On Tuesday, Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath and staff walked members of the State Board of Education (SBOE) through changes required under House Bill (HB) 1605 passed by the 88th Legislature in 2023. The bill incentivizes school districts to require the use of prepackaged curriculum developed by the agency.

Major provisions of HB 1605 include establishing an expanded process for the SBOE to review and approve instructional materials supported by TEA and providing districts that choose to use SBOE-approved materials an additional $40 to $60 per student on top of the instructional materials and technology allotment (IMTA). The bill also requires publishers to offer parent portals for instructional materials transparency. According to Morath, HB 1605 gives SBOE control over $324 million in new annual funding for instructional materials.

Under HB 1605, the instructional materials review and approval (IMRA) process replaces the traditional proclamations process moving forward. This year, the board will discuss the new IMRA process and criteria for the first content areas, with adoption targeted for 2024. For practical purposes, the IMRA process must begin for the first content areas by April 2024, with the deadline for adopting materials in November 2024.

The board’s task this summer is to advise on the first content areas (grade/subject) to be reviewed. Before materials reviews can begin in April 2024, the board must decide minimum percentage coverage of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curriculum standards, approve quality rubrics, adopt a suitability rubric, and readopt a definition of “factual error.”

Todd Davis, the interim associate commissioner of instructional strategy, presented a model timeline for the new IMRA process, beginning with an agency-issued request for instructional materials. The agency would then collect and evaluate responses and announce a list of materials. Publishers would then submit materials, and the board would have the option of adding materials to the list.

At that point, reviewers would begin evaluating standards alignment, reviewing quality, reviewing for obscene or prohibited content and suitability, and reviewing for factual errors. The agency would collect public comments, verify parent portal compliance, and compile a report for the SBOE containing reviewers’ recommendations and all written public comments.

The third step would begin when the SBOE received the agency’s report. The board would then conduct a public hearing and allow publishers to submit revisions and corrections. After the board makes its final determination, the agency would be able to execute contracts on approved materials and make them available to local educational agencies (LEA).

Under the current timeline, the first reviews under the new process would come before the board in September 2024. The board discussed how quickly to approve a new process without feeling rushed. Members also discussed at length how to proceed with adopting rubrics for use by reviewers in determining quality and suitability. The board paused the discussion Tuesday evening and resumed Wednesday morning to give members more time to reflect and solicit feedback.

When the board returned to the topic Wednesday morning, Morath announced his decision that the agency would not develop an IMRA for science this cycle. Morath suggested the board add a special meeting toward the end of December to move the IMRA process forward expeditiously. Chair Keven Ellis (R–Lufkin) recommended TEA provide a first draft of the suitability rubric for first reading at the board’s next meeting in November.