BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                          SB 300 (Hancock)
          
          Hearing Date: 05/16/2011        Amended: As Introduced
          Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 7-3
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          BILL SUMMARY: SB 300 would establish the Academic Content 
          Standards Commission for Science and History-Social Science 
          consisting of 21 appointed members, to develop academic content 
          standards in science and history-social science, as specified. 
          This bill would require the commission to present its 
          recommended academic content standards to the State Board of 
          Education (SBE) on or before January 1, 2013, and would require 
          the SBE to adopt or reject the those standards on or before June 
          30, 2013. This bill would also require the Superintendent (SPI) 
          and the SBE to present specified information to the Governor and 
          Legislature.
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                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2011-12      2012-13       2013-14        Fund
           
          Revise science standards                                  $360   
                                              General   

          Revise frameworks           Substantial cost pressure to update 
          frameworks      General       
                                                    and accountability 
          tools, beginning in 2015-16
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          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the 
          Suspense File. 

          The academic content standards specify the content that students 
          are expected to acquire at each grade level from kindergarten to 
          grade twelve and they are the foundation for the accountability 
          system, instructional materials and staff development programs. 
          The content standards inform the development of curriculum 
          frameworks. Curriculum frameworks are documents developed to 








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          guide instruction, teacher training and professional 
          development, instructional materials, student assessments, and 
          the state's accountability and intervention programs.

          While current law provides a process (which is currently 
          suspended) for review and revision of curriculum frameworks as 
          part of the instructional materials adoption process, there is 
          currently no process for reviewing academic content standards.  
          Panels have previously been established to develop content 
          standards in the subject areas of English language arts, 
          Mathematics, History-Social Science, Science, Visual and 
          Performing Arts, Career Technical Education, Health Education, 
          World Languages, and Physical Education Model Content Standards 
          for review and approval by the SBE.  As the authority for these 
          panels have expired, the content standards for some core 
          academic areas have not been reviewed since the 1990s.  

          This bill would establish the Academic Content and Performance 
          Standards Review Panel made up of 21 appointed members, half of 
          whom must be teachers, to review and propose revisions to the 
          content standards for English language arts and mathematics. The 
          SBE would be required to hold hearings on the Panel's proposals 
          to revise the standards and either adopt or reject them by June 
          30, 2013. If the SBE rejects the standards it must provide to 
          the SPI, Governor and Legislature a written explanation of the 
          reasons the standards were rejected.

          According to CDE, the costs for the review and revision of each 
          content standard would be approximately $180,000. Once content 
          standards are updated, curriculum frameworks would also need to 
          be updated to reflect new standards, creating additional cost 
          pressure to do so. The process for reviewing frameworks and 
          adopting instructional materials has been suspended since July 
          2009, and is not scheduled to resume until the 2015-16 school 
          year; framework review costs would incur at that time.

          This bill also specifically requires the SBE and SPI to present 
          to the Governor and appropriate committees of the Legislature a 
          schedule and implementation plan for integrating the academic 
          content standards into the state educational system. This 
          requirement creates cost pressure to implement adopt new 
          curriculum frameworks and instructional materials aligned to the 
          updated content standards, as well as incorporating them into 
          the state's accountability systems and professional development 








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          programs.