BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1278
AUTHOR: Wyland
AMENDED: April 12, 2010
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 21, 2010
URGENCY: Yes CONSULTANT:Lynn Lorber
SUBJECT : Adoption of instructional materials.
KEY POLICY ISSUES
Should the Legislature repeal the portion of the budget deal
that suspended the processes of reviewing frameworks and
adopting instructional materials?
Should the currently-stalled process of adopting the updated
History-Social Science framework and subsequent instructional
materials be resumed before the 2013-14 school year?
Should the Legislature establish a new schedule for the
review of frameworks and subsequent adoption of instructional
materials that is consistent with the schedule for the
adoption of English Language Arts and Mathematics common core
standards, mirroring California's Race to the Top legislation
and application?
SUMMARY
This bill, an urgency measure, resumes the
currently-suspended instructional materials adoption process,
and creates a new schedule for the adoption of instructional
materials beginning with the adoption of History-Social
Science in 2011.
BACKGROUND
The process of adopting instructional materials begins with
the review and update of the curriculum framework for seven
subject areas. Frameworks are the blueprints for
implementing the academic content standards. The framework
development process typically takes 24 months from initiation
to approval by the State Board of Education (SBE). Once the
framework for a particular subject is adopted by the SBE, the
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instructional material adoption process begins, which
includes submissions from publishers, review by the
Instructional Materials Advisory Reviewer and Content Review
Expert (both are appointed by the SBE), Curriculum Commission
hearings and SBE adoption. The adoption process typically
takes 30 months. Schools were required to provide pupils
with instructional materials within 24 months of adoption by
SBE, but this requirement is suspended from the 2008-09 to
2012-13 fiscal year. (Education Code 60200 and 60422.1)
The statutory schedule for the submission of instructional
materials to the SBE for adoption is as follows:
Language arts in 2008.
Foreign languages in 2012.
Health in 2013. (EC 60200.1)
The schedule for framework review and instructional materials
adoptions that used to be available on the California
Department of Education's website is as follows:
History-Social Science: framework review in 2010,
adoption in 2011
Foreign Language: framework review in 2009, adoption in
2012
Science: framework review in 2010, adoption in 2012
Mathematics: framework review in 2011, adoption in 2013
Health: framework review in 2011, adoption in 2013
Visual and Performing Arts: framework review in 2012,
adoption in 2014
Reading/Language Arts/English Language Development:
framework review in 2013, adoption in 2015.
SB 4 of the Third Extraordinary Session (Chapter 12, February
2009), for the
2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years, suspended the requirement
that schools provide pupils with instructional materials
within 24 months of adoption by the SBE. SB 4 also provided
categorical flexibility for many programs, including the
Instructional Materials Fund. (60422.1 and 42605)
The processes for reviewing frameworks and adopting
instructional materials has been suspended since July 2009,
pursuant to AB 2 of the Fourth Extraordinary Session (Chapter
2, July 2009), which among other things, prohibited the SBE
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from reviewing frameworks and adopting instructional
materials until the 2013-14 school year. AB 2 also extended
to the 2012-13 fiscal year the suspension of the requirement
to purchase instructional materials within any specific
period of time following adoption of those materials by the
SBE. (EC 60200.7 and 60422.1)
SB 1 of the Fifth Extraordinary Session (Chapter 2, 2010),
which relates to the Race to the Top grant, among other
things, establishes the Academic Content Standards Commission
for the purpose of developing academic content standards in
English Language Arts and Mathematics (at least 85% of these
standards must be the common core academic standards). This
Commission is required to present its standards to the SBE by
July 15, 2010, and the SBE must either adopt or reject these
standards by August 2, 2010. (EC 60605.8) Staff is not
aware of any appointments that have been made to this
Commission.
ANALYSIS
This bill , and urgency measure, resumes the suspended process
of instructional materials adoptions, and creates a new
schedule for the adoption of instructional materials
beginning with the adoption of History-Social Science in
2011. Specifically, this bill:
1) Requires the State Board of Education to adopt a revised
curriculum framework and evaluation criteria for
instructional materials in history-social science in
2011.
2) Requires instructional materials to be submitted for
adoption by the SBE as follows:
a) Mathematics in 2012.
b) English language arts in 2013.
c) History-social science in 2014.
d) Health in 2015.
e) Science in 2016.
f) World languages in 2017.
g) Visual and performing arts in 2018.
3) Repeals the prohibition on the SBE from adopting
instructional materials or reviewing curriculum
frameworks.
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4) Repeals the existing schedule of adoptions.
5) Includes an urgency clause.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill : According to the author, "when the
suspension was instituted, the Curriculum Commission was
nearing completion of its revision of the History-Social
Science framework. That revision was nearly completed
and was due to be approved by the SBE in 2010."
