BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 1246 (Brownley) - Instructional Materials.
Amended: August 6, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 6-2
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 6, 2012
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 1246 makes numerous changes to the processes
for, and rules governing, reviewing and approving K-8
instructional materials.
Fiscal Impact:
Codified legislative intent: $200,000-$400,000 to conduct
the feasibility study and produce the related report,
reliant on private funds. If private funds are not
available, this creates cost pressure for the General Fund
to conduct the study, and potentially to implement
recommendations.
Reviews: Significant state costs, which will be fully
recovered by publishers' fees.
Instructional materials: Substantial cost pressure for
local educational agencies (LEAs) to purchase new
instructional materials.
Background: Academic content standards define the knowledge,
concepts and skills that pupils should learn at each grade
level. Curricular frameworks serve as a blueprint for how to
implement the standards and provide guidance to publishers,
along with evaluation criteria, for the development of
instructional materials. The processes for the revision of
curricular frameworks and adoption of instructional materials
are suspended until the 2015-16 school year. (EC � 60200.7)
Notwithstanding the suspension, current law requires the
development of frameworks specific to the Common Core standards
in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics, and evaluation
criteria relative to supplemental instructional materials that
are aligned to the Common Core standards. (EC � 60207 and �
60605.86)
AB 1246 (Brownley)
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The currently suspended process for the review and adoption of
instructional materials involved the submission of materials by
publishers for review by committees of the Instructional Quality
Commission, public hearings of both the Commission and the State
Board of Education (SBE), and adoption by the SBE. That process
typically took 30 months to complete.
The SBE is required to adopt instructional materials for grades
1-8, pursuant to Article IX, Section 7.5 of the California
Constitution.
Proposed Law: This bill makes changes to various aspects of K-8
instructional materials adoptions. Specifically, this bill:
1) Codifies legislative intent for the SPI to conduct a
study, using private funds, to determine the feasibility of
a statewide system of digital distribution of instructional
materials, and submit a specified report to the
Legislature.
2) Establishes an 8-year review cycle for instructional
materials for all subjects.
3) Authorizes districts to purchase instructional materials
that are not on the state-adopted list, as specified.
4) Provides that any instructional materials purchased by
local educational agencies (LEAs) during the flexibility
period shall be aligned with state standards, instead of
being state-adopted.
5) Authorizes publishers to submit revisions to currently
adopted instructional materials, and authorizes the
California Department of Education (CDE) to assess a fee on
publishers to have their materials reviewed.
6) Requires the SBE to consider recommendations for
instructional materials from the SPI, and consider comments
from other advisory bodies and the public.
7) Delays the adoption of the math framework to November
30, 2013. Authorizes the math evaluation criteria to be
adopted separately from the framework, by March 31, 2013.
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8) Authorizes the SBE to adopt math instructional materials
for K-8 aligned to the Common Core standards by February
28, 2014.
9) For purposes of the math adoption, authorizes the CDE to
assess a fee on publishers to have their materials reviewed
and authorizes the SBE to reduce the fee for small
publishers, upon request. Requires the fee to be in an
amount that does not exceed the reasonable costs to the CDE
in conducting the process. Authorizes the use of the funds
to be used for substitute costs and stipends for content
review experts.
10) Stipulates that instructional materials for math that
are aligned to the national Common Core standards shall be
deemed to be standards-aligned for purposes of the
settlement of Williams v. California.
11) Shortens an existing requirement that evaluation
criteria be approved at least 30 months prior to the
adoption of instructional materials to 12 months.
Related Legislation: SB 1200 (Hancock) authorizes the review and
modification of the Common Core standards for grade 8
mathematics and the adoption of the common core college and
career readiness standards. This bill is pending in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
Staff Comments: This bill codifies legislative intent that the
SPI conduct a study, which may include a pilot program, to
determine the feasibility of a statewide system of digital
distribution of instructional materials, and report to the
Legislature on its findings by December 31, 2014. The
legislative intent specifies that the study would use private
funds.
The CDE estimates that such a study would cost
$200,000-$400,000. It is unclear what the actual cost would be,
because the description of the study and report are vague. The
CDE does not have private funds secured for this purpose. This
codified legislative intent creates cost pressure for the CDE to
either seek out private funds for this purpose or, to the extent
that the CDE has private funds that can be used more broadly,
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use those private funds for this purpose. Additionally, the
SPI's eventual recommendations regarding digital instructional
materials could create cost pressure to implement related
policies and programs.
This bill allows publishers to submit revisions to currently
adopted instructional materials for review. It also allows
publishers to submit mathematics instructional materials for
review, and establishes a process for recovering costs through
fees charged to publishers in order to have their materials
reviewed. The CDE has indicated that the process ensures that
the CDE will fully recover its costs for these activities.
Various provisions of this bill provide greater flexibility for
LEAs to select which instructional materials to purchase. For
example, while the SBE's instructional materials adoption
process is suspended, this bill authorizes districts to purchase
instructional materials that are not on the state-adopted list
as long as they are aligned with Common Core standards. This
authority and flexibility creates cost pressure for LEAs to
begin purchasing new instructional materials. Currently,
instructional materials block grants are subject to categorical
flexibility, intended to help LEAs better manage their budget
reductions; this bill creates pressure to use those funds for
their original purpose instead of other educational priorities.