The Texas curriculum standards, formally called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), are the legally binding list of what public school students must learn at each grade and in each subject. They are set by the elected 15-member State Board of Education, they drive every question on the STAAR test, and they determine which textbooks publishers produce for more than five million Texas students. In 2025 and 2026, the board rewrote the K–12 social studies standards, ordered a mandatory statewide reading list that includes Bible passages, and pushed a state-developed curriculum called Bluebonnet Learning into a growing share of classrooms.
What the TEKS Actually Govern
The TEKS are organized by subject in the Texas Administrative Code: English Language Arts and Reading (Chapter 110), Mathematics (Chapter 111), Science (Chapter 112), Social Studies (Chapter 113), plus Languages Other Than English, Health, Physical Education, Fine Arts, Technology Applications, and Career and Technical Education. Elementary standards break down by individual grade from kindergarten through fifth.1Texas Education Agency. Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
Every question on the STAAR test is aligned to the TEKS currently in effect for the grade, subject, or course being tested.2Texas Education Agency. STAAR STAAR results feed the state’s school accountability ratings and satisfy federal testing requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act. So the standards decide three things at once: what teachers teach, what students are tested on, and how their schools are graded.
The TEKS also drive the textbook market. Texas is one of the three largest curriculum adoption markets in the country, alongside California and Florida, and together those states account for roughly a quarter of pre-K–12 instructional materials revenue.3APM Research Lab. Textbook Adoption Because the SBOE votes on a state-approved list, publishers that fail to win approval risk being shut out, and materials produced for Texas often influence what’s sold elsewhere.
House Bill 1605, passed in 2023, added a financial layer. Districts that buy from the SBOE-approved list receive a $40-per-student annual entitlement, with an additional $20-per-student entitlement for state-developed open educational resources.4Texas Education Agency. House Bill 1605 FAQs Districts can still choose their own materials, but the money steers them toward the approved list.
One boundary worth naming: Texas has never used the Common Core State Standards. The legislature banned adoption of Common Core and its associated assessments in House Bill 462 in 2013, which passed 140–2 in the House and was signed by Governor Rick Perry.5ERIC. Texas TEKS vs. Common Core State Standards If you moved to Texas from a Common Core state, expect different standards, different tests, and different textbooks.
How the Standards Get Revised
The SBOE follows a formal, board-approved review process on a 10-year cycle currently projected through 2030–2031. For each subject, the board decides whether to conduct a full revision, which can involve writing entirely new standards and typically triggers a new call for instructional materials, or a streamlining that reduces and clarifies existing content without adding new material.6Texas Education Agency. TEKS Review and Revision
The board appoints work groups of teachers, campus and district administrators, education service center staff, higher education representatives, parents, and employers to draft recommendations. It also appoints content advisors chosen for professional or academic expertise, who review the drafts, feedback from education service centers, and public comments before making recommendations to the full board.7Texas State Board of Education. Social Studies TEKS Review 2025 Public comment periods and public hearings precede the final vote.
The 2025–2026 Social Studies Rewrite
The most consequential recent change is the K–12 social studies overhaul. In September 2025, the SBOE voted 8–7 to replace the existing social studies sequence with a chronological model for grades K–8 that supporters described as emphasizing “Texas exceptionalism,” prioritizing Texas and U.S. history and moving advanced content into earlier grades.8American Historical Association. Texas Social Studies TEKS Revision Field Guide The framework reduces the share of instruction spent on world history, geography, and diverse cultures. The board gave final adoption to the revised standards on June 26, 2026.9Texas State Board of Education. June 22, 2026 Committee of the Full Board Item 2
The American Historical Association argued in a published field guide that the new standards sidestep core disciplinary concepts, marginalize critical thinking, and inadequately cover the Civil Rights Movement, the Great Depression, and the Renaissance.8American Historical Association. Texas Social Studies TEKS Revision Field Guide Opponents also objected to increased references to Christianity and the Bible, which CBS News Texas reported was a stated priority for conservative board members.10CBS News Texas. Texas Democrats State Board Education Investigation
Several new legislative requirements were folded into the revision:
- Senate Bill 24 requires instruction for grades 4–12 on communist regimes and ideologies, covering the Holodomor, the Cultural Revolution, the Cambodian genocide, and the Cuban Communist Party.11Texas Legislature. SB 24
- House Bill 824 adds civic knowledge requirements in high school government, including the voting process, eligibility to run for office, Robert’s Rules of Order, and identifying one’s own elected officials.12Texas Legislature. HB 824
- House Bill 27 replaces the combined personal financial literacy and economics course with a standalone half-credit in personal financial literacy for students entering ninth grade in 2025–2026 or later.13Texas Legislature. HB 27 Analysis
