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SBOE gives preliminary approval to revised English and Spanish language arts and science standards

Feb. 3, 2017

AUSTIN - After lengthy discussion and review, the State Board of Education Friday gave preliminary approval to revised curriculum standards for English and Spanish language arts and reading for kindergarten through eighth grade.

If given final approval at the board’s April 18-21 meeting, the new curriculum standards would become effective with school year 2019-2020. They will replace standards approved in 2008. The board postponed the initial vote on language arts standards for high school courses until the April meeting.

Efforts to update curriculum standards called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) began in 2015 and has literally involved thousands of public and higher education educators.

Early in the review process, more than 1,100 educators provided input on the current TEKS by completing a survey issued by the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (TCTELA) and Texas A&M University. TCTELA also hosted an online forum that engaged 1,300 educators.

Review committees of teachers, instructional specialists, curriculum directors and other English and Spanish language experts, appointed by the state board, worked on recommendations and refinements to those recommendations throughout 2015 and 2016.  A team of experts appointed by the board also worked tirelessly on the recommendations.

The TEKS approved for first reading and filing authorization took all this public comment into account.

The most significant changes to the TEKS involve creating a better alignment between the English and Spanish language arts standards and reorganizing the TEKS into seven strands.

The strands are:

  • Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking and discussion
  • Comprehension skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing using multiple texts
  • Response skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing using multiple texts
  • Multiple Genres: listening, speaking, reading, and writing using multiple texts
  • Author’s craft: listening, speaking, reading and writing using multiple texts
  • Composition: listening, speaking, reading and writing using multiple texts
  • Inquiry and research: listening, speaking, reading and writing using multiple texts

Once amendments approved this week are incorporated into the standards, they will be posted at http://tea.texas.gov/Academics/Curriculum_Standards/TEKS_Texas_Essential_Knowledge_and_Skills_(TEKS)_Review/English_Language_Arts_and_Reading_TEKS/ for the English standards and http://tea.texas.gov/Academics/Curriculum_Standards/TEKS_Texas_Essential_Knowledge_and_Skills_(TEKS)_Review/Spanish_Language_Arts_and_Reading_and_English_as_a_Second_Language_TEKS/ for the Spanish standards.

The board also approved for first reading and filing authorization streamlined science standards. Responding to frequent comments that Texas standards are too voluminous, the board began a concerted effort to reduce scope of the standards. Science is the first subject area to undergo the streamlining process.

As review committees worked on this project, they did their best to estimate the amount of time it would take to actually teach all of the standards to mastery. Although an imprecise measure since it will vary from class to class and student to student, this work did help pinpoint areas where reductions were needed.

If given final approval in April as is now scheduled, the revised science standards have a recommended implementation date of the 2017-2018 school year.

The preliminarily approved standards will be posted at http://tea.texas.gov/Academics/Curriculum_Standards/TEKS_Texas_Essential_Knowledge_and_Skills_(TEKS)_Review/Science_TEKS_Streamlining/ shortly.

 
 

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