The wait is over. A month after the Texas State Board of Education finished up Round Two of its deliberations over rewriting the state’s social studies standards, the Texas Education Agency today finally posted the latest draft, which includes many amendments (some rather controversial) from the March meeting. The board tentatively approved the standards March 12 on a party line vote of 10 to 5, with all Democrats opposed.
Those even vaguely familiar with what’s going on know the Texas debate has proven “lively,” you might say, and has attracted widespread coverage well beyond the Texas border. I’ve blogged about developments a few times—here, here, and here for example—and we ran a larger story about Texas as well as several other states working to revise their social studies standards.
While a relatively small number of amendments have attracted the most attention, the standards documents cover a lot of terrain and I encourage you to check them out for yourself.
Here are links to the proposed standards for elementary, middle, and high school students. There’s also a separate document for economics (with, and I’m quoting the title, an “emphasis on the free enterprise system and its benefits”).
The state board is scheduled to reconvene in May, at which time it’s expected to approve the final standards. However, keep in mind that board members may well seek to make further changes at that time, so this is not necessarily the final package.
Happy reading.