Senate Bill No. 725

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.

begin delete

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.

end delete

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.