{"id":143717,"date":"2026-01-30T05:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/143717\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T05:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:58:16","slug":"what-to-know-as-texas-develops-first-mandatory-reading-list-for-k-12-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/143717\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know as Texas develops first mandatory reading list for K-12 schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollowing over four hours of public testimony and debate Jan. 28, the Texas State Board of Education<\/a> is poised to postpone a plan to create a mandatory reading list for K-12 students.<\/p>\n

Board members said Jan. 28 that they wanted to get more feedback from Texans before moving forward with the policy, which would take effect at the beginning of the 2030-31 school year. The SBOE is required to create the reading list under a 2023 state law<\/a>, and members said they would likely revisit the proposal during an April meeting.<\/p>\n

The overview<\/p>\n

The Texas Education Agency<\/a> compiled a list of nearly 300 English and Spanish literary works<\/a> for the board to consider. The proposal, which was released in November, ranges from nursery rhymes and poems about U.S. presidents in early grades to classical literature and 19th-century speeches in high school.<\/p>\n

The proposed list also includes some religious excerpts with a Christian focus, such as the Parable of the Prodigal Son and David and Goliath.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1605<\/a>, a state law passed in 2023, directs education officials to require \u201cat least one literary work\u201d to be taught in each grade. The TEA recommended dozens of texts per grade, ranging from 17 items for fifth-grade students and 34 for first-graders.<\/p>\n

Shannon Trejo, the TEA\u2019s deputy commissioner of school programs, said the agency created its recommended book list by surveying Texas educators and reviewing texts used by other states and organizations. Over 5,700 teachers responded to a 2025 survey on the literary works they use in class, Trejo told the board Jan. 28.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Texas Education Agency recommended dozens of literary works for each grade level’s mandatory reading list, although officials said many teachers currently use a larger number of texts in the classroom. (Courtesy Texas Education Agency)\u201cAs you look at these lists, we’re trying to balance two things. [One is] this idea of establishing a canon of literature that all students in the state of Texas would be expected to read and understand and have as foundational knowledge,\u201d Trejo said. \u201cWe want to balance that with local flexibility, the ability for students to self-select novels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trejo said the TEA recommended that its full proposal be approved, noting that it will ultimately be up to the SBOE to \u201cdetermine how much should be standardized and how much should be left to local control\u2014to allow for students to to pick their own books, or teachers and districts to have flexibility in this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zooming in<\/p>\n

Some board members and Texans who testified during the Jan. 28 meeting expressed concerns that the TEA\u2019s list<\/a> was too long and focused too heavily on classical literature that \u201cdoes not represent the students of Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aziel Quezada, an 11th-grade student at Austin ISD\u2019s Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy<\/a>, encouraged the SBOE to include more works by authors of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving one minority story per grade level is not inclusion,\u201d Quezada said Jan. 28. \u201cWhile political addresses, excerpts from the Bible and creative pieces are all important, what can we say of our representation of Latine students, of our Asian students, or even the rising number of queer students across the state? Where do they see themselves in these works?\u201d<\/p>\n

SBOE member Brandon Hall, R-Aledo, said it was important for students to read classical texts throughout their educational journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we’re looking at classical literature, we’re looking at literature that has stood the test of time,\u201d Hall said. \u201cPeople have been reading these works for generations and there’s a reason they haven’t fallen off. What does the race or gender of an author have to do with the quality of the literature?\u201d<\/p>\n

While the proposed list includes some works by authors of color, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass and Langston Hughes, some board members said they were concerned that students of color would not feel represented by the required readings. During the 2024-25 school year, Hispanic children made up 53% of Texas\u2019 student population, while 25% of students were white and 13% of students were African American, according to TEA data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis list does not represent the students of Texas,\u201d SBOE member Tiffany Clark, D-DeSoto, said. \u201cFor so many years, students of color have had to endure a European-centered philosophy [and] history without representation of their own history. That is exactly what we continue to see with this list.\u201d<\/p>\n

More details<\/p>\n

The books and other literary texts approved by the board would be required reading in all public and open-enrollment charter schools across Texas. Parents would be allowed to opt their children out of reading any texts they object to, although state officials acknowledged Jan. 28 that students may be tested on themes from materials they opt out of.<\/p>\n

