001Welcome to the asynchronous recording of the reading language arts stakeholder engagement session titled reading language arts frequently asked questions. The first session was originally presented on October 21st 2025 and the repeat session was hosted on Wednesday October 22nd 2025. The presenters were myself to Robert and Gomorra Anduhar. TEA is committed to enhancing opportunities for stakeholder engagement across the state of Texas. Our reading language arts stakeholder engagement goals are to share information on topics related to reading language arts, provide opportunities for questions and discussions related to reading language arts, collect feedback from stakeholders across the state of Texas, analyze feedback to make informed decisions that support reading language arts instruction, and build relationships with stakeholders. The curriculum standards and student support division's reading language arts team supports curriculum related policies and initiatives including English language arts
002and reading TEACS, Spanish language arts and reading TEICSS, reading language arts graduation requirements, reading language arts and crosscurricular connections, English language arts and Spanish language arts takes gues and English language proficiency standards. The team shares RLA connection points with other divisions at TEA such as instructional materials review and approval, open education resources, and student assessment. Here you will see the overview of the stakeholder engagement session. The topic is reading language arts frequently asked questions. The target audience is all reading language arts stakeholders. And in this session, we share answers to frequently asked questions in the following categories: Texas 89th legislator FAQs, new and updated FAQs, general FAQs, middle school FAQ, and high school FAQs. The Texas 89th Legislator FAQs are Where can information about the 89th Texas Legislature be found? What is House Bill 2
003and where can additional information be found? The new and updated FAQs are, are school systems required to administer grade 7 reading instruments at the beginning of the school year? When will the new ELPS be implemented in classroom instruction? Are there sideby-side documents comparing the new ELPS and the current ELPS? What information is included in the ELPS sideby-side documents? What is the timeline for implementation of the new ELPS? The general FAQs are what are the minimum instructional time requirements for kindergarten to grade 12? Where can the current Texas essential knowledge and skills TICSS be found? What resources does TEA provide to support the K toA RLA TEIKS? What resources does TEA provide that support the RLA TECIS across grade levels? Where can English as a second language and Spanish support resources be found? Our middle school
004FAQ is, can a student in middle school be offered a high school course for credit? Our high school FAQs are, are English 1 through 4 courses required to be taken in sequential order? And how can students meet the speech graduation requirement? Texas 89th Legislator FAQs. Where can information about the 89th Texas Legislature be found? Information about the 89th Texas Legislature can be found on the 89th Legislature Updates Texas Education Agency web page. This page provides information on legislation passed during the 89th regular legislative session, including changes to the Texas Education Code and other Texas statutes. [snorts] Implementation resources will also be shared here to support school leaders. As additional information becomes available, it will be communicated to school systems and posted on this page. What is House Bill 2 and where can additional information be
005found? House Bill 2 is a comprehensive school finance bill that supports students and infuses more dollars and resources into Texas public schools than ever before. Passed by the 89th Texas legislature and signed by Governor Greg Abbott, this bill provides critical support in several key areas: teacher compensation, educator preparation, educator rights, special education, early literacy and numeracy, career and technical education, and finance and safety. For additional information, please visit the House Bill 2 Texas Education Agency web page. New and updated FAQs. Are school systems required to administer grade 7 reading instruments at the beginning of the school year? No. Beginning with the 2025 to 26 school year, House Bill 2, Article 5, Section 5.29 repeals the requirement that school systems administer a grade 7 reading instrument at the beginning of the school year to students who
006do not demonstrate reading proficiency in grade six. For additional information, please see the Texas Education Agency announcement for required implementation of preKT2 instruments and dyslexia screening for the 2025 to 26 school year and updates relating to grade 7 reading diagnostic administration. When will the new ELPS be implemented in classroom instruction? The new ELPS are scheduled to be implemented in classrooms beginning with the 2026 to 2027 school year. Local school systems must continue providing instruction in the current ELPS found in Texas Administrative Code section 74.4 until they are replaced with the new ELPS in 2026 to 2027. The link below provides access to a PDF version of the new ELPS posted on the TEA Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills web page. Are there sidebyside documents comparing the new ELPS and the current ELPS? Yes. TEA has
