The State Board of Education (SBOE) on Friday, February 3, 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.
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.
The SBOE is scheduled to issue Proclamation 2019 at their April 2017 meeting.
Also during their February meeting, Marty Rowley was elected as vice chair and Ruben Cortez Jr. as secretary. Also the following committees and chairs were selected:
- Committee on School Initiatives: Barbara Cargill (chair) and Marisa Perez (vice chair), Ruben Cortez, Keven Ellis, Marty Rowley
- Committee on Instruction: Sue Melton-Malone (chair) and Geraldine Miller (vice chair), Donna Bahorich, Erika Beltran, Georgina C. Pérez
- Committee on School Finance/PSF: David Bradley (chair) and Tom Maynard (vice chair), Patricia Hardy, Lawrence Allen, Ken Mercer