The State Board of Education voted to revamp social studies, blending Texas History with other classes.
Members adopted a chronological framework by 8-7 on September 12, Board Member Brandon Hall told The Dallas Express.
Texas History is currently taught in fourth and seventh grades, but the new sequence will take students through the history of Texas, America, and the world from early civilization to the present.
The conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation celebrated the new framework.
Today, the State Board of Education has revolutionized Texas history education by officially passing the Comprehensive 3-5-1 Model, which ensures that our kids will learn the true story of freedom: where it began, how it grew, and how Texas stands as its greatest embodiment.
— Texas Public Policy Foundation (@TPPF) September 12, 2025
The board decided between two options, as The Dallas Express reported prior to the vote.
“I wanted two years of dedicated Texas history in grades three through eight,” said Board Member Will Hickman during the meeting. “I voted for both on Wednesday, and both will work in our schools. We’ve heard from a lot of testifiers, reviewed research. For me, there’s not one right answer.”
Option G, which passed, is a chronological narrative from prehistory to the present, splitting each year between the history of the world, Texas, and America, as The Dallas Express previously reported. It begins in third grade with the origin of Western Civilization, and culminates with a U.S. and Texas Capstone in eighth grade.
The second framework, Option D.2, would teach students social studies by subject – from Texas History in third grade, to world cultures and history, to a blend of Texas and U.S. History in eighth grade.
Earlier this week, a committee voted to advance Option D.2. However, during the September 12 meeting, members substituted Option G in its place, passing the new framework.
The board will now have to decide on more specific “strands” or themes, course sequences, and main topics and primary sources.
The New Framework – Teaching By Chronology
Option G, which passed, is a chronological narrative from prehistory to present
From kindergarten to second grade, the sequence discusses “Stories of America and Texas” with important people, events, places, ideas, and traditions. In third grade, students will begin learning about the development of Western Civilization and early civilization in America and Texas, before 500 A.D.
From fourth to seventh grade, “student expectations spiral back to connect to content introduced in prior grades.” In fourth grade, students will discuss the growth of empires in Western Civilization – and in America and Texas – from 500 to 1500 A.D. In fifth grade, teachers will discuss content including the beginnings of America, and Texas under Spanish control, from 1500 to 1800 A.D.
In sixth grade, students will learn about imperialism and the growth of the Texas and American experiments up to 1900. In seventh grade, students will learn about “the American century,” “the Texas miracle,” and “the perils of communism and the establishment of new nations.”
In eighth grade, students will complete a U.S. and Texas Capstone class, focusing at least 80 percent on Texas history and up to 20 percent on American history.
Andree Balan, a senior curriculum consultant at the nonprofit MacMillan Institute, supported an earlier version of the plan in a board meeting on Wednesday, as The Dallas Express reported. She grew up in communist Romania.
“I applaud our effort to educate young Texans regarding communism, its principles and its infrastructure,” Balan said. Ken Pope, a senior fellow for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, also supported this framework at the time.
Hall previously told The Dallas Express he supported the new option. He criticized the current curriculum, which he says attempts to teach Texas History and other events as isolated subjects.
The Alternative – Teaching By Class
Under Option D.2, students would have taken classes on different topics throughout history, rather than a chronological approach
Under the alternative, students would have taken classes on different topics throughout history. This would have taught Texas History as its own class in third grade, then blended Texas and American history in seventh and eighth grade.
Teachers would have educated students about “Local, State and Nation” from kindergarten to second grade. Then they would have taught Texas History in third grade, “Foundations of Constitutional Democracy” in fourth grade, and “World History” in fifth grade. In sixth grade, students would have learned “World Cultures.” In seventh and eighth grade, they would have learned Texas and U.S. History I and II.
This framework also used a “spiral curriculum approach,” according to the framework description obtained by The Dallas Express. This means revisiting important concepts multiple times, in greater depth and complexity, throughout the course sequence.
The group behind the alternative framework was the Texas Council for the Social Studies, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
“This framework is not a perfect solution, nor will it satisfy every perspective,” the group wrote online. “But it represents both progress and compromise, designed through collaboration between educators, content experts, and stakeholders.”
Former Board Member Pat Hardy, who lost her seat in 2024, previously told The Dallas Express she is still a member of TCSS but is more conservative than many of its newer members. She said when TCSS worked on curriculum standards in 2022, it pushed “transgender” content for eighth graders.
“There is a very left-leaning, progressive attitude in that group,” Hardy said at the time. “They’re not the group of old.”
The board was also considering numerous other alternatives, which were mostly variations of the chronological approach, and a stricter “spiraled” approach – where students would learn by subject, revisiting the same classes in greater depth.
Keven Ellis, a Republican board member, faced backlash for previous curriculum votes, as The Dallas Express reported at the time. In June, Ellis – with Republicans Evelyn Brooks and Pam Little – joined Democrats to renew the Indigenous Studies course. Some groups expressed concern that the course used critical race theory.
Earlier this week, Ellis supported Option G in a preliminary vote. During the September 12 vote, he apparently moved to replace Option D.2 with Option G, before the board passed the new framework.
“I think the important point with that is that in eighth grade, that we have that opportunity – which is the one tested grade,” Ellis said in the meeting, “to make sure that we have the founding documents, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all the important civics principles for this country.”