The newly minted State Board of Education (SBOE) met for its first meeting of 2025 on Jan. 28-31 in Austin. The first order of business was to swear in the three new members to the SBOE: Gustavo Reveles (District 1- El Paso), Brandon Hall (District 11-Aledo), and Dr. Tiffany Clark (District 13-DeSoto). Gov. Greg Abbott was present for the oath and then briefly addressed the body about the importance of “rowing in the same direction” on public education. While he teased the concept, he did not explicitly plug private school vouchers in his speech to the body.
Tuesday was spent primarily discussing and amending the board’s operating rules, and the election of board officers and committees as follows:
- SBOE: Aaron Kinsey, Chair; Pam Little, Vice-Chair; Will Hickman, Secretary
- Committee on School Finance/Permanent School Fund: Tom Maynard, Chair; Aaron Kinsey; Keven Ellis, Marisa Perez-Diaz, Will Hickman
- Committee on School Initiatives: LJ Francis, Chair; Julie Pickren, Vice-Chair; Staci Childs, Brandon Hall, Tiffany Clark
- Committee on Instruction: Audrey Young, Chair; Evelyn Brooks, Vice-Chair; Gustavo Reveles, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Pam Little
Wednesday began with the commissioner of education’s comments. As expected, Commissioner Mike Morath presented information on the 2024 TEA Annual Report. He also commented on the release of the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. Often referred to as the “Nation’s Report Card,” scores revealed that the troubling trend of Texas eighth-grade math performance persists and is consistent with national trends. However, fourth-grade math was a bright spot with students demonstrating improvement, placing Texas in the top states in this area. Though STAAR results tell a story of reading recovery since the pandemic, NAEP results show a downward rather than upward trend in literacy.
HB 1605 Continues Apace
Though the board officially adopted high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) for reading and mathematics last fall, the work on instructional materials review and adoption (IMRA) and broader implementation of HB 1605 is far from over.
The 2025 IMRA cycle provided perhaps the most dramatic action of the week. A provision of the bill mandates that the Texas Education Agency must maintain the capacity to review at least 200 products each cycle and, should more be submitted, TEA has the authority to prioritize the submitted products. With more than 600 products submitted for this year’s review of supplemental mathematics materials, there was significant lobbying in the room by publishers to ensure their products made “the list.”
Additionally, the state can compel a review of a product regardless of whether the publisher has requested a review. TEA conducted a survey of districts to determine which are the most-used materials and, in their stated attempt to “unlock” the bonus funding related to HQIM adoption in a district, are requiring certain publishers to submit materials for review. This entire process was problematic. As both a publisher (Bluebonnet Learning) and arbiter of the IMRA process, TEA has the ability to dictate the prioritization, relegating possibly quality materials to later cycles and forcing a private business to bend to the wishes of the agency.
Also related to HB 1605, TEA presented rules and rubrics for the local classroom review process. This review is intended to be a snapshot of pedagogy, limited in time and scope (think a week of student assignments), and confined to determining whether the teacher’s materials align to district-adopted materials and are rigorous enough for the grade level and subject area. At both the November discussion and last week, members expressed some dissatisfaction with the limitations of the review process, and some would prefer this to be an opportunity to litigate a teacher’s entire curriculum for “appropriateness,” which falls within the local grievance process. However, the draft rules seem to have landed within the bounds of the law, and we will pay close attention to this at adoption in April.
On Thursday, the Committee on Instruction gave approval to innovative course renewals and discussed the merits of International Baccalaureate (IB) courses as part of the TEKS. The Committee on School Initiatives appointed several board members to special purpose districts and received updates on the Generation 30 charter approval process and ongoing State Board for Education Certification (SBEC) activities. The Committee on School Finance/Permanent School Fund will adopt rules related to purchasing and contracts and discuss updates to rules relating to school district budgeting, accounting, financial reporting, and auditing and TEA financial review functions.
Before proceeding with the Friday agenda, the board adopted a resolution regarding Career and Technical Education Month and a resolution honoring the 2024 National Blue Ribbon Schools.
Call to Action: Educators Survey for Statewide Required Literary Works List
While not directly on the SBOE agenda, a TEA survey published this week is in response to yet another portion of HB 1605. Under the bill, the SBOE is required to adopt an addition to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for K-12 Reading Language Arts (RLA) to specify a literary works list for each grade level. In advance of the SBOE’s consideration of this topic, the agency is conducting research for possible recommendations.
If you are currently a K-12 educator in Texas, you are invited to complete the Literary Works Survey.
As you complete the survey, consider literary works in the classroom as a broad range of literature types, such as poems, folktales, short stories, plays, novels, or primary source documents that are used as part of direct instruction of TEKS-based content. Your input will assist in better understanding both the quantity and types of literature used in classrooms across Texas today.
The Literary Works Survey will remain open until Monday, Feb. 17. It will only require about 15 minutes of time to complete. Survey responses are anonymous.
If you have questions about the literary works list addition to the TEKS required by HB 1605, please contact the TEA Curriculum Standards and Student Support Division: teks@tea.txas.gov; (512) 463-9581. If you have questions about accessing and completing the survey, please refer your questions to tealiteracylistssupport@tntp.org