BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 140
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Date of Hearing: July 6, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
SB 140 (Lowenthal) - As Amended: June 29, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 26-12
SUBJECT : Instructional materials: common core academic content
standards
SUMMARY : Requires the California Department of Education (CDE),
on a one time basis, to develop a list, on or before July 1,
2012, of supplemental instructional materials (SIMs) for use in
kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, (K-8) that are
aligned with California's common core academic content standards
in language arts and mathematics. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the SIMs to provide a bridge between the common core
academic content standards and the instructional materials
currently being used by local educational agencies (LEAs).
2)Requires, on or before September 30, 2012, the State Board of
Education (SBE) to do either of the following:
a) Approve the supplemental instructional materials as
proposed by the CDE; or,
b) Reject the supplemental instructional materials as
proposed by the CDE, in which case the SBE shall provide a
specific written explanation to the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI), the Governor, and the Legislature
of the reasons why the proposed materials were rejected.
3)Authorizes governing boards of school districts to approve
SIMs other than those approved by the SBE pursuant to this
bill if the governing board determines that other supplemental
instructional materials are aligned with the common core
academic content standards and meet the needs of the pupils of
the district.
4)Specifies that a governing board of a school district may only
approve supplemental instructional materials that comply with
the social content requirements and other existing
requirements.
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5)Requires publishers choosing to submit supplemental
instructional materials for approval by the SBE to submit
standards maps and encourages publishers choosing to submit
supplemental instructional materials for approval for use in
grades 9 to 12, inclusive (9-12), to submit standards maps.
6)Requires the SBE, or the governing board of a school district
that chooses to approve supplemental instructional materials,
to review those instructional materials for academic content,
social content, and instructional support to teachers and
pupils.
7)Requires the supplemental instructional materials approved to
meet required program criteria for grade-level programs,
intervention programs, and English learners and to include
materials for use by teachers.
8)Requires CDE to maintain on its Internet Web site the list of
supplemental instructional materials approved by the SBE
pursuant to this bill.
9)Requires CDE to recommend and the SBE to approve content
review experts to review, in an open and transparent process,
instructional materials submitted for approval in math,
including 8th grade math, and English language arts (ELA), and
requires a majority of content experts to be credentialed
teachers and to include appropriate persons from postsecondary
institutions, curriculum administrators and other persons who
are knowledgeable in the appropriate subject area. Specifies
that the experts shall serve without compensation.
10)Requires CDE, before conducting an 8th grade mathematics
adoption, to provide notice to all publishers or manufacturers
known to produce basic instructional materials for 8th grade
math, post an appropriate notice on its Internet Web site, and
take other reasonable measures to ensure that appropriate
notice is widely circulated to potentially interested
publishers and manufacturers.
11)Specifies that a publisher or manufacturer shall declare its
intent to submit for adoption one or more specific
instructional materials for adoption.
12)Requires the CDE to assess a fee on a publisher or
manufacturer for purposes of conducting the review of 8th
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grade math instructional materials, and authorizes, at the
request of a small publisher or manufacturer, the SBE to
reduce the fee for participation in the eighth grade
mathematics adoption and defines "small publisher or
manufacturer."
13)Provides that the fee shall be an amount that does not exceed
the reasonable costs to conduct the review and not be so
substantial so as to prevent participation.
14)Requires the revenue derived from fees charged pursuant to
this bill to be budgeted as reimbursements and subject to
review through the annual budget process and may be used to
pay costs associated with grade 8 mathematics adoption and any
costs associated with the review of instructional materials.
15)States that the adoption of 8th grade math instructional
materials by the SBE in accordance with the adoption process
described in this section shall be considered the adoption of
instructional materials that are aligned to the common core
academic content standards for 8th grade math.
16)Sunsets the provisions of this bill on July 1, 2014.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Academic Content Standards Commission
(Standards Commission), as specified, to develop academic
content standards in language arts and mathematics and present
recommended academic content standards to the SBE by July 15,
2010.
2)Requires that at least 85% of these standards be the common
core academic standards developed by the Common Core State
Standards Initiative consortium sponsored by the National
Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State
School Officers (CCSSO) or any associated or related
interstate collaboration to jointly develop common
high-quality standards or assessments aligned with the common
set of standards, and requires the SBE to adopt or reject the
recommended standards by August 2, 2010.
