BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1246
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1246 (Brownley)
As Amended August 24, 2012
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |50-27|(January 30, |SENATE: |23-11|(August 29, |
| | |2012) | | |2012) |
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Original Committee Reference: ED.
SUMMARY : Makes revisions to the process for adopting
instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1-8,
inclusive (K-8) and authorizes the State Board of Education
(SBE) to adopt instructional materials aligned to the
mathematics common core academic content standards by March 30,
2014.
The Senate amendments :
1)Delete the authority for school districts and the requirement
for the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
recommend to the SBE instructional materials for review and
adoption, and instead retain the authority for the
Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) to make such
recommendations.
2)Authorize the SBE to adopt instructional materials for K-8
aligned to the math common core academic content standards by
March 30, 2014; delay the adoption of the common core math
framework to November 30, 2013; and authorize the math
evaluation criteria to be adopted by March 31, 2013.
3)Authorize the California Department of Education (CDE) to
assess a fee on publishers for purposes of reviewing
instructional materials aligned to the math common core
standards and authorize the SBE to reduce the fee for small
publishers, upon request.
4)Require the fee to be in an amount that does not exceed the
reasonable costs to the CDE in conducting the review and
authorize the use of the funds to be used for substitute costs
and stipends for content review experts.
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5)Authorize school districts to use instructional materials in
K-8 that are not on the state-adopted list, as long as the
materials are aligned to the content standards and districts
involve a majority of teachers in the review of materials.
6)Provide that for purposes of transition to common core state
standards-aligned instructional materials, the existing
sufficiency requirement may be met by having materials aligned
to either the 1997 standards or the common core state
standards and state that that a combination of the basic
instructional materials and supplemental materials meet the
sufficiency requirements.
7)Shorten an existing requirement that evaluation criteria be
approved at least 30 months prior to the adoption of
instructional materials to 12 months.
8)Repeal the provisions of the Instructional Materials Funding
Realignment Program.
9)Make the provisions of this bill contingent on the enactment
of AB 1719 (Fuentes) of the 2011-12 Regular Session.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Authorized school districts and required the SPI, instead of
the IQC, to recommend to the SBE instructional materials for
review and adoption, as specified.
2)Deleted the requirement that the IQC review and recommend
instructional materials for adoption, and instead, authorized
the IQC to review instructional materials reports of findings,
hear appeals, and give independent advice to the SBE on
instructional materials, only at the request of the SBE.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, significant state costs for the instructional
materials reviews which will be fully recovered by publishers'
fees. Substantial cost pressure for local educational agencies
(LEAs) to purchase new instructional materials.
COMMENTS : With the adoption of the common core academic content
standards, the state faces the challenge of ensuring all
students have access to these recently adopted standards. AB
250 (Brownley), Chapter 608, Statutes of 2011, started a
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comprehensive process for implementing the common core
standards, through the development of curriculum frameworks and
model professional development modules. A prior version of AB
250 also sought to improve the instructional materials adoption
process, however those provisions were amended out of AB 250 in
the Senate, at the request of the Administration for further
deliberation. This bill reflects language that is the result of
those deliberations.
This bill authorizes the adoption of instructional materials
aligned to the math common core standards, gives school
districts flexibility in the use of instructional materials, and
makes a number of revisions to the process of adopting
instructional materials in an effort to streamline the process.
The process for the review, recommendation and adoption of
instructional materials has been suspended since July 2009, and
is statutorily suspended until the 2015-16 school year. In
addition to AB 250, a second measure was enacted to help
districts with the transition to common core, SB 140 (Alan
Lowenthal), Chapter 623, Statutes of 2011. Notwithstanding the
suspension, SB 140 required the California Department of
Education (CDE), on a one-time basis, to develop a list of K-8
supplemental instruction materials that are aligned with
California's common core academic content standards in language
arts for K-8 and in mathematics for grades K-7. SB 140,
however, did not include supplemental materials for grade 8
math. In light of this gap in the availability of supplemental
materials, this bill proposes an adoption of math materials for
all grade levels. According to the CDE, a single grade adoption
requires significant effort and resources and therefore to
maximize the use of such resources, a full adoption appears to
be practical. This bill, however, only restarts the process for
common core math instructional materials, and proposes to fund
the adoption through publisher fees.
The K-8 instructional materials adoption process has been
criticized in the past for being overly complex and not giving
school districts enough flexibility and options. This bill
authorizes school districts to use instructional materials that
are aligned to the common core content standards even if they
are not adopted by the SBE. The intent of this provision is to
provide for a process that is similar to the process used in the
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adoption of high school instructional materials, whereby local
school districts review and select their own materials. This
bill maintains the authority for the SBE to approve or reject
instructional materials but gives districts the authority to use
materials other than those adopted by the SBE.
In an environment of common standards, opportunities for a
national market of instructional materials may be created. This
bill gives school districts the authority to take advantage of
those opportunities, but does not mandate school districts to
purchase such materials. In fact, this bill repeals existing
provisions that require districts to purchase materials within
24 months of the adoption of those materials.
School districts will need to have as many tools as possible
available to them for their pupils to access the common core
state standards, particularly given the approaching sunset and
possible reauthorization of the state's assessment system. This
bill seeks to continue the work of implementing the common core
standards by making instructional materials available to access
those standards.
Analysis Prepared by : Marisol Avi�a / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0005759