BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 580 (Davis) - Civil Rights Curriculum.
Amended: June 28, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 7-2
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 16, 2012
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 580 requires the history-social science
frameworks to include specific components relative to the civil
rights movement.
Fiscal Impact: Potential costs in the tens of thousands of
dollars, to the extent the bill to add requirements that are not
already included or contemplated in the framework.
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.
Existing law outlines the course of study for grades 7 through
12. This section states that the course of study shall include
social science courses that include a variety of topics,
including the rights and duties of citizens and human rights
issues. Existing law further requires the CDE to incorporate
into publications that provide examples of curriculum resources
for teacher use, those materials developed by publishers that
deal with civil rights, human rights violation, genocide,
slavery, and the Holocaust. (Education Code � 51226.3)
Additionally, existing law states that instructional materials
adopted in social science shall include information on Dr.
Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, and contributions
made by ethnic minorities to the history of the United States.
(Education Code � 60200.6)
The history-social science framework was last adopted in 2005. A
review of this framework was underway and nearly complete when
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the state suspended the process due to budget constraints. The
processes for reviewing frameworks and adopting instructional
materials have remained 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)
Proposed Law: AB 580 requires social science curriculum to
include specific components relative to civil rights.
Specifically, this bill requires that the social science
curriculum 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, literature, arts, and contributions
of men, women, and other significant figures of the modern
civil rights era.
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
SBE. AB 1246 is also being heard on August 6, 2012 in this
Committee.
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SB 1080 (Lieu) 2012 provided that instruction in economics may
include instruction related to personal finances and would have
required the CDE to develop a personal finances curriculum in
the next adoption cycle of the mathematics and history-social
science curriculum frameworks. SB 1080 was held under submission
in this Committee.
SB 993 (De Leon) 2012 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) 2012 states legislative intent relative to
expanding instruction in California Latino history. SB 994 was
held under submission in this Committee.
Staff Comments: This bill amends Education Code Section 60200.6,
which addresses requirements for the adoption of instructional
materials. Specifically, it states that history-social science
instructional materials adopted 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.
This bill adds to that section "The curriculum developed
pursuant to this section shall include, but not necessarily be
limited to?" the topic and issues described in the bill
language. The CDE has indicated that there would not be
curriculum developed pursuant to new instructional materials
adopted, and the author may wish to clarify whether the bill
intends to require that the CDE develop new curriculum or
whether the intent is that if the CDE did develop curriculum as
a result of new instructional materials, the requirements of the
bill would apply.
The CDE has further indicated that the curricular topics and
issues specified in the bill are already reflected in the
History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public
Schools, the History-Social Science Framework, and the
instructional materials based on those documents. The history of
the civil rights movement is an explicit part of the
eleventh-grade standards, and the concepts of civil rights and
tolerance are referenced throughout, along with the histories of
notable civil rights leaders. Additionally, the CDE notes that
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evaluation criteria for the last K-8 adoption of instructional
materials, completed in 2005, required that instructional
materials include coverage of Dr. Martin Luther King and Cesar
Ch�vez at every grade level.
The author's intent appears to be to require the CDE to adopt
new civil rights-related curriculum. The cost of curriculum
development varies, depending on the depth of the curriculum and
whether it would be developed for each grade level. At a
minimum, developing a model curriculum for use by schools would
cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Model Curriculum for
Human Rights and Genocide, for example, cost the CDE $150,000
(in 1980s dollars), and involved two years of public hearings
and debate.
Proposed Author Amendments: Amend to remove the requirement to
develop curriculum, and instead add specified requirements to
the history-social science curricular frameworks developed
during or after the 2015-16 school year.