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The State Board of Education finally adopted the revised K-12 English/Language Arts and Reading TEKS on May 23, 2008. The board spent much of the 3-day meeting discussing what some termed the "subverted" process that was used to develop the revised TEKS, which resulted in numerous competing documents being developed and circulated. In the end, a last-minute document was presented by several board members to substitute for the document approved by the board the day before. The last-minute document was the document adopted by the board the day before with the addition of some items from the most recent work product of a teacher workgroup. The final document does not include a suggested author list; instead, it directs the commissioner to provide reading resource websites for teachers. The final document also has reading comprehension strategies included in an appendix. This vote represents the end of a contentious process that took three years instead of the usual 18-month process for adopting subject-matter TEKS. TEA staff and textbook publishers were anxiously awaiting final action from the board in order to proceed with the tight timeframe allowed to adopt textbooks and develop tests based on the revised TEKS.
At its March 28 meeting, the board had voted to adopt a version of the revised TEKS, which was then modified by the facilitator (Standards Work) hired by the state to guide the TEKS development process. When the board adopted the March 28th document, they also voted to involve teacher workgroups and experts in continuing to work on revisions. Teacher workgroups met in May and produced a new document, but allegations were made that the teacher workgroups didn't use the March 28 document as the basis for their work, instead using another document that had been developed by members of the teacher workgroups. Accordingly, some of the board members were concerned and were reluctant to adopt the May teacher workgroup document. There was also criticism by witnesses and board members that the revised March 28 document didn't contain reading comprehension standards that would assist struggling learners.
At its May 22 meeting, the board was divided between those who supported the revised March 28 document because they felt that the process that occurred after that point was subverted, and those who supported the May teacher workgroup-produced document because they felt that the input of the teachers was important. One board member made a motion to adopt the revised March 28 document on second reading, while another offered a substitute motion to adopt the document produced by the May teacher workgroup with the addition of the input gathered from English Language Learner experts. The substitute motion failed, 6-9, and the board voted 9-6 to approve the revised March 28 document with the inclusion of the input gathered from English Language Learner experts. However, as noted above, the next day, the board issued a final vote to adopt a last-minute document produced by several board members that day.
Revised: 05/30/08
