State’s new education standards put Texas history ‘front and center.’ Here are the changes
The State Board of Education is changing the way students learn social studies, making Texas history a centerpiece of the kindergarten through eighth grade curriculum.
The change comes after the board voted April 8 to significantly increase instruction in Texas history. Soon, students will study Texas and the people and events that define it in most grade levels before high school. Currently, Texas history is taught in fourth and seventh grades.
“We as we have always done will develop Texas standards for Texas students,” said State Board of Education chair Keven Ellis at the April 6 meeting. “We also want to make sure that we will adopt Texas standards that appropriately emphasize the significant role that Texas has had in the growth of our country and also the importance of Texas on the world stage. This concept will result in students no longer learning Texas history in just grade four and grade seven in isolation, but clear and direct student expectations that would emphasize Texas history from grades K through eight.”
When will these changes happen?
The next step is for the board’s Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills review work groups to develop recommendations for Texas-specific standards at each grade level. Board members nominate educators, parents, business and industry representatives and employers to serve on review work groups.
The board will discuss proposed revisions to social studies at its June meeting and is expected to vote at its September meeting. Final standards will be adopted in November. The Board of Education has the authority to review and adopt standards for each subject of the required curriculum.
Following the adoption of revised standards, TEA will develop a variety of resources, including TEKS Guides - a free online resource for social studies to help teachers unpack and understand each student expectation within the revised social studies TEKS, and professional development, including the civics training programs required by state law. Additionally, the State Board of Education will call for and adopt new textbooks aligned to the revised standards.
The standards will be implemented starting in the 2025-26 school year.
How did they come up with the new framework?
Monica Martinez, the Texas Education Agency’s associate commissioner of standards and support services, said the agency looked at social studies education at high performing private schools, education in other countries and trade books that teachers would use.
“We’ve looked at a lot of other states and I think have largely come to the conclusion that everybody is trying to address social studies education in largely the same way and we’re not seeing evidence that anybody’s being terribly successful,” Martinez said.
Overall, Martinez said the agency looked at “social studies education being taught in a way that might inform a different approach that would help us to ensure that students are really having the opportunity to learn history starting in kindergarten.”
What will the curriculum look like?
Texas students from third to eighth grade would learn chronologically-based history, from early civilization to the 21st century. More world history would be taught before high school for a fuller understanding.
“Even in a chronologically based concept, Texas history would be front and center,” Ellis said.
Grades three through five would be taught world history starting in 5000 BC, and sixth- to eighth-graders would learn Texas and U.S. history from the 1400s to today. That would allow about 7,000 years of world, U.S., and Texas history to be covered in ways that more fully establish causes and effects, according to TEA.
Pat Hardy, the board member from Fort Worth, said the new standards will provide students a background on Texas history going into high school.
Kindergarten through second grade students’ social studies curriculum would be organized around themes, with three years of foundational knowledge building in Texas, U.S., and world history. Kindergarten students would learn about Texas historical figures and events in state history. First graders would learn about Native Americans. Second graders would learn about migration to Texas and the West.
What issues could there be with the new framework?
Several board members said they want to make sure Texas history is highlighted more than it is now, rather than just spread out over several grade levels.
Board member Pam Little of Fairview said she likes the new approach, but is concerned about watering down Texas history. “Texas history is very important to all of us Texans and I know we don’t want to give up just a single second of that history and we need to be sure that that does not happen,” she said.
Martinez assured the board that this approach “would allow for greater focus on Texas history than the existing approach.”
Others, like Georgina Perez, want to make sure that educators will have the resources to adjust to the shift in learning. There would need to be updated instructional materials and professional development training to support teachers in making this shift, she pointed out.
Ellis said that the new standards would require instructional material providers to refocus on Texas. Publishers would redesign textbooks based on the Texas standards.
Marisa Perez-Diaz emphasized the need to include indigenous peoples of Texas in the history curriculum.
At its January meeting, the SBOE provided direction to its work groups saying Texas historical events should be representative of the cultural, ethnic and racial diversity of Texas.
“When considering more ethnic representation in the standards, the work groups are instructed to begin with the individuals identified in the high school ethnic studies courses,” a TEA spokesperson said.
This story was originally published April 18, 2022 at 5:07 PM.
