January 2016 Committee of the Full Board Tuesday Item 1
Discussion of Proposed Revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 110, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading, Subchapter A, Elementary, Subchapter B, Middle School, and Subchapter C, High School
January 26, 2016
COMMITTEE OF THE FULL BOARD: DISCUSSION
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: NO ACTION
SUMMARY: This item provides the opportunity for the committee to discuss proposed revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 110, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading, Subchapter A, Elementary, Subchapter B, Middle School, and Subchapter C, High School, and for the committee to hear invited testimony from expert reviewers and representatives of the English language arts and reading Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) review committees.
STATUTORY AUTHORITY: Texas Education Code (TEC), §§7.102(c)(4), 28.002, and 28.025.
TEC, §7.102(c)(4), requires the State Board of Education (SBOE) to establish curriculum and graduation requirements. TEC, §28.002, identifies the subjects of the required curriculum and 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, requires the SBOE by rule to determine the curriculum requirements for the foundation high school graduation program that are consistent with the required curriculum under §28.002.
BOARD RESPONSE: This item is presented for review and comment.
PREVIOUS BOARD ACTION: The SBOE adopted the TEKS for English language arts and reading effective September 1, 1998. Amendments to the TEKS for English language arts and reading were adopted effective September 4, 2008 and August 22, 2011. In April 2014, the board approved revisions to the process for review and revision of the TEKS to include more specific direction to TEKS review committees. The revised process is being used for the review and revision of the English and Spanish language arts and reading TEKS.
FUTURE ACTION EXPECTED: Proposed revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 110, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading, Subchapter A, Elementary, Subchapter B, Middle School, and Subchapter C, High School, will be presented for first reading and filing authorization at a future meeting.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND SIGNIFICANT ISSUES: Applications for appointment to English language arts and reading TEKS review committees were accepted by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) from March 5, 2015 through April 6, 2015. The applications received were provided to SBOE members at the April 2015 meeting, and nominations for English language arts and reading TEKS review committees and appointments of expert reviewers were made in spring 2015. Committee members were notified of the appointment in July 2015. The expert reviewers completed their review of the current TEKS and submitted initial reports to the SBOE in July 2015.
TEKS review committee members participated in a training webinar in August 2015 in preparation for the first face-to-face meeting. The English language arts and reading TEKS review committees convened in Austin in September 2015 to begin work on draft recommendations for the TEKS. The committees convened again in November 2015 to complete their initial draft recommendations.
In December 2015, the first draft recommendations were provided to the board and to the board-appointed expert reviewers and posted to the TEA website for informal public feedback.
The board's review process calls for each of the expert reviewers and one member of each TEKS review committee to present invited testimony at the January 2016 meeting.
FISCAL IMPACT: There will be normal business costs associated with this process for the agency, including staff and committee travel, meeting accommodations, expert review, and production and dissemination of documents.
PUBLIC AND STUDENT BENEFIT: Benefits include better alignment of the TEKS and coordination of the standards with the adoption of instructional materials.
PROCEDURAL AND REPORTING IMPLICATIONS: The proposed revisions would have no procedural and reporting requirements.
LOCALLY MAINTAINED PAPERWORK REQUIREMENTS: The proposed revisions would have no new locally maintained paperwork requirements.
PUBLIC COMMENTS: The official public comment period will begin when the proposal, approved for first reading and filing authorization by the SBOE, is published in the Texas Register.
ALTERNATIVES: None.
OTHER COMMENTS AND RELATED ISSUES: Proposed revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 128, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Spanish Language Arts and Reading and English as a Second Language, Subchapter A, Elementary, Subchapter B, Middle School, and Subchapter C, High School, is presented for discussion as a separate item in this agenda.
Staff Members Responsible:
Monica Martinez, Associate Commissioner
Standards and Programs
Shelly Ramos, Division Director
Curriculum
Attachment:
Statutory Citations (PDF, 25KB)
Separate Exhibit:
Text of Proposed Revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 110, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading, Subchapter A, Elementary, Subchapter B, Middle School, and Subchapter C, High School
(to be provided at the January 2016 SBOE meeting)