Texas board considers Mexican-American studies course, after two failed attempts at a textbook

[TexasTowelie]

by Aliyya Swaby, Texas Tribune


The State Board of Education is considering creating standards for an official Mexican-American studies high school course after two failed attempts to approve a textbook for the subject.

Advocates, including many professors and teachers, urged the board Tuesday to set coherent curriculum and graduation requirements for a course they said is already being taught to hundreds of students across the state and that is important for the state's majority-Hispanic student body. The hearing comes almost two months after the board voted not to approve a Mexican-American studies textbook submission from a local publisher, leaving teachers with no state-approved resources to offer the course.

Currently, schools can offer Mexican-American studies as a social studies elective, but teachers and districts must put in additional effort to build a specific course structure and choose materials and they are offering drastically varied versions of the class. With no state-approved standards or textbooks for an official course, smaller districts with fewer resources are facing an uphill battle to get a class started.

The board is not scheduled to vote on the matter this week. The board's staff would not be able to start working to create the course until the end of 2018 at the earliest, said Monica Martinez, the Texas Education Agency's associate commissioner of standards and support services.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/01/30/texas-board-considers-mexican-american-studies-course-after-two-failed/