosen for the SBE
position to be appointed by the Governor, thereby avoiding a
separate process and associated costs. Staff recommends that
the bill be amended to require the selection of the student
member from among the two finalist candidates not appointed to
the SBE.
A one-year appointment to a multi-year process. This bill
proposes a one-year term for the student representative to the
IQC. Many of the IQC's projects are multi-year in nature, such
as the revisions to curriculum frameworks. But it is worth
noting that much of the SBE's work is multi-year in nature, and
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in that setting a student representative has been able to
contribute to the Board's work.
Change in composition retains classroom teacher majority.
Adding one member to the IQC would change the composition such
that current classroom teachers would not comprise a majority.
To address this, the bill proposes to increase the teacher
membership on the IQC in order to maintain the majority of
current classroom teachers on the Commission.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Association of California School Administrators (Sponsor)
California Association of Student Councils (Sponsor)
California Association for Bilingual Education
California School Boards Association
California School Boards Association
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California Teachers Association
Californians Together
Opposition
Analysis Prepared by:Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087