Washington State

House of Representatives

Office of Program Research

BILL

ANALYSIS

Education Appropriations & Oversight Committee

HB 2337

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Brief Summary of Bill

Directs 1.5 percent of the existing appropriation for textbooks and curriculum solely for development of new and existing openly licensed courseware aligned with common core state standards until 2018.
Requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to report annually to the Governor and education committees of the Legislature on development of openly licensed courseware.

Background:

School District Curriculum.

Individual school districts are responsible for establishing curriculum and selecting textbooks and other coursework materials to support their curriculum. The state funds curriculum and courseware through the Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs (MSOC) portion of the prototype schools funding model. The 2011-13 biennial budget appropriated funding equal to $62.45 per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student for the curriculum and textbooks portion of the MSOC allocation.

Due to individual selection of curricula, a wide variety of materials are used in schools across the state. For example, a 2008 report by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction showed that there were 20 or more different math curricula being used in the in middle schools in the 2007-08 school year.

The Common Core State Standards describe knowledge and skills in Reading and mathematics across all grade levels and were developed by a consortium of multiple states. In July 2011, the Superintendent of Public Instruction adopted the Common Core State Standards, which will serve as the state K-12 learning standards when they are fully implemented in 2014-15.

Creative Commons.

Creative Commons, founded in 2001, is an organization that works to provide access to research and educational materials via the Internet. The Creative Commons attribution license was created as a form of licensing that allows materials to be copyrighted, but be publicly available without standard copyright restrictions. Creative Commons provides a particular focus on educational materials and works to minimize legal, technical, and social barriers to sharing and reuse of education materials.

Summary of Bill:

1.5 percent of existing funding for textbooks and curriculum, through the Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs portion of the school funding formula, must be used solely for development of openly licensed courseware aligned with common core standards to be made available at no cost to school districts. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) must take the lead in developing, either by contract or in-house methods, new or existing openly licensed courseware aligned with Common Core State Standards and license it under a Creative Commons attribution license. The OSPI must use its best efforts to seek additional outside funding, and advertise to school districts the availability of openly licensed course work. The OSPI must report annually to the Governor and educational committees of the legislature from December 1, 2013 until December 1, 2017 on the development of openly licensed courseware.