Group calls on state education leaders to include diversity voices in curriculum

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Members of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) Tejas Foco Committee on Mexican American Studies Pre-K-12 and the Ethnic Studies Network of Texas will gather outside the William B. Travis Building Wednesday morning.

The group plans to rally ahead of the Texas Education Agency's State Board of Education meeting and will hold a news conference starting at 10:30 a.m. in response to the social studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills test or TEKS revision.

The TEA is working to determine how to make changes to match the new law on teaching "critical race theory." Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 3 into law adding provisions to the state's Education Code and changing how certain topics such as race are explored and discussed in the classroom.

However, some like those with the NACCS Tejas Foco Committee on Mexican American Studies worry about what and whose history gets left out of the curriculum. They say if certain historical figures are eliminated students will miss out.

Instead, they are calling on the TEA to include the "learning outcomes" laid out in Section 9 of Senate Bill 3 which includes the history of Native Americans, the contributions of Frederick Douglass, the political organizations that promoted the Chicano movement, the impact of the women’s suffrage and equal rights movements, the life and work of Dolores Huerta, Dr. Hector P. Garcia and more. As well as the specific documents including Martin Luther King Jr.’s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech. Those are just some of the educational topics listed.

The group wants to see those educational topics and more — asking for the curriculum to implement additional content featuring Native American, Black, Latino and Asian American communities.

"We did not have this history growing up as children. I did not learn a lot of this stuff until I was in college and I always think where would I be now if I had gotten this information in school," said Dr. Christopher Carmona, Chair of the NACCS Tejas Foco Committee on Implementing Mexican American Studies in Pre-K-12 Education. "For me, personally, it is a fight that is worth fighting. Not for me in particular, but for the next generations to come."

In 2010, the SBOE amended the social studies TEKS and later amended the curriculum again to "streamline the social studies TEKS" in 2018. Most recently, the board began discussing the review of the social studies TEKS last summer and worked to "designated content advisors for the social studies TEKS review" in August 2021.

Those content advisors met to discuss "consensus recommendations" starting in December 2021. Around the same time, the new law went into effect. Since January, according to the TEA, workgroups have been meeting to "develop recommendations" for the social studies TEKS.

Carmona said Wednesday morning's rally will "discuss the anti-censorship bills and the importance of not censoring learning." He believes the changes could have an impact on the already teacher shortage the state is facing saying, "having these types of bills and putting this kind of pressure on teachers is having a chilling effect, leading to teachers not wanting to teach."

Under the new law, the board has until the end of the year to review and revise the social studies curriculum.