BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 580
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Date of Hearing: March 30, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 580 (Davis) - As Introduced: February 16, 2011
SUBJECT : Civil rights education: California Civil Rights
Education Advisory Committee
SUMMARY : Establishes the California Civil Rights Education
Advisory Committee (CCREAC) within the California Department of
Education (CDE), as specified, to advise the State Board of
Education (SBE) and the Curriculum Development and Supplemental
Materials Commission (Curriculum Commission) on the inclusion of
civil rights education in the history-social science (H/SS)
framework and criteria for evaluating instructional materials.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the CCREAC to study and review the H/SS framework
developed by the H/SS Curriculum Framework and Criteria
Committee of the SBE and advise the SBE and the Curriculum
Commission, as specified.
2)Provides that in completing its tasks, the CCREAC may act as a
liaison with various entities, including, but not necessarily
limited to, the United States Congress, the California
Legislature, and the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP), as well as other national and
international agencies.
3)Specifies that the CCREAC shall consist of 14 members who
shall serve a maximum of two three-year terms and shall
consist of the following members:
a) The Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI);
b) The President of the University of California (UC) or
his or her designee;
c) The Chancellor of the California State University (CSU)
or his or her designee;
d) The Chancellor of California Community Colleges (CCC) or
his or her designee; and
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e) 10 members appointed by the SPI, as specified.
4)Requires the members of the CCREAC be California residents,
and be appointed with due regard for broad geographic
representation, and requires a chairperson to be designated
from the membership of the CCREAC.
5)Provides that members of the CCREAC shall receive no
compensation for the performance of their duties, but shall be
reimbursed for the expenses they incur in performing their
duties.
6)Authorizes the CDE to apply for, and receive, gifts, grants,
and donations from any public or private sources, including,
but not necessarily limited to, federal funds and private
foundation grants for purposes of supporting the expenses
incurred in operating the CCREAC.
7)Makes findings and declarations relative to the importance of
the civil rights movement in the lives of African Americans
and all other Americans and the importance of teaching about
the civil rights movement.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires the CDE to incorporate, into publications that
provide examples of curriculum resources for teacher use,
materials developed by publishers of nonfiction, trade books,
and primary sources, or other public or private organizations,
that are age-appropriate and consistent with the subject
frameworks on history and social science that deal with civil
rights, human rights violations, genocide, slavery, and the
Holocaust.
2)Encourages all state and local professional development
activities to provide teachers with content background and
resources to assist in teaching about civil rights, human
rights violations, genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust.
3)Provides that instructional materials adopted by the SBE for
social science shall include information designed to instruct
pupils on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights
movement, and contributions made by ethnic minority groups to
the history of the United States, and requires the SBE to
ensure that the materials present the information in a manner
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consistent with the instruction provided in each grade level.
FISCAL EFFECT : On an identical measure, the Senate
Appropriations Committee estimated the costs for operating the
CCREAC as over $200,000 for each year of operation.
COMMENTS : This bill establishes the CCREAC to advise the SBE
and the Curriculum Commission on matters related to the
development and adoption of curriculum frameworks in H/SS,
specifically relating to the inclusion of civil rights movement
education.
The Curriculum Commission is established in statute to advise
the SBE on the adoption of Kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12)
curriculum frameworks and kindergarten to grade 8 (K-8)
instructional materials. The 18-member Curriculum Commission
recommends curriculum frameworks to the SBE. Curriculum
frameworks are aligned to the content standards, and provide a
blueprint for curriculum and instruction by describing the scope
and sequence of the knowledge and skills all students need to
master in a specific subject area.
Status of curriculum frameworks and instructional material
adoptions: AB 2 X4 Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009-10, Fourth
Extraordinary Session suspends the requirement for the SBE to
conduct any of the activities related to the adoption of
instructional materials for use in K-8 through the 2012-13
fiscal year, and for the 2008-09 to the 2012-13 fiscal years,
inclusive, local educational agencies (LEAs) are not required to
purchase newly adopted instructional materials within 24 months
of adoption by the SBE. Additionally, the funding for the
Curriculum Commission has been suspended and the Commission is
not currently meeting nor conducting any of its duties.
