The State Board of Education Committee on Instruction met on April 7 to take administrative action on the repeal of existing TEKS In order for the addition of new TEKS. Committee also met to renew existing innovative courses and to adopt text updates for instructional materials. A link to the hearing and agenda can be found here.
This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.
Item 1: Proposed Repeal of 19 TAC Chapter 115, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Health Education, Subchapter A, Elementary, §§115.1-115.7, Subchapter B, Middle School, §§115.21-115.23, and Subchapter C, High School, §§115.31-115.33
- Staff – Administrative item; proposing new health education TEKS requires the repeal of the old TEKS
- First time seeing this item; asks committee to suspend rules to approve for first reading and filing authorization
- Motion to repeal passes
Item 2: Proposed Repeal of 19 TAC Chapter 116, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Physical Education, Subchapter A, Elementary, §§116.1-116.7, Subchapter B, Middle School, §§116.21-116.24, and Subchapter C, High School, §§116.51-116.56
- Staff – Second repeal item to make ways for new physical education TEKS
- First time seeing this item; asks committee to suspend rules to approve for first reading and filing authorization
- Motion to repeal passes
Item 3: Proposed Approval of Innovative Courses
- Staff – 2 applications for consideration with 6 courses in total; both applications are existing courses
- Peacekeepers I & II; courses that train students in all aspects of the mediation process
- Making Connections Levels I-IV; a series of courses to help students with Autism succeed socially and academically
- If approved committee must assign a length of renewal; average renewal is 5 years
- Motion to renew all courses for 5 years passes
Item 4: Approval of Updates and Substitutions to Adopted Instructional Materials
- Staff – Standing item to submit updates from publishers; 2 publishers provided updates
- Learning Without Tears; added teaching guides for in-person and virtual classrooms and small language changes
- Learning A-Z; updating photos, illustrations and licensing credits
- Motion to approve updates passes
Item 5: Proposed Repeal of 19 TAC Chapter 127, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Career Development, Subchapter G, Education and Training, §§127.310, 127.312, and 127.313; Subchapter I, Health Science, §127.409; and Subchapter O, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, §§127.753, 127.755, 127.761, and 127.764; and Chapter 130, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Career and Technical Education, Subchapter J, Human Services, §130.277
- Staff – Board approved CTE courses in Nov 2021; time to repeal them for introduction of new courses
- First time seeing this item; asks committee to suspend rules to approve for first reading and filing authorization
- Motion to repeal passes
Item 6: Adoption of Review of 19 TAC Chapter 89, Adaptations for Special Populations
- Staff – 4-year rule review over Subchapters A, C and D as discussed last meeting; filed review to receive public comment
- Public comment showed a misunderstanding that committee would eliminate special education rule; this is not the case it was just under review
- Comments also included discussion of increasing funding, GTE program importance, and a few requests for mandatory training of special needs teachers
- Young – Could you go over subchapters A, C, and D for listeners?
- Subchapter A; discusses gifted and talented
- Subchapter C; rules related to high school equivalency exams and accommodations
- Subchapter D; language for placement of residential and educational replacements for students with visual and hearing disabilities
- Motion to adopt the review passes