BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 580
AUTHOR: Davis
AMENDED: June 28, 2012
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: July 3, 2012
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lynn Lorber
NOTE: This bill was heard by this Committee on June 29,
2011, and passed on a 6-1 vote. This bill was subsequently
referred to the Senate Rules Committee and has since been
amended.
SUBJECT : Social science curriculum: civil rights.
SUMMARY
This bill requires social science curriculum to include
specific components relative to civil rights.
BACKGROUND
Academic content standards define the knowledge, concepts,
and skills that pupils should acquire at each grade level.
Curricular frameworks are the blueprint for implementing the
standards, and include criteria by which instructional
materials are evaluated.
The history-social science framework was last adopted in
2005. A review of this framework was underway and nearly
complete when the state suspended the process due to budget
constraints.
The processes for reviewing frameworks and adopting
instructional materials have been suspended since July 28,
2009. The State Board of Education (SBE) is specifically
prohibited from reviewing frameworks and adopting
instructional materials until the 2015-16 school year.
(Education Code � 60200.7)
ANALYSIS
This bill requires social science curriculum to include
AB 580
Page 2
specific components relative to civil rights. Specifically,
this bill requires social science curriculum to include, but
not necessarily be limited to, all of the following:
1) Issues related to social justice, power relations,
diversity, mutual respect, and civic engagement.
2) The definition of civil rights and the modern civil
rights movement and the tactics used by civil rights
activists to achieve social change.
3) A focus on the modern civil rights era and the events
that took place in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s,
including but not limited to demonstrations, resistance,
organizing, non-violent civil disobedience, and
collective action and unity in the pursuit of fair and
equal treatment for all Americans.
4) A review of significant court cases, legislation,
organizations, events, monuments, literature, arts, and
contributions of men, women, and other significant
figures of the modern civil rights era.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, relative to
a prior version of this bill, "Hate crimes and racial
tension across the nation provides a compelling reason
to completely reapproach the process of developing state
curriculum in the field of history-social science.
There is clearly a deficiency in the what and how of
civil rights instruction. Most of our textbooks
celebrate the heroism of Martin Luther King and Rosa
Parks, and laud government actions such as Brown v.
Board of Education and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In
the process, the grassroots struggle of ordinary people
receives short shrift, causing students to admire the
movement from afar rather than connect it to their own
lives."
2) Current History-Social Science framework . 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
AB 580
Page 3
political transformations that it brought.
Additionally, the History Social Science framework
touches upon various aspects of the civil rights
movement including the following:
a) 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.
b) 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.
c) 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.
d) 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.
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 has occurred for this framework. According to
the California Department of Education (CDE) the
revision of the history-social science framework can be
AB 580
Page 4
completed for approximately $30,000. 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. (See SB 1540
in Comment #5.)
4) Adoption of instructional materials . The process for
the adoption of instructional materials has been
suspended since July 28, 2009; the State Board of
Education (SBE) is statutorily prohibited from adopting
instructional materials until the 2015-16 school year.
5) Related legislation . SB 1540 (Hancock) requires the SBE
to consider the adoption of a revised curriculum
framework and evaluation criteria for instructional
materials in history-social science. SB 1540 is in
Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 1246 (Brownley) establishes a new process for the
submission and review of instructional materials by
requiring the Superintendent of Public Instruction and
authorizing school districts to review and recommend
materials for adoption by the State Board of Education.
AB 1246 is pending in the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
SB 1080 (Lieu) provides that instruction in economics may
include instruction related to personal finances and
would require the California Department of Education to
develop a personal finances curriculum in the next
adoption cycle of the mathematics and history-social
science curriculum frameworks. SB 1080 was held on the
Senate Appropriations Committee's suspense file.
SB 993 (De Leon) authorizes instruction in social science for
grades 7-12 to include information about the Bracero
program. SB 993 is pending on the Assembly Floor.
SB 994 (Vargas) states legislative intent relative to
expanding instruction in California Latino history. SB
994 was held on the Senate Appropriations Committee's
suspense file.
SB 1325 (Wyland) requires the Superintendent of Public
AB 580
Page 5
Instruction and the SBE to consider methods for
enhancing pupil knowledge of, and pride in, our history
and form of government and for increasing civic
participation, including developing new curriculum
frameworks and standards, if necessary. SB 1325 was
never heard.
AB 1756 (Knight) authorizes schools to elect not to
provide social science instruction on the role and
contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
Americans. AB 1756 failed passage in the Assembly
Education Committee.
AB 2546 (Donnelly) recasts existing provisions relative
to instruction on the role and contributions of people
with specified characteristics to exclude mention of
sexual orientation, and instead require, among other
things, the study of a person in social science
instruction to be accurate and based solely on
historical significance rather than membership in a
protected class. AB 2546 was held on the Assembly
Appropriations Committee's suspense file.
SUPPORT
None on current version.
OPPOSITION
None on current version.