AB 189: School curriculum: model curriculum: service learning.

Existing law requires the Instructional Quality Commission to develop, and for the State Board of Education to adopt, modify, or revise, a model curriculum in ethnic studies.

This bill would require the commission to develop, and the state board to adopt, reject, or modify, a model curriculum for pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in service learning, as defined, for voluntary use by educators. The bill would require the model curriculum to incorporate evidence-based and applied instructional practices for developing service learning skills, and to identify the ways in which the model curriculum aligns with, and is supportive of, the common core state standards.

The bill, if the state board adopts the model curriculum through prescribed procedures conducted in accordance with a specified timeline, would then require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to post the model curriculum on its Internet Web site for use on a voluntary basis by educators. The bill, beginning in the school year immediately following adoption of the model curriculum by the state board, would encourage local educational agencies and charter schools to use the model curriculum to provide instruction in service learning. The bill would specify that these provisions would become operative only if an appropriation of sufficient funds for its purposes is enacted in the annual Budget Act or another statute.