The State Board of Education Friday broadened its call for new textbooks for Special
Topics in Social Studies to include but not be limited to, Mexican American
Studies, African American Studies, Native American Studies and Asian American
board did not create new courses to cover these ethnic studies programs.
Instead local school districts and charters may use a general set of curriculum
standards for a course called Special
Topics in Social Studies. Using these curriculum standards, districts have
had the ability to create their own ethnic studies courses for years but there
have not been state-approved textbooks for the classes.
request for instructional material for these elective courses is included in a
call-for-bids document known as Proclamation 2016. This proclamation originally
included a call for new materials for Languages Other Than English (LOTE).
textbooks and electronic materials are scheduled to be approved as part of the
state adoption process in November 2015 for use beginning in the 2016-2017
board, during its four-day meeting, also gave final approval to revised Texas
Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curriculum standards for Languages Other
board removed all references to classical languages, from the TEKS for LOTE
Levels I-VII. Separate TEKS will be
developed for the classical languages, which do not have extensive speaking and
listening components as do most modern languages. The board also made
amendments to more appropriately address proficiency levels for logographic
languages in the LOTE Levels I-VII TEKS.
updated TEKS are scheduled to be implemented in Texas classrooms in 2016-2017.