Bill Text: CA SB725 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Pupil testing: high school exit examination: exemption.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)

Status: (Passed) 2015-08-26 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 225, Statutes of 2015. [SB725 Detail]

Download: California-2015-SB725-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: SB 725	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Hancock

                        FEBRUARY 27, 2015

   An act to repeal, add, and repeal Section 60605.1 of the Education
Code, relating to pupil instruction and services.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 725, as introduced, Hancock. Pupil instruction and services:
visual and performing arts content standards.
   Existing law required the State Board of Education, by June 1,
2001, to adopt content standards in the curriculum area of visual and
performing arts pursuant to recommendations developed by the
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
   This bill would repeal those provisions and would require the
state board, by June 30, 2017, to adopt, reject, or modify visual and
performing arts standards submitted by the Superintendent in
accordance with specified requirements. The bill would require the
Superintendent to convene a panel of visual and performing arts
experts, a majority of whom would be credentialed visual and
performing arts teachers, for the purpose of deliberating on and
recommending visual and performing arts content standards for
adoption by the state board. The bill would require the
Superintendent to comply with specified procedural requirements,
including holding public meetings, and would require the
Superintendent to submit its recommended visual and performing arts
standards to the state board on or before January 30, 2017. The bill
would make the bill's provisions inoperative on July 1, 2017, and
would repeal them on January 1, 2018.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) Arts education helps prepare our pupils for the expectations
of the 21st century workforce, which includes the ability to
innovate, communicate, and collaborate. Employers across industry
sectors stress the need for innovation and creativity skills that are
developed by the arts.
   (b) In California, 1.4 million jobs, approximately 10 percent of
all jobs, are directly or indirectly related to or induced by the
arts.
   (c) Seven and eight-tenths percent of California's gross domestic
product is related to the creative industry.
   (d) It is in the state's best economic interest to provide pupils
the most current and relevant instruction in visual and performing
arts.
   (e) The state's current visual and performing arts content
standards do not include connections to the Common Core State
Standards or 21st century skills that are necessary to the careers of
the future.
   (f) California's content standards for the visual and performing
arts were last adopted 14 years ago in 2001.
   (g) In the interim period, education has changed: pedagogy has
improved and technology has been developed that impacts instruction
in the visual and performing arts.
   (h) There is nothing in current law that requires visual and
performing arts content standards to be reviewed and updated.
   (i) A standards-based, sequential visual and performing arts
education should be accessible to all pupils in every school.
   (j) Extensive research has demonstrated that arts education
engages pupils in learning, contributes to higher test scores, and
reduces truancy and dropout rates.
  SEC. 2.  Section 60605.1 of the Education Code is repealed.

   60605.1.  (a) No later than June 1, 2001, the State Board of
Education shall adopt content standards, pursuant to recommendations
developed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in the
curriculum area of visual and performing arts.
   (b) The content standards are intended to provide a framework for
programs that a school may offer in the instruction of visual or
performing arts. Nothing in this section shall be construed to
require a school to follow the content standards.
   (c) Nothing in this section shall be construed as mandating an
assessment of pupils in visual or performing arts. 
  SEC. 3.  Section 60605.1 is added to the Education Code, to read:
   60605.1.  (a) The state board shall adopt visual and performing
arts content standards pursuant to the following requirements:
   (1) The Superintendent, in consultation with the state board,
shall convene a panel of visual and performing arts experts. The
Superintendent shall ensure that members of the expert panel
represent the breadth of the visual and performing arts and includes,
but is not limited to, elementary and secondary visual and
performing arts teachers, school principals, school district or
county office of education administrators, and university professors.
A majority of the expert panel shall be made up of credentialed
visual and performing arts teachers. The Superintendent and the
expert panel shall recommend visual and performing arts content
standards for adoption to the state board and shall use the National
Core Arts Standards developed by the National Coalition for Core Arts
Standards as the basis for their deliberations.
   (2) The Superintendent shall hold a minimum of two public meetings
pursuant to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Article 9 (commencing
with Section 11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2
of the Government Code) in order for the public to provide input on
the visual and performing arts content standards that would be
recommended pursuant to paragraph (1).
   (3) The Superintendent shall submit the recommended visual and
performing arts content standards to the state board on or before
January 30, 2017.
   (4) On or before June 30, 2017, the state board shall adopt,
reject, or modify the visual and performing arts content standards
submitted by the Superintendent.
   (5) If the state board modifies the visual and performing arts
content standards presented by the Superintendent, it shall provide
written reasons for its modifications in a public meeting. The state
board shall adopt its modifications to the visual and performing arts
content standards at a subsequent public meeting no later than June
30, 2017. The public meetings required by this paragraph shall be
held pursuant to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Article 9
(commencing with Section 11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3
of Title 2 of the Government Code).
   (b) The Superintendent and the state board shall present to the
Governor and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the
Legislature a schedule and implementation plan for integrating the
visual and performing arts content standards adopted pursuant to this
section into the state educational system.
   (c) Nothing in this section shall be construed as mandating an
assessment of pupils in visual or performing arts.
   (d) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2017, and, as
of January 1, 2018, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2018, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.