3)Requires the SPI and the SBE to present to the Governor and to
the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the
Legislature a schedule and implementation plan for integrating
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the revised language arts and math adopted academic content
standards into the state educational system.
4)Requires the SBE to adopt basic instructional materials for
use in K-8 and requires the SBE to ensure that the
instructional materials it adopts meet specified criteria, and
requires those criteria to be approved by resolution at the
time the resolution adopting the framework for the current
adoption is approved, or at least 30 months before the date
that the materials are to be approved for adoption, except
that for materials aligned to the common core, the 30 month
requirement does not apply.
5)Provides that upon making an adoption of basic instructional
materials, the SBE is required to make available to listed
publishers and manufacturers and all school interests, a list
of those instructional materials by subject and grade level.
6)Prohibits the SBE from adopting instructional materials or
follow the procedures for the adoption of instructional
materials until the 2015-16 school year.
7)Requires local governing boards to provide standards-aligned
textbooks or basic instructional materials no later than 24
months after those materials are adopted by the SBE, except
that for the 2008-09 to the 2014-15 fiscal years, inclusive, a
governing board of a school district is not required to
provide pupils with instructional materials by the specified
period of time following adoption of those materials by the
SBE, and requires, during this time frame, any instructional
materials purchased by a LEA to be the materials adopted by
the SBE for K-8, and standards-aligned materials for grades
9-12.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, minor and absorbable General Fund costs to develop
the supplemental materials list, and minor and absorbable
General Fund costs for the SBE to review the list.
COMMENTS : In January 2010, the Legislature approved and the
Governor signed SB 1 X5 (Steinberg), Chapter 2, Statutes of
2009-10, Fifth Extraordinary Session which- amongst its many
provisions- created the Standards Commission to develop and
recommend academic content standards in language arts and
mathematics with at least 85% of these standards consisting of
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the common core state standards for each subject. The SBE
adopted the common core state standards in language arts and
mathematics on August 2, 2010.
This bill creates a temporary process whereby CDE will review
SIMs for alignment with California's common core state
standards. The purpose is for these materials to be used with
instructional materials currently in use and adopted in 2002 or
2008 for language arts, and in 2007 for math in an effort to
provide temporary tools for pupils to access the recently
adopted content standards. This process also allows school
districts to approve SIMs other than those approved by the SBE,
if the district finds that other SIMs are aligned with the
common core standards. Lastly this bill and allows for the
adoption of 8th grade math instructional materials aligned to
the common core and authorizes the CDE to assess a fee to
publishers or manufacturers that submit instructional materials
for review and adoption.
Need for the bill : AB 2 X4 Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009-10,
Fourth Extraordinary Session, and SB 70 Chapter 7, Statutes of
2011, suspend the requirement for the SBE to adopt instructional
materials for use in K-8 until the 2015-16 fiscal year, and
relieves local educational agencies (LEAs) from the requirement
to purchase newly adopted instructional materials within a
specified timeframe following adoption of those materials until
the 2015-16 fiscal year. The process for adopting curriculum
frameworks and instructional materials has been suspended for
the next three years, however the state has adopted new content
standards in language arts and math and the curriculum and
instruction system is not aligned to those standards. It will
take some time develop new curriculum frameworks and
instructional materials aligned to the common core state
standards. This bill, along with AB 250 (Brownley), seeks to
start a process for implementing the common core state
standards.
Supplemental instructional materials : The development of the
list of SIMs is a one-time activity and a short-term solution to
dealing with the budget restrictions on instructional materials
while still providing pupils with tools that they will need to
access the common core standards. The intent is to help
districts with their transition to the common core standards.
Even though the aforementioned budget bills provided districts
flexibility in the use of various categorical programs,
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including instructional materials funding, the flexibility is
limited when districts choose to purchase instructional
materials. The budget provisions require any instructional
materials purchased by a LEA to be SBE-adopted for grades K-8
and standards-aligned for grades 9-12. It is not certain that
districts will be able to use categorical funds currently in
flexibility to purchase the SIMs that would be developed and
reviewed pursuant to this bill. Unrestricted general funds,
federal funds, and/or Proposition 20 lottery funds could be used
for supplemental materials. This bill does not require school
districts to purchase instructional materials but rather will
ensure that those materials are available to districts.
