Overseeing California’s Framework Revision

Nancy McTygue and Bill Honig will begin with a short overview of California’s Framework process. They will explain the complicated relationship between various stakeholders in K-12 history-social science education, including the Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and the Instructional Quality Commission, which all govern how schools, districts, and county offices of education provide instructional support. They will then provide the context surrounding California’s outdated history-social science materials; the last time many schools were allowed to update materials was before the election of George W. Bush. They will also explain how K-12 history-social science teachers have tried to make do with outdated textbooks, lack of content expertise, and limited resources that authorize them to teach up-to-date history. The bulk of their presentation will focus on the process of updating the Framework: the stalled starts for political and financial reasons, the drafting, the public hearings and feedback, the lobbying, the revision, and the eventual adoption of the document. As this time of this proposal’s submission, the Framework is nearly complete; it is currently scheduled for its final review before the State Board of Education in May, 2016. Audience members will learn from Nancy and Bill about both the process of working with the state apparatus to update history materials, and the national context that gave rise to it.