2) Inconsistent with flexibility granted by the
Legislature . Recently enacted Extraordinary Session
bills suspended the requirement that schools provide
pupils with instructional materials within 24 months of
adoption by the SBE. Until the 2012-13 fiscal year,
schools do not have to purchase instructional materials
within any specific period of time following adoption of
those materials by the SBE.
Staff notes that this bill does not reinstate the requirement
that schools provide instructional materials within any
specified period of time following the adoption of those
materials by SBE. This bill requires the SBE to adopt
updated instructional materials that school may choose
to purchase, using instructional material funds or any
other funds included in categorical flexibility.
3) Update of History-Social Science framework was underway .
The Curriculum Commission approved the draft update of
this framework for field review on July 17, 2009.
However, suspension of the framework and instructional
material processes was implemented beginning July 28,
2009, meaning that no actual field review or online
survey will occur for this framework. Staff understands
that the California Department of Education (CDE) and
the Curriculum Commission can complete the work of
preparing the History-Social Science framework within
existing resources. Many stakeholders and ethnic groups
support the resumption of this process because the
updated frameworks are a culmination of months of
research and negotiations. The updated framework
includes information relative to the role of Sikhs and
Korean Americans, among others.
4) Should our instructional materials adoption schedule
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coincide with timelines for the adoption of national
common core standards ? This bill replaces the
currently-suspended schedule of framework reviews and
adoption of instructional materials with a different
timeline. This new timeline coincides with the schedule
for the adoption of English Language Arts and
Mathematics common core standards pursuant to
California's Race to the Top legislation and
application. Should the schedule for the adoption of
updated frameworks and instructional materials be
altered to mirror the timeline in the Race to the Top
for the adoption of common core standards, particularly
when California is not likely to meet the our statutory
requirement to develop common core standards by July 15,
2010?
5) What about other subject areas ? Should the adoptions of
English Language Arts and Mathematics instructional
materials be moved ahead of other subjects? This bill
would change the suspended schedule to adopt English
Language Arts before Foreign Language, Science, Health,
and Visual and Performing Arts. Mathematics
instructional materials would be adopted before Foreign
Language and Science.
Should the adoptions of English Language Arts and Mathematics
instructional materials be in back-to-back years, or
remain separated by two years to enable schools to plan
for the purchase of these more-costly materials?
6) Not necessarily using most-recently adopted
instructional materials . Categorical flexibility and
suspension of the requirement that schools purchase
instructional materials within 24 months of SBE adoption
means that pupils do not necessarily have the most
recently adopted textbooks. For example, if a school
did not purchase K-8 English Language Arts instructional
materials from the 2008 adoption prior to the suspension
of the requirement to purchase (February 2009), the
school is not required to purchase materials until the
2012-13 fiscal year. The adoption of English Language
Arts instructional materials prior to 2008 was in 2002.
7) Related legislation .
AB 2069 (Carter, 2010) is nearly identical
to this bill, but it requires the adoption of
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instructional materials in history-social science
by June 1, 2011 while this bill does is an urgency
measure and not specify a date in 2011 by which the
materials must be adopted. AB 2069 is scheduled to
be heard in the Assembly Education Committee on
April 21, 2010.
SB 1451 (Yee, 2010) requires the SBE to
ensure that the next update of the History-Social
Science framework, and all instructional materials,
accurately portrays women and ethnic minorities, as
specified. SB 1451 is scheduled to be heard by
this Committee on April 21, 2010.
1) Policy arguments :
Proponents argue that it is critical to get
the History-Social Science framework revision
process back on track, as the draft includes
updated content and pedagogical approaches to
provide pupils with the knowledge, skills, and
dispositions to become informed, responsible,
engaged citizens.
Opponents contend that resumption of adoptions
should be aligned to the resumption of the
instructional materials fund requirements (thereby
ensuring the 24 month purchase requirement, giving
schools enough time to save up for this first
adoption). Additionally, opponents are concerned
that this bill requires the back-to-back adoption
of math and English language arts; current law
intentionally separates these adoptions by at least
one full year to allow schools to save up for these
costly adoptions, as the instructional materials
fund does not fully cover the costs of these two
subjects.
SUPPORT
Association of American Publishers
California Council for the Social Studies
California State PTA
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Educating for Democracy: The California Campaign for the
Civic Mission of Schools
Institute for Curriculum Services: National Resource Center
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for Accurate Jewish
Content in Schools
Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California
Sacramento County Office of Education
Sikh Coalition
Sikh Temple Sacramento
Individuals
OPPOSITION
Association of California School Administrators