Typically SIMs do not undergo a state-level review process,
except to ensure compliance with social content requirements.
The process envisioned by this bill is to assist districts in
identifying materials that meet the recently-adopted common core
standards. Some would describe it as a service to school
districts. The SPI started a process for the review of
supplemental instructional materials similar to what this bill
calls for. On June 2, 2011the SPI invited publishers of
state-adopted programs in mathematics and language arts to
submit supplemental instructional materials that bridge the gap
between their existing programs and the common core state
standards. Supplemental materials will be reviewed according to
the criteria issued by the SPI and teachers and content experts
recruited by the SPI will review the materials. The materials
that are approved will be listed on the CDE's Web site.
According to the notice issued by the SPI, the recommendations
will be advisory only, and the review will not be mandatory for
the publishers of currently-adopted instructional materials. A
notable difference between the SPI's process and this bill is
that this bill does not limit participation to publishers of
currently-adopted instructional materials.
8th grade math : Previous legislation that authorized the
adoption of the common core state standards, allowed for up to
15% of additional standards to supplement the common core
standards. One of the areas where additional standards were
adopted was in 8th grade math. California essentially adopted
two sets of 8th grade math standards, the common core grade 8
standards and a set that combined elements of the common core
grade 8 with California's algebra standards. Some arguments
have been made that having two sets of standards in the 8th
grade will result in some implementation challenges. For
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example, the national assessment consortia in which California
is participating will be developing assessments aligned to the
Common Core standards and not necessarily the standards
variation adopted in California, and therefore it has been
argued that having two sets of 8th grade math standards may
result in misalignment with any common assessments that may be
adopted in the future. This may also result in challenges in
the practical implementation of having two different sets of
standards and expectations for students in the same grade level.
A bill, previously approved by this Committee, sought to allow
for the revision of the 8th grade math standards, however that
bill was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
The previous set of California math standards did not have grade
8 specific standards. Rather the math standards in grades 8-12
were organized by subjects such as algebra I, geometry, algebra
II, trigonometry and others, and because of this, some would
argue it would be difficult to develop supplemental materials
for 8th grade math. Nevertheless, the California Learning
Resource Network (CLRN) has begun reviewing math and English
language arts electronic resources that are aligned to the
common core standards. A letter on the CLRN website invites
publishers to submit supplementary electronic learning resources
(software and Internet-based resources) that are correlated to
the common core California state standards. It is unclear as to
why 8th grade math supplemental materials could not be
developed.
This bill calls for a full adoption of instructional materials
for 8th grade. The full adoption is a more elaborate and costly
process than the SIM reviews and for that reason, the bill
authorizes the CDE to assess a fee to a publisher in order to
conduct the review and adoption. Because all activities related
to the adoption of instructional materials has been suspended
until 2015-16, as currently drafted, the bill does not authorize
the 8th grade adoption to take place. If the author wishes to
authorize the adoption, the bill would have to "notwithstand"
the language suspending all activities related to the adoption
of instructional materials.
Lack of guidance for the 8th grade adoption : The process
outlined in statute for the adoption of instructional materials
requires a framework and evaluation criteria to be developed
prior to the adoption of instructional materials, as the
framework and the criteria provide guidance to both the
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publishers and the reviewers of instructional materials. This
bill does not require the development of a framework or
evaluation criteria, and therefore it is unclear as to how the
adoption will be conducted without these documents in place,
since this means there will be no guidance for publishers or for
the content reviewers. AB 250 (Brownley) requires the
development and adoption of the common core math curriculum
framework by May 2013. Should the 8th grade math adoption wait
until there is a framework and criteria in place to guide the
adoption of such materials? If 8th grade materials are adopted
pursuant to this bill, will there be a need or an expectation to
re-do the 8th grade math adoption when the other grade levels
are adopted? If so, this might duplicate work, because an
expedited process to develop the criteria will have to be
developed in order to conduct the first adoption. Does the lack
of a full framework and criteria compromise the quality of the
instructional materials?