Schools would continue to be allowed to teach other books of their choice, officials said. Some educators, however, told the SBOE that students would not have time to thoroughly study other literature alongside the dozens of texts proposed by the TEA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wide world of diverse and interesting and beautiful texts that students are currently reading will start to disappear from classrooms if you adopt this list,\u201d said Frank Strong, an English teacher at the charter school KIPP Austin Collegiate High School<\/a>. \u201cYes, TEA\u2019s list is too white; yes, it is too male; yes, it is indefensible to consider asking students in Texas to graduate from high school without reading a single Hispanic author in grades nine through 12. But the root of the problem is that the list is too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the Jan. 28 meeting, SBOE member Marisa Perez-Diaz, D-San Antonio, said she was concerned that the reading list would prohibit educators from making their own decisions about what materials should be taught.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern is when we create lists that are this prescriptive, especially when it’s not tied to the letter of the law, I feel like that’s gonna be a deterrent for actually being able to recruit high-quality educators who understand how to [teach literature],\u201d Perez-Diaz said.<\/p>\n

In response to Perez-Diaz\u2019s concerns, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said he felt that Texas students are not developing the necessary literary skills because state leaders have \u201cleft [reading requirements] to a high degree of autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is absolutely the role of this board to make the collective curriculum decisions for what content, what knowledge you wish to students to have at high school graduation,\u201d he said Jan. 28. \u201cVery few kids are getting a common approach to literature in the state of Texas, and that serves to the significant detriment of their growth in literacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

After hearing from Texans and state officials, SBOE member Will Hickman, R-Houston, proposed a shortened version<\/a> of the reading list that he said would \u201cgive more time for local control\u201d and allow educators to select their own books. Hickman\u2019s proposal would cut the original reading list nearly in half, removing some of William Shakespeare\u2019s plays and texts about early U.S. presidents. Hickman also proposed reworking which religious texts would be required and adding contemporary novels such as Margot Lee Shetterly\u2019s “Hidden Figures” and S.C. Gwynne\u2019s “Empire of the Summer Moon.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve put in a number of Bible stories that I think are part of our history and tradition,\u201d Hickman said Jan. 28. \u201cThese are common stories that are, I would say, part of cultural literacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several board members said they did not have time to compare the two proposed book lists and wanted to get more feedback about the suitability of Hickman\u2019s suggestions for each grade level. The SBOE voted 13-1 on Jan. 28 to table discussion of the book lists until its next meeting, which is scheduled for April 6-10.<\/p>\n

For procedural reasons, the board is required to take an additional vote on the postponement Jan. 30. If that motion is approved, the TEA will solicit public comments on its proposed reading list<\/a> and Hickman\u2019s amended list<\/a>, officials said.<\/p>\n

Some context<\/p>\n

In late 2024<\/a>, the SBOE approved Texas\u2019 first state-developed reading and math textbooks, known as Bluebonnet Learning,<\/a> under HB 1605. The state curriculum has been criticized for frequent biblical references, which some Texans said are inappropriate for public schools and could isolate students with different religious beliefs, according to previous Community Impact reporting<\/a>. Proponents of the textbooks<\/a> said they will help close student achievement gaps and reduce teacher workloads.<\/p>\n

The Bluebonnet textbooks became available for classroom use in the 2025-26 school year. Schools are not required to use the state-sanctioned materials, but districts that do so receive up to $60 per student to purchase and print them, on top of the roughly $171 per-student textbook stipend that schools received in the 2024-25 school year.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following over four hours of public testimony and debate Jan. 28, the Texas State Board of Education is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[60273,132,134,133,60265,60272,17782,60266,60267,60263,60259,60268,60257,60258,60261,7395,51462,60254,60262,60260,2914,60271,6549,2810,60255,11362,60256,60269,60270,60264],"class_list":{"0":"post-143717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-2030-31-school-year","9":"tag-austin","10":"tag-austin-headlines","11":"tag-austin-news","12":"tag-aziel-quezada","13":"tag-bluebonnet-learning","14":"tag-brandon-hall","15":"tag-frank-strong","16":"tag-frederick-douglass","17":"tag-hb-1605","18":"tag-k-12-schools","19":"tag-langston-hughes","20":"tag-literary-works-list","21":"tag-mandatory-reading","22":"tag-marisa-perez-diaz","23":"tag-mike-morath","24":"tag-mlk","25":"tag-sboe","26":"tag-sboe-members","27":"tag-shannon-trejo","28":"tag-state-board-of-education","29":"tag-state-developed-textbooks","30":"tag-tea","31":"tag-texas-education-agency","32":"tag-texas-education-board","33":"tag-texas-public-schools","34":"tag-texas-required-reading-list","35":"tag-texas-student-demographics","36":"tag-tiffany-clark","37":"tag-which-states-have-required-reading-lists"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}