Academic content standards: standards review commission.

Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt statewide content and performance standards in the core curriculum areas of reading, writing, mathematics, history/social science, and science, as specified. Existing law authorizes the state board to modify any proposed content standards or performance standards prior to adoption, and to adopt content and performance standards in individual core curriculum areas as those standards are submitted to the state board. Existing law requires the state board also to adopt standards for school library services, visual and performing arts, physical education, foreign languages, and English language development. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to coordinate the development of model curriculum standards for the course of study required for high school graduation and for a career technical education course of study necessary to assist school districts with complying with existing law. Existing law establishes the Academic Content Standards Commission and requires the commission to develop internationally benchmarked academic content standards, at least 85% of which are required to be the common core academic standards developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative consortium or another specified interstate collaboration. Existing law requires the commission to present its recommended academic content standards to the state board and requires the state board by August 2, 2010, to either adopt the standards proposed by the commission or reject them. This bill would authorize the review of certain of the standards described above by a 25-member standards review commission, appointed as specified and convened for that purpose, if the Superintendent and the state board jointly find that there is a need to revise or modify the standards. The bill would restrict a finding to 2 subject areas at a time and would authorize the Superintendent and the state board to make additional findings after each time a standards review commission submits its recommendations to the state board. The bill would require the state board, upon receiving recommendations from a standards review commission, to either adopt or reject the standards as proposed by the commission and to notify the Governor, the Senate Committee on Rules, and the Speaker of the Assembly that it has acted. If the state board rejects the recommendations, the bill would require the state board to provide a specific written explanation to the Superintendent, the Governor, and the Legislature of the reasons why the proposed standards were rejected. The bill would authorize a standards review commission that is convened for the purpose of considering revisions to the academic content standards in language arts and mathematics only to make recommendations to modify the grade 8 common core standards in mathematics and to consider recommending the inclusion of college and career readiness anchor standards as developed by the consortium or interstate collaboration. The bill would authorize the Superintendent to recommend to the state board a schedule for reviewing the other standards.