January 26, 2021 Committee of the Full Board Item 1

Work Session on Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Review and
Instructional Materials Adoption Cycle

January 26, 2021

COMMITTEE OF THE FULL BOARD: DISCUSSION
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: NO ACTION

SUMMARY: This item provides an opportunity for the board to discuss the schedule for review and revision of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and the review and adoption cycle for instructional materials aligned to revised TEKS.

STATUTORY AUTHORITY: Texas Education Code (TEC), §§7.102(c)(4), 28.002(a) and (c), and 28.025(a).

TEC, §7.102(c)(4), requires the State Board of Education (SBOE) to establish curriculum and graduation requirements.

TEC, §28.002(a), identifies the subjects of the required curriculum.

TEC, §28.002(c), requires the SBOE to by rule identify the essential knowledge and skills of each subject in the required curriculum that all students should be able to demonstrate and that will be used in evaluating instructional materials and addressed on the state assessment instruments.

TEC, §28.025(a), requires the SBOE to by rule determine the curriculum requirements for the foundation high school graduation program that are consistent with the required curriculum under TEC, §28.002.

TEC, §31.003, grants the SBOE authority to adopt rules for the adoption, requisition, distribution, care, use, and disposal of instructional materials.

The full text of statutory citations can be found in the statutory authority section of this agenda.

BOARD RESPONSE: This item is presented for review and comment.

PREVIOUS BOARD ACTION: The SBOE adopted the TEKS for all subjects effective September 1, 1998. The English language arts and reading TEKS were amended effective September 4, 2008. The Spanish language arts and reading TEKS were amended effective November 26, 2008. The TEKS for high school English elective courses were amended effective August 23, 2010. The English and Spanish language arts and reading TEKS for Kindergarten-Grade 8 were amended effective September 25, 2017, and the English language arts and reading and English as a second language (ESL) TEKS for high school were amended effective November 12, 2017. The K-12 TEKS for English and Spanish language arts and reading were again amended effective August 1, 2019, to make technical adjustments to the standards. The mathematics TEKS were amended effective August 1, 2006. The secondary mathematics TEKS were amended effective February 22, 2009. The mathematics TEKS were again amended effective September 12, 2012. The science TEKS were amended effective August 4, 2009 and were amended again to streamline the science TEKS effective August 27, 2018. The social studies TEKS were amended effective August 23, 2010 and were amended again to streamline the social studies TEKS in 2018. The streamlined social studies TEKS for middle and high school social studies were effective August 1, 2019 for implementation beginning with the 2019-2020 school year. The streamlined Kindergarten-Grade 5 social studies TEKS are scheduled for implementation in the 2020-2021 school year. The career and technical education (CTE) TEKS were amended effective August 23, 2010. The CTE TEKS were again amended effective August 28, 2017 and implemented in the 2017-2018 school year. The fine arts TEKS were amended effective August 24, 2015. The TEKS for languages other than English (LOTE) were amended effective July 15, 2014, and December 31, 2014, and were implemented in the 2017-2018 school year. The technology applications TEKS were amended effective September 26, 2011. At the November 2020 meeting, the board gave final approval to the health education TEKS and the physical education TEKS, which are scheduled to be effective August 1, 2022. The board also gave final approval in November 2020 to TEKS for four high school science courses to be implemented beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.

Proclamation 2010 was issued by the SBOE in November 2007. Proclamation 2011 was issued by the SBOE in May 2008. In May 2010, the board voted to postpone Proclamation 2012 indefinitely. In its place, the board issued a Request for Supplemental Science Materials for science, grades 5-8, Biology, Chemistry, Integrated Physics and Chemistry (IPC), and Physics. Proclamation 2014 was issued by the SBOE in April 2012. Proclamation 2015 was issued by the SBOE in April 2013. At the July 2014 meeting, the board took action to delay the effective date of Proclamation 2016 for one calendar year and to combine the subject areas that were scheduled to be included in Proclamation 2016 with those that were scheduled to be included in Proclamation 2017. Proclamation 2017 was issued by the SBOE in April 2015. Proclamation 2018 was issued by the SBOE in November 2016. In April 2017, the SBOE issued Proclamation 2019. The SBOE issued Proclamation 2020 in April 2018 and in June 2019 the SBOE issued Proclamation 2021 calling for prekindergarten systems. In April 2020, the SBOE issued Proclamation 2022 calling for materials for health education and physical education.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND JUSTIFICATION: A revised adoption cycle for instructional materials was approved by the SBOE in January 2012. In July 2014, House Bill 188, 80th Texas Legislature, 2007, required the SBOE to designate each proclamation by the school year in which the instructional materials are intended to be made available in classrooms. Following a work session in 2017, the SBOE approved a revised TEKS and instructional materials review and adoption schedule. The schedule included review of courses for two to three career and technical education (CTE) clusters each year rather than review and revision of all CTE courses at one time.

At the June 2019 SBOE meeting, the board held a work session to discuss updating the TEKS and instructional materials review and adoption schedule. At the September 2019 meeting, the board approved a revised schedule through the 2030-2031 school year. In accordance with the SBOE's approved TEKS and instructional materials review schedule, the SBOE began the review of the English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) in early 2019 and the review of the science TEKS in late 2019.

At the September 2019 meeting, SBOE members were asked to designate content advisors for the review and revision of the science TEKS. In December 2019, applications to serve on science TEKS review work groups were posted on the Texas Education Agency (TEA) website. Additionally, in December 2019, TEA distributed a survey to collect information from educators regarding the review and revision of the science TEKS. TEA staff provided applications for the science review work groups to SBOE members on a monthly basis from December 2019 to June 2020 and in September, October, and December 2020. At the recommendation of the content advisors and Work Group A, the SBOE directed work groups to use a backward design approach to the science TEKS revision. Consequently, the work groups began with recommendations for revisions to four key high school science courses: Biology, Chemistry, Integrated Physics and Chemistry, and Physics.

In November 2020, the SBOE approved for second reading and final adoption revised TEKS for the four high school science courses for implementation beginning in the 2023-2024 school year. Work groups are in the process of finalizing recommendations for the Kindergarten-Grade 8 science TEKS. Discussion of proposed new TEKS for the remaining four high school science courses and a new Independent Study in Science course are presented as a separate item in this agenda.

Staff Members Responsible:
Monica Martinez, Associate Commissioner, Standards and Support Services
Shelly Ramos, Senior Director, Curriculum Standards and Student Support
Melissa Lautenschlager, Director, Instructional Materials and Implementation