How Does the Texas State Board of Education Work?
As we focus on getting back to school, I wanted to provide you with some information on the State Board of Education (SBOE).
Many of you may wonder what the SBOE does and how it works with charter schools and local school districts.
It is confusing that we have a State Board of Education and a Texas Education Agency. These two entities run parallel with each other as neither is over the other. Mike Morath is the Commissioner of Education, and he was appointed by the Governor. The SBOE is comprised of 15 members from around the state who are elected by the people of Texas. Each member represents approximately two million people, and the geographic districts are very large. Another point of confusion is the SBOE has no authority over local school districts or charter schools. The local school board trustees are the body over the local school districts.
Three of the most important responsibilities of the SBOE are to approve curriculum standards referred to as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, approve instructional materials, and have a yes or no vote on the Commissioner of Education’s recommended charter school applicants.
By law, every independent school district and charter school must teach the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Every subject has a set of TEKS. They are reviewed every six to eight years. Recently, the SBOE has reviewed TEKS for health, science, and many career and technology courses. Career and technology courses are reviewed more frequently to ensure that the TEKS meets updated industry standards. There are over 323 career and technology courses available for students now. These courses provide an opportunity for students to get a certificate to help them obtain a good job right out of high school. New phonics-based TEKS were implemented into the classrooms in 2019, and cursive writing is now back in the curriculum! Also recently added was TEKS for a personal financial literacy course as part of the economics courses, and the Dyslexia Handbook was updated to allow more students to receive dyslexia services.
The process of instructional material approval has changed quite a bit with recent legislation in HB1605. This legislation required the SBOE to develop a suitability rubric and a quality rubric. These rubrics will be used to evaluate instructional materials. This legislation also allows the SBOE to set a minimum percentage of the TEKS required in the instructional materials. There are over 150 materials being reviewed this summer. The SBOE will receive reports from the review teams on the percentage of TEKS coverage and how the materials line up with the rubrics. In the most recent approval of science materials, the SBOE required over 3,000 pages of edits from the publishers to gain SBOE approval.
Every year, the Texas Education Agency reviews charter school applicants. After an extensive interview process, the Commissioner will make recommendations of schools for the SBOE to approve. Charter schools receive a $900,000 grant as start-up funds. Over the last ten years, 47 charters have been revoked by TEA or have expired. To ensure success, the SBOE evaluates the proposed leadership of the school, the financial status, and the goals of the school. In this past meeting, four of the five charters were approved by the board.
Many of you are concerned about the sexually explicit content surfacing in library books. HB900 the “Reader Act” required the SBOE to approve the guidelines for library collection. In December 2023, these guidelines were approved. There is still a lot of confusion about how to determine which books should be removed. It is important that we move forward with training for trustees and school personnel to protect our students.
It has been my honor to represent the people of the Texarkana area and I look forward to getting to know more of you. Bowie County was included in SBOE District 12 as a result of the 2020 redistricting process, and I am happy to have you included in District 12!
