Education Service Center (ESC) 17 is pleased to extend an invitation to you to participate in a focus group to discuss feedback on proposed changes to the kindergarten through grade 8 (K–8) Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for science.

The State Board of Education (SBOE) is responsible for the review and revision of the TEKS. The SBOE’s TEKS review and revision process calls for ESCs to solicit feedback from educators in their regions on proposed revisions to the TEKS during the review. The science TEKS review process began in January 2020. Work groups were convened beginning in February 2020 to begin developing recommendations for revisions to the TEKS. TEA is currently asking ESCs to collect feedback on draft recommendations for the K–8 TEKS from two work groups—Work Group C: Grades 6–8 and Work Group E: Kindergarten–Grade 5. Feedback from the ESC focus groups will be submitted to TEA and provided to the SBOE in advance of the June 2021 SBOE meeting.

ESC 17will be convening focus groups to collect feedback on the proposed changes to the K-8 science TEKS. The focus group will be conducted in person on Thursday, May 20th from 1:00 - 4:00 pm at the Region 17 Education Service Center, 1111 West Loop 289, Lubbock, TX  79416.

Focus group meetings will begin with an overview of the TEKS review process and the draft recommendations for the K–8 TEKS for science. Focus group participants will respond to a series of questions to collect feedback on the proposed changes. To prepare for the focus group meeting, participants will be asked to review the work group draft recommendations prior to the meeting. Draft recommendations can be found on the Science TEKS Review Work Group Draft web page:

https://tea.texas.gov/academics/curriculum-standards/teks-review/science-teks-review-work-group-drafts 

To confirm your participation in the ESC focus group for the K–8 science TEKS, please register here in ESC Works.

We look forward to working with you on this very important step in the TEKS review process.