The Curriculum Commission had begun the process of updating the
H/SS framework for the 2011 H/SS primary adoption prior to the
enactment of AB 2 X4 Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009-10, Fourth
Extraordinary Session. On July 17, 2009, the Curriculum
Commission approved the draft update of the H/SS framework for
field review, but due to the budget action, the field review was
suspended. The CDE also suspended work related to the revision
of frameworks for science, health, and mathematics. It may be
many years before the curriculum frameworks and instructional
materials processes restart.
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Civil rights education in the content standards and in
curriculum frameworks : The existing 11th grade content standards
and framework in history-social science include the analysis of
the development of federal civil rights and voting rights, as
well as the history of the civil rights movement in the 25 years
after World War II and the social and political transformations
that it brought. Additionally, the H/SS framework touches upon
various aspects of the civil rights movement including the
following:
Examining and analyzing the key events, policies, and
court cases in the evolution of civil rights,
including Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson,
Brown v. Board of Education, Regents of the University
of California v. Bakke, and California Proposition
209.
Examining the roles of civil rights advocates (e.g.,
A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm
X, Thurgood Marshall, James Farmer, Rosa Parks),
including the significance of Martin Luther King,
Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and "I Have a
Dream" speech.
Analyzing the passage and effects of civil rights and
voting rights legislation (e.g., 1964 Civil Rights
Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965) and the Twenty-Fourth
Amendment, with an emphasis on equality of access to
education and to the political process.
Analyzing the women's rights movement from the era of
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and the
passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the movement
launched in the 1960s, including differing
perspectives on the roles of women.
The 8th grade standards also include units on the Civil War and
its consequences as well as the adoption of the 13th, 14th, and
15th amendments and their connection to the civil rights
movement of the 1960's. An argument could be made that some key
aspects of the development of civil rights and the civil rights
movement are already addressed in existing standards and in the
current H/SS framework.
An already complex process : The framework development and
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instructional materials adoption processes have been criticized
for being overly complex and highly prescriptive. The process
that had been in place prior to the suspension of adoption
processes, involves several different groups, some of which
duplicate work. One step in the process of developing and
revising curriculum frameworks involves the selection of a
Curriculum Framework and Criteria Committee (CFCC), which will
be charged with drafting the framework. The framework is then
presented to the Curriculum Commission and the Curriculum
Commission's H/SS Subject Matter Committee (SMC), which is
separate from the CFCC, conducts a field review process and
makes necessary revisions before approving the framework and
criteria and before submitting it to the SBE for approval. The
time involved for this process is approximately 18 months from
the first meeting to the approval of the framework by the SBE.
This bill proposes an additional step in the already lengthy and
complex process of developing curriculum frameworks.
Moreover, this bill creates a stand-alone advisory committee
that will focus on advising the SBE and the Curriculum
Commission regarding one particular aspect of the H/SS
curriculum. No single historical event or figure has a
stand-alone committee dedicated to advising the SBE on a
particular matter within a subject area. On the other hand, it
can be argued that civil rights education has an important role
in the curriculum and having a separate advisory committee to
focus on civil rights might help ensure the curriculum
highlights this subject.
The author states, "Hate crimes and racial tension across the
nation, provides a compelling reason to completely re-approach
the process of developing state curriculum in the field of
history-social science. Far too many citizens obviously do not
appreciate the complexity of racial, social, economic, and
political problems. There is clearly a deficiency in the what,
and how of civil rights instruction. The impact of the Civil
Rights Movement cannot be understated when it comes to
understanding the conditions that encourage democracy to
prosper."
Arguments in support : The Advancement Project writes, "With
California's long range view to improve curriculum and
instruction, and to improve the future of our children and
youth, we believe that it would be beneficial for the state
board and curriculum commission to receive the recommendation of
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a civil rights education advisory committee to ensure inclusion
of the history of civil rights struggles of Californians and
Americans who have been historically disenfranchised and
segregated from mainstream society."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Advancement Project
School for Integrated Academics and Technologies (SIATech)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Marisol Avi�a / ED. / (916) 319-2087