This bill currently does not specify a timeline for the
development and adoption of the 8th grade materials, but the
bill sunsets on July 1, 2014. Should the bill specify a
timeline for the adoption?
Social content reviews of SIMs : For districts reviewing SIMs,
this bill requires school districts to conduct social content
reviews in addition to ensuring that the instructional materials
meet the content requirements. Previously, the social content
reviews have been conducted at the state level for both adopted
and supplemental instructional materials. The authorizing
statute for social content reviews of supplemental instructional
materials was inadvertently repealed but two bills seeking to
reenact those provisions are currently going through the
Legislative process. In order to ensure consistency in the
review of social content, staff recommends an amendment to
require conducting social content reviews at the state level
rather than at the local level. The bill could make the
state-level social content review contingent upon passage of one
of the two bills reinstating those provisions and if those bills
do not get enacted, then the social content review of SIMs would
be the responsibility of school districts.
Expert reviewers : The state level process established by this
bill involves content review experts approved by the SBE to
review SIMs in math, including 8th grade math, and ELA.
However, the section of the bill requiring the appointment of
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instructional material reviewers for purposes of reviewing SIMs
is being added to a separate and distant section from the
relevant part of this bill. The sections are not connected by
cross-reference either and so it is not clear that the purpose
is to require the appointment of the reviewers to conduct the
review of the SIMs. Staff recommends an amendment to
incorporate this language into Section 3 of the bill instead of
creating a stand-alone section.
Additionally, the author notes that the last set of amendments
to this bill omitted language to direct school districts to also
utilize experts, including a majority of teachers, in the local
review of instructional materials, pursuant to this bill. Staff
recommends adding this language so as to provide consistency in
the SIM approval process.
The bill requires publishers choosing to submit SIMs for
approval by the SBE to submit standards maps and encourages
publishers choosing to submit SIMs for approval for use in
grades 9-12 to submit standards maps. The SBE-approved list of
SIMs is for grades K-8; hence it is unclear as to why this
section references instructional materials for grades 9-12.
Staff recommends clarifying this language (Page 6, lines 35-39).
The author states, "California has adopted the common core
standards in English and math but has no process in place for
the development of instructional materials that are aligned to
the common core standards. Development of curricular
frameworks, instructional materials, professional development
and assessments will be time consuming and require significant
resources. K-8 schools are not currently authorized to adopt
their own instructional materials that meet the common core
standards. This bill provides a streamlined approach to quickly
provide schools with instructional materials that meet the
common core standards. It's possible that a new assessment will
be implemented during the 2014-15 school year; California's
schools need to prepare pupils well in advance of any assessment
that is linked to the common core."
Related Legislation: AB 250 (Brownley) establishes a process for
the implementation of the common core academic content standards
by developing and adopting curriculum frameworks, instructional
materials, and professional development opportunities that are
aligned to the common core academic content standards and are
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appropriate for all pupils. AB 250 also extends the operative
date of the STAR assessment system by one year, to July 2014.
AB 250 is pending in the Senate Education Committee.
AB 124 (Fuentes) establishes the English Language Development
Standards Advisory Committee for the purpose of alignment with
the common core standards in English language arts. AB 124
passed the Senate Education Committee and is pending in the
Senate Rules Committee.
AB 1033 (Feuer) establishes a process for the review of the
academic content standards including the common core state
standards, as specified. AB 1033 was held in the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
SB 613 (Alquist) requires at least one-half of instructional
materials adopted by the SBE or a school district governing
board to be open-source, which is defined as materials in a
digital format and free to view online. SB 613 was held in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Association of California School Administrators (Sponsor)
California Association of Suburban School Districts
California School Boards Association
California State PTA
Chawanakee Unified School District
Contra Costa County Superintendents' Coalition
Irvine Unified School District
Los Angeles County Office of Education
Los Angeles Unified School District
Modoc Middle School
Riverside County School Superintendents' Association
Rowland Unified School District
San Francisco Unified School District
State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Torrance Unified School District
Several individuals
Opposition
Association of American Publishers (Unless amended)
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Analysis Prepared by : Marisol Avi�a / ED. / (916) 319-2087