Disputes Over the Content Advisors
Two of the nine content advisors appointed by the board became flashpoints. David Barton, founder of WallBuilders and a former vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party, was appointed by board members Brandon Hall and Julie Pickren.14Texas Tribune. Texas SBOE Social Studies Standards David Barton Barton holds a degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University and has no formal training in history. He also advised the 2009–2010 social studies revision, during which the board adopted requirements to teach that the Bible was a major influence on the U.S. Constitution and that Moses was a major influence on the American founding. Barton maintains that the separation of church and state is a “myth” and that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. His 2012 book The Jefferson Lies was pulled by its publisher, Thomas Nelson, after historians identified claims that were “not adequately supported.”15Texas Freedom Network. Republican Texas State Board of Education Members Appoint Political Propagandist and Phony Historian David Barton to Key Advisory Panel
In April 2026, all five Democratic SBOE members called for an investigation into another advisor, Dr. Donald Frazier, director of the Texas Center at Schreiner University. Tax documents from 2024 showed the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative research institute, had awarded $70,000 to Frazier’s center specifically for the “development of TEKS standards.”10CBS News Texas. Texas Democrats State Board Education Investigation Frazier characterized the grant as a one-time consulting payment where his center helped the foundation with its “Texas thinking,” and denied the foundation played any role in his SBOE work.16Houston Chronicle. Social Studies Donald Frazier Schreiner said external relationships “do not influence the independence of our faculty or their contributions.” Republican board member Brandon Hall dismissed the allegations as “conspiracy theories.” As of June 2026, no formal investigation had been opened, though board member Marisa Pérez-Diaz said members had asked a lawyer to review whether Frazier violated any laws or guidelines.
The New Required Reading List
On June 26, 2026, the SBOE approved a mandatory statewide literature list under House Bill 1605, which required the board to specify at least one literary work per grade level. The final list contains nearly 200 titles, with some grades requiring as many as 25 works, and it is scheduled to roll into classrooms beginning in 2030.17Houston Chronicle. Texas Schools Required Reading List
At least a dozen Bible passages appear across grade levels. Elementary students will read adapted versions of “David and Goliath” and “Daniel and the Lion’s Den.” Middle schoolers will read “The Shepherd’s Psalm” (Psalm 23), “The Eight Beatitudes” (Matthew 5:1–12), and “Do Not Be Anxious” (Matthew 6:25–34). High schoolers will read the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” “The Book of Job,” “Adam and Eve” (Genesis 2 and 3), and “The Definition of Love” (1 Corinthians 13). The Bible passages sit alongside secular works by authors including Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.18PBS NewsHour. Texas Education Board Approves Bible Stories as Required Reading in Public Schools
Texas law already mandates K–12 instruction on “religious literature, including the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament, and its impact on history and literature.”19CNN. Texas Schools Bible Curriculum Vote Under the administrative rules implementing the new list, parents can remove their child from instruction on any required literary work that conflicts with their religious or moral beliefs by providing a written statement to the teacher.20Texas Education Agency. Draft Rule Text for Agency Recommendations to the SBOE for Literary Works List
The Texas Freedom Network and PEN America argued the mandate blurs the separation of church and state, lacks religious diversity, and amounts to what PEN America called “de facto censorship.” Observers noted this appears to be the first mandatory statewide reading list in the United States that includes religious texts. Republican board member Evelyn Brooks called the proposal “unconstitutional.”19CNN. Texas Schools Bible Curriculum Vote
Bluebonnet Learning and Its Rollout Problems
Bluebonnet Learning is a suite of state-developed instructional materials approved by the SBOE and covering 100 percent of the TEKS. Districts that adopt it draw the per-student entitlements under HB 1605. About 30 percent of Texas school districts have adopted the materials, and roughly 12 percent of kindergarten through fifth-grade students are using them. The Houston Independent School District voted unanimously on June 25, 2026, to adopt Bluebonnet for the 2026–27 school year, citing an estimated $3.3 million in additional state funding.21Houston Public Media. Bible Texas Public School Curriculum Houston ISD State Board of Education
The materials drew national scrutiny for including Bible stories and for lessons critics said downplay racism and slavery. They also had serious quality problems. In May 2026, the TEA signed a contract worth up to $8.4 million to correct more than 4,200 errors, including incorrect answer keys, missing pages, factual mistakes, formatting problems, and books that were physically falling apart.22Houston Chronicle. Texas Pay $8.4 Million Fix Errors Bible Infused About $3.6 million of that went toward destroying existing materials because the agency had included images without proper copyright licenses. Nearly one million copies of replacement materials had to be printed and shipped before the start of the 2026–27 school year.
