Postsecondary education: instructional strategies: subject matter projects.

(1) Existing law authorizes the Regents of the University of California, with the approval of the Concurrence Committee, to establish and maintain cooperative endeavors designed to develop and enhance teachers' subject matter and content knowledge in 6 subject matter project areas. Under existing law the Concurrence Committee is composed of representatives selected by the regents, the Board of Trustees of the California State University, the State Board of Education, among others. Existing law provides goals to be accomplished by the subject matter projects. Among these is the goal to provide support to teachers to develop and enhance the content knowledge and pedagogical skills necessary to implement State Board of Education standards. This bill would clarify that this support includes assistance to career technical education teachers. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to select a representative to the Concurrence Committee. The bill would also authorize 3 additional subject matter projects: the California Physical Education-Health Project, the California Arts Project, and the California Foreign Language Project. (2) Existing law establishes a project advisory board in each subject matter project area to set guidelines, make recommendations, and monitor activities for compliance with existing law. Each project advisory board is composed of representatives who are selected, in varying numbers, by various individuals and entities. Some of the representatives, as provided, are required to be classroom teachers in subject areas addressed by the project. This bill would change the composition of each project advisory board to consist of only one representative selected by each appointing entity to the respective board, except that the Superintendent of Public Instruction would select two representatives. The bill would also delete the requirement that certain representatives be classroom teachers and instead require that those representatives be educators with expertise in the subject areas addressed by the project. (3) Under existing law, the above provisions become inoperative on June 30, 2012, and are repealed on January 1, 2013. This bill would delete these inoperative and repeal dates, thereby extending the operation of these provisions indefinitely. (4) Existing law prohibits any of the provisions related to instructional strategies from applying to the University of California unless the Regents of the University of California, by resolution, make those provisions applicable. This bill would apply to the University of California only if the regents, by resolution, make these provisions applicable.