AUSTIN, Texas — On Tuesday, the Texas State Board of Education took up a discussion on an overhaul to the state’s social studies curriculum.
It’s part of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS standards, which decide what public school students learn about all over Texas.
The State Board of Education voted in September to approve a new framework for Texas social studies.
Since then, a state-appointed work group has been working out the details of the curriculum, which has seen pushback.
On Tuesday morning, the board opened the discussion with hours of public testimony.
Spectrum News spoke with Ellen Alexandrakis, who boarded a bus from Dallas to Austin before dawn to testify at the meeting.
“It is really important to me that not only my son, but all of the kids in Texas are getting a fair shake at an equal quality education,” said Alexandrakis.
Alexandrakis taught in both public and private schools for 25 years before deciding to return to the classroom as a student.
“For the type of advocacy work I wanted to do, specifically public education, Pre-K through 12, it was important that I not be in the school system anymore,” said Alexandrakis.
This week, she’s testifying on the draft recommendations to the TEKS for K-12 social studies.
“In my testimony, I am asking the State Board of Education to just have a redo essentially with a new set of content advisers who more closely look like Texas,” said Alexandrakis.
The board last discussed the draft in February, with advisers recommending changes.
“We have to have the right amount of materials in the amount of time that students have to master this,” said one board member during the February meeting. “They have to master this. It looks like in almost every grade until you get into high school, the work groups said too much content, K-8, too much content.”
State-appointed advisers said their cuts help focus lessons on the Lone Star State.
“We had to actually come up with a document that told that human story,” said Dr. Donald Frazier, a content adviser for the TEKS review. “The big shift now is that we’re also localizing the human story to Texas.”
But opponents have expressed concern about what could now be left out with a greater focus on Texas.
As Alexandrakis testifies, she will focus on how the draft characterizes other world religions.
“Adding words such as radical when studying Islam,” said Alexandrakis. “There’s nothing wrong with teaching about religion. In fact, we need our teachers to teach about religion but there’s a very key difference between teaching about religion and teaching religion.”
The board expects to have a final draft by June and implement the new curriculum by the 2030 school year.