State Supt. urges governor and legislature to restore curriculum framework and instructional materials development

From State Super's desk: 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today held a teleconference to explain how students will be impacted by a provision in the state budget that suspends for five years curriculum framework revisions and the adoption of school instructional materials.

California is widely regarded for having world-class academic content standards. Curriculum frameworks provide the guidance for teachers about how to help students master these content standards. The frameworks also lay the groundwork for the development of textbooks and other instructional materials.

            "If your child entered the first grade this year, his or her educator would not have access to the most up-to-date research-based guidance on how to help students master our world-class standards until your child is in the eighth grade," said O'Connell. 

"Teachers are being denied a valuable resource that is needed to guide instruction in order to improve student achievement and close the achievement gap. Freezing the work on curriculum frameworks prevents California from being ready to adopt new instructional materials when funding for textbooks becomes available," O'Connell said. "We need to be doing more, not less, to help teachers prepare students for success in the hypercompetitive global economy. I urge the Legislature and the Governor to revisit this decision and provide funding to support the ongoing work of curriculum framework development."

            Over the last seven years, student test scores in California have steadily increased, and the academic achievement gap between higher performing and lower performing students has narrowed slightly. However, as a result of the ongoing state budget crisis, funding for California's kindergarten through grade twelve education system has been reduced by $18 billion over two years. Districts have been forced to lay off teachers and staff; cut programs for music, art, and sports; and provide less school transportation, as well as make many other cutbacks.

            Following the state Legislature's fourth extraordinary session last July, Assembly Bill X4 2 made funding flexible for textbooks. After the Governor signed the bill into law, he further cut $705,000 from the California Department of Education's budget in order to end support for the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission and its activities. The new law also prohibits the State Board of Education from adopting any materials and prohibits the state from any framework development.

"This five-year prohibition of activity and funding cut will have serious long-term effects and far-reaching implications on public education and will signal to the nation that California is no longer a leader in standards-based curriculum," O'Connell said.

This suspension for curriculum framework development will result in the abandonment of frameworks nearly completed in the areas of History/Social Science and Science. Restarting the curriculum framework development and instructional materials adoption process once the five-year suspension is lifted will take several years. That means students in public schools today will not receive newly adopted instructional materials until at least 2017, and teachers will not have the benefit of updated curriculum frameworks as a teacher education document. Many credential programs and professional development institutes use the frameworks to explain state guidelines. Without current frameworks, many teacher education programs will drop the frameworks and the connection between content standards and teaching will be lost.

"I appreciate the difficult decisions Governor and the Legislature had to make in handling California's finances during the national economic downturn, but further dragging our state into the abyss by depriving children of good instructional materials and a quality education is not the answer," added O'Connell. "Our students represent the best economic recovery plan we could ever conceive. But if we don't invest in them and our teachers, we cannot expect California to recover its stance as a leading world economic powerhouse."

For more information on curriculum frameworks, instruction, and materials adoption, please visit www.cde.ca.gov/ci/.