On Friday, September 19, 2025, the Texas State Board of Education adopted a framework that will radically overhaul the scope and sequence of elementary and middle school courses in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Social Studies. Ignoring the recommendations of the AHA, the Texas Council for the Social Studies, and other organizations, board members voted 8–7 to implement an experimental and untested approach that dramatically alters what Texas students will be expected to learn from kindergarten through Grade 8.
Promoted aggressively by the overtly ideological Texas Public Policy Foundation, the new social studies sequence disregards research-tested practices and abandons familiar courses in favor of an unbalanced approach designed to promote American exceptionalism. The resulting framework eliminates standalone courses in US history and world cultures, and effectively neutralizes existing district curricula in history and social studies.
The AHA continues to monitor this unfolding situation. We are still in the early stages of a long process—likely to conclude by July 2026—and there is still much work to be done. In the next few weeks, the State Board of Education will select content advisors. This panel of subject matter experts provides recommendations for work groups that will be tasked with drafting and evaluating new academic standards.
There will be real opportunities for historians, educators, and supporters of accurate history to make meaningful contributions to this process. In Texas, Virginia, and other states, the AHA has mobilized members to push the often contentious process of revising state standards in more productive directions. The AHA’s Criteria for Standards in History/Social Studies/Social Sciences, revised in 2024, provides clear guidelines for ensuring that state policies promote student learning.