CHAPTER 2. Individual Instruction [58400. - 58409.]

Cal. Education Code - EDC 2.

in effect

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 58400. Section 58400.

The Legislature hereby finds and declares that several schools have developed programs of individualized instruction based upon performance criteria, including the integration of vocational education with the regular coursework, which have greatly improved their students’ achievement and that the success of such programs offers great promise for improving the effectiveness of education throughout the state. The Legislature intends to extend the use of individualized instruction programs on a large scale and to immediately organize a comprehensive program of individualized instruction based upon performance criteria in a major urban school district. Such a comprehensive program shall: (a) Address the range of socioeconomic-educational problems of urban school children which will be faced by other urban school districts which may desire to develop individualized instruction programs. (b) Convert the entire curriculum for kindergarten through 12th grade and articulate the curriculum with a community college. (c) Fully integrate vocational education with the regular curriculum in order to acquaint students with a variety of career alternatives and to provide them with flexible opportunities to acquire the combination of vocational and academic skills required for their individual educational and career objectives. (d) Draw together existing experience, techniques, and material in the field of individualized instruction, and produce an increased fund of economically reproducible instructional resources to accelerate large-scale conversion of schools in other school districts of the state. (e) Provide a careful evaluation of the effectiveness of individualized instruction and the problems of conversion, including teacher training, curriculum design and production, integration of vocational education with the regular coursework, and plant utilization. Such an evaluation will help other school districts avoid pitfalls and unnecessary expenditures and permit their programs of individualized instruction to be developed with maximum efficiency and effectiveness. (f) Provide a major opportunity to design and test the criteria and tools for measuring educational performance. Such an opportunity shall contribute essential information and experience to efforts to set goals and measure performance in all the schools of this state. (g) Provide the Governor and the Legislature with more precise information on the fiscal requirements for converting schools in this state to programs of individualized instruction.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 58401. Section 58401.

As used in this chapter “individualized instruction based upon performance criteria” means an educational method in which (a) aptitudes, interests, motivations, and other characteristics of each student play a major role in the selection of educational objectives and the determination of the sequence of study and choice of materials and procedures; (b) the time spent by each student in a given subject area is determined by his performance; and (c) the progress of each student is measured by comparing his performance with a specific objective, rather than with the performance of other students.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 58402. Section 58402.

The Legislature further finds and declares that funds are needed to convert the regular curriculum to individualized instruction and integration of vocational education and that once such conversion and integration have been accomplished, such program shall operate on the funds regularly available to the school districts.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 58403. Section 58403.

The State Board of Education shall establish application procedures and select a school district to undertake an individualized instruction program pursuant to this chapter. The specific goal of the individualized instruction program authorized by this article shall be to convert at least one high school and the network of elementary and junior high schools which provide students to that high school to a program of individualized instruction based upon performance criteria, including the full integration of vocational education with the regular coursework, and to articulate this program with a community college. In authorizing this program, the Legislature recognizes that conversion of the entire network of schools may require incremental development beginning, for example, with a high school, one junior high school, and one elementary school.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 58404. Section 58404.

In selecting a school district to undertake an individualized instruction program pursuant to this chapter, the board shall use the following criteria: (a) The school district shall be a large urban unified district, which had an average daily attendance of not less than 30,000 for the school year 1967–1968, and which has an agreement with a community college to articulate their curricula. (b) The high school and network of junior high and elementary schools shall be representative of the range of socioeconomic-educational problems faced by urban schools. (c) The local board of education and administrators of the school district and the administrators and teachers of the schools to be involved shall be strongly committed to the goals of the individualized instruction program. (d) The individualized instruction program shall be carried out with maximum participation of the teachers and administrators of the individual schools and with substantial flexibility for each school to establish its own program within the framework of general goals and requirements for the overall program within the school district. (e) The school district shall have a plan for community involvement with the program, including students, parents, and representatives of business, industry, organized labor, community and civic organizations, and the general public. (f) The cost experience of the individualized instruction program and the instructional technology used in the school district shall be readily transferable to other schools in the state. (g) The schools selected by the district to participate in the program shall receive entitlement equivalent to the total amount of resources from state, local and federal funds which would otherwise be provided the schools under the district’s current budgeting procedures. (h) The instructional program shall include the full integration of vocational education with the regular curriculum and shall acquaint students in all grades with career alternatives and the relevancy of the school curricula to achieving career objectives. (i) The school district shall have a written statement adopted by the local board of education setting forth the goals, and to the extent feasible, the measurable objectives of education in the district.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 58405. Section 58405.

In selecting the school district to undertake the individualized instruction program pursuant to this chapter, the State Board of Education shall conduct a thorough field review in order to make independent judgments of the suitability of a district to participate in the program. The field review shall include a rating of the levels of commitment of the teachers and administrators to the individualized instruction program set forth in this chapter.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 58406. Section 58406.

The district selected to undertake the program authorized by this chapter shall have complete responsibility for the program’s progress and success. The staff of the Department of Education shall serve as a resource team that shall provide technical assistance and advice to the school district.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 58407. Section 58407.

The state board may waive any provision of this code, with the exception of Article 1 (commencing with Section 16500), and Article 3 (commencing with Section 39140) of Chapter 2 of Part 23, which it deems is necessary to waive to assure the success of the program authorized by this chapter.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 58409. Section 58409.

District evaluation and reporting requirements required by this article shall not supersede other legal requirements. It is the intent of the Legislature, however, that the State Board of Education and the Department of Education make every effort to use the evaluation and reporting requirements under this chapter in fulfilling any other legal requirements in order to minimize the administrative burdens on the school district.

Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026