BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                          SB 402 (Correa)
          
          Hearing Date: 05/09/2011        Amended: 03/31/2011
          Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 7-2
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          BILL SUMMARY: SB 402 would require that each curriculum 
          framework adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE) describe 
          how academic content can be taught to build specified skills 
          into and across each subject area. 
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                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2011-12         2012-13       2013-14        
           Fund
                                                                      
          Frameworks requirements    Likely minor ongoing costs beginning 
          in 2015-16    General
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          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: 
          
          Existing law provides for the development of curriculum 
          frameworks in each academic content area, to be adopted by the 
          SBE. Curriculum frameworks serve as blueprints for implementing 
          the academic content standards, and are the basis for developing 
          instructional materials by providing guidance to publishers. 
          Frameworks include specific criteria by which instructional 
          materials will be evaluated for possible adoption, and give 
          guidance to teachers on instructional strategies to meet the 
          framework's goals. This bill would functionally add a new 
          section to each framework, describing how academic content to 
          build specified qualitative skills can be delivered.

          The CDE estimates that the 2-year process for developing and 
          adopting a curriculum framework (under existing law and 
          requirements) for a core subject area costs $1,300,000 in staff 
          time, publication costs, meetings and travel costs for the 
          Curriculum Commission, focus groups, Evaluation Criteria 
          Committees, and document writers. That existing process includes 
          rounds of focus group input, committee and commission review and 








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          evaluation, public posting and input, public hearings, and 
          briefing publishers and educators. The process for reviewing 
          frameworks and adopting instructional materials is currently 
          suspended until the 2015-16 school year, due to the fiscal 
          crisis; when the adoption process was suspended, the Department 
          of Education (CDE)'s budget for the Curriculum Commission, the 
          advisory body to the SBE on curriculum frameworks, was also 
          reduced by $705,000. When the suspension is lifted, that 
          $705,000 will likely need to be returned to the commission's 
          budget in order to begin these activities again.

          This bill requires each curriculum framework adopted by the SBE, 
          once the suspension is lifted, to describe how content can be 
          delivered to intentionally build the following skills into and 
          across each content area, to the extent deemed appropriate by 
          the SBE: 1) Creativity and innovation, including but not limited 
          to, thinking creatively, working creatively with others, and 
          implementing innovations; 2) Critical thinking and problem 
          solving, including, but not limited to, reasoning effectively, 
          using systems thinking, making judgments and decisions, and 
          solving problems; 3) Collaboration, including but not limited to 
          working effectively in diverse teams, adapting to change and 
          being flexible, demonstrating productivity and accountability, 
          and demonstrating leadership and responsibility; and 4) 
          Communication, including but not limited to, communicating 
          clearly and effectively through reading, writing, and speaking.

          This bill will likely add only minor costs to future curriculum 
          frameworks in the form of staff time and document writing. The 
          existing process includes considerable sunk costs, described 
          previously, to develop a framework and adding a description of 
          how the content can be delivered to build additional qualitative 
          skill areas is unlikely to produce significant additional costs; 
          CDE expects the workload increase to be absorbable within normal 
          funding for curriculum framework development.

















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