The TEA’s publishing division called the errors “minimal” given that Bluebonnet includes over 200,000 pages of content, but several Republican board members pushed back. Will Hickman said he was “very concerned about our review process,” noting the materials had been approved as “high quality.” The TEA said the vendor responsible had been fired and that future contracts would require vendors to cover the cost of their own mistakes.23Baytown Sun. Texas Must Pay Millions to Fix Errors in Bluebonnet Curriculum
Science Textbook Rejections
Science instruction has produced its own fights. During the November 2023 textbook adoption cycle, the board rejected materials from eight of 22 submitting publishers, citing concerns about the treatment of climate change and evolution.24Wall Street Journal. Texas Rejects Science Textbooks Over Climate Change Evolution Lessons
Earlier that year, the board adopted operating rules requiring instructional materials to “present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage and abundant natural resources.” Board member Pat Hardy acknowledged collaborating with the Texas Energy Council and board member Aaron Kinsey to craft rules targeting textbooks perceived as having a “negative view of fossil fuels.” Additional rules requiring the presentation of “factual information” and encouragement of “discussion” were used to argue for teaching “both sides” of climate science.25National Center for Science Education. Everything’s Bigger in Texas Including Ideological Attacks on Science Textbooks
Board members objected to a Discovery Education textbook stating that the United States is not energy independent. McGraw Hill obtained approval for its biology textbook only after agreeing to remove diagrams depicting human and primate evolutionary lineage. A joint report by the National Center for Science Education and the Texas Freedom Network concluded that the submitted materials met existing state standards and that the rejections were based on “false claims” about scientific accuracy.26Texas Freedom Network. Grading the Textbooks TFN NCSE Report
Health and Sex Education
In 2020, the SBOE completed its first revision of health and sexual education standards since 1997. The updated TEKS for the first time required instruction on contraception and STI prevention alongside abstinence, which remains the legally mandated priority when Texas schools choose to teach sex education. The revised standards explicitly excluded mention of sexual orientation and gender identity.27Texas Tribune. Texas State Board Education Sex Ed
Texas law does not require schools to offer sex education at all. Those that do must prioritize abstinence and, under House Bill 1525 in 2021, must obtain written parental consent before students can participate. A Texas statute on the books says any state-developed sex education curriculum must characterize homosexuality as “not an acceptable lifestyle to the general public,” though the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the underlying criminal statute in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003. The state does not require instruction on consent and does not mandate that sex education be medically accurate.28SIECUS. Texas State Profile
Ten Commandments in Classrooms
A separate but related fight concerns religious displays. Senate Bill 10, signed into law in 2025, requires the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom. The ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation sued in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas on behalf of 16 Texas families, arguing the law violates the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.29Houston Public Media. Four Civil Liberties Organizations Sue Texas Over Ten Commandments Display Law
On April 21, 2026, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law 9–8 in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District.30National Constitution Center. Supreme Court Showdown Over Ten Commandments Likely After Federal Court Decision Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan concluded that the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District effectively rendered the 1980 Stone v. Graham precedent obsolete. The majority characterized the displays as “passive,” finding they do not require students to learn or memorize the Commandments and do not grant teachers authority to undermine a student’s personal religious beliefs.31CBS News Texas. Federal Appeals Court Upholds Texas Law Requiring Ten Commandments in Classrooms The eight-judge dissent argued that Kennedy did not explicitly overturn Stone and that the law violates basic principles against religious coercion in schools. The ACLU of Texas has announced plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.32ACLU. Fifth Circuit Hears Arguments in Challenges to Ten Commandments Displays in Louisiana and Texas Public School Classrooms
Who Sits on the Board
The 15 SBOE members are elected from single-member districts, each representing roughly 1.8 million Texans. The board currently holds a 10–5 Republican majority.33Texas Tribune. Texas SBOE Social Studies Redesign Conservative Advisers Aaron Kinsey serves as chair, Pam Little as vice chair, and Will Hickman as secretary.34Texas State Board of Education. SBOE Members With the social studies TEKS, the mandatory reading list, and Bluebonnet materials now adopted, much of the new framework is set to move into classrooms between the 2026–27 and 2030–31 school years.