007developed resources to support the implementation of the new ELPS. The sideby-side documents provide a comparison of the ELPS student expectations by gradeband, kindergarten to grade 3, and grades 4 to 12. Each grade band includes a sideby-side table for each domain showing the alignment between the current ELPS and the new ELPS adopted in 2024. The links below will provide sideby-side views of the current ELPS and the new ELPS student expectations for the two grade bands. What information is included in the ELPS sidebyside documents? Each grade band has a sideby-side document. The sideby-side documents are organized by each domain of language acquisition, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In the new ELPS adopted in 2024, the proficiency level descriptors or PLLDS are organized into language patterns. The language patterns connect the PLLDS with the knowledge and skills required
008by each student expectation or SE. For each SE in the new ELPS column, the language pattern aligned with the SE is identified. In this grades 4 to 12 sidebyside speaking domain example, you'll notice in the column that says 2024 ELPS for 2B, the language pattern is vocabulary. What is the timeline for ELPS implementation? The chart below shows the tentative timeline for ELPS implementation. In the fall of 2025, the new ELPS and current ELPS sideby-side documents shall be made available. In the spring of 2026, the ELPS guide is anticipated to be made available in the summer of 2026. It is anticipated that there will be ELPS Academy in the fall of 2026. It will be anticipated that Elps Guide 101 sessions will take place. And in the spring of 2027 is the Telpass transition year. General
009FAQs. What are the minimum instructional time requirements for kindergarten to grade 12? There are no laws or rules that require a specific number of minutes for any instruction. However, the district must ensure that sufficient time is provided for teachers to teach and for students to learn each content areas. Texas essential knowledge and skills. The required for curriculum for grades K to 5 and 6 to 8 are described in Texas administrative code specifically section 74.2 a portion which of is highlighted in the section below. This section specifically states, "The district must ensure that sufficient time is provided for teachers to teach and for students to learn English language arts and reading, mathematics, science, social studies, fine arts, health, physical education, technology applications, and to the extent possible, languages other than English. Additionally, you will see in
010section 74.3 the specific information for middle school grades 6 to8 which states the district must ensure that sufficient time is provided for teachers to teach and for students to learn English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, at least one of the four disciplines in fine arts, art, dance, music or theater, health, physical education, technology applications and to the extent possible languages other than English. And for secondary grades 9 to 12, the district must ensure that sufficient time is provided for teachers to teach and for students to learn the subjects in the required curriculum. Where can the current Texas essential knowledge and skills be found? The TEA homepage is tea.ex.gov. Once on the homepage, you can hover over the section that says academics. Once you hover over academics, you will see curriculum standards and under there
011you'll see a link for TEICSS Texas essential knowledge and skills. You will click on this link. Where can the current Texas essential knowledge and skills or TEICSS be found? English language arts teaches can be found on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Texas Education Agency web page in the section titled Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills by chapter. You'll notice in the image to the right there are three arrows pointing to TESS that may be of interest to you. First, chapter 110 provides English language arts and reading TESS. Next, chapter 120 provides other Texas essential knowledge and skills TESS. And finally, chapter 128 provides Spanish language arts and English as a second language TEICSS. You have two options for how you'd like to view the TEICSS. There is a web option and a PDF option for
012all of the TEICSS. If you select the web version of the TEICSS, you will come to a page that looks like the image on this slide. You may then select the campus level of your choice in the section titled subchapters. You will come to a page that looks like this. Once you have selected your grade level, in this example, we have selected grade one. You'll notice the first orange box. This highlights the knowledge and skills. In this example, the knowledge and skills statement reads, "Developing and sustaining foundational skills, listening, speaking, discussion, and thinking oral language. The student develops oral language through listening, speaking, and discussion. The student is expected to. You'll notice underneath we have A through E. Those are the student expectations. The arrow is pointing to A. The student expectation indicates that the
013student is expected to listen actively, ask relevant questions to clarify information and answer questions using multi-word responses. Underneath the arrow, you'll notice that it is written 1.1A. This indicates that this TESS is grade one knowledge and skills statement one and student expectation A. This is an example of the PDF version which provides the same information. You'll notice that we also selected grade 1 and you'll notice the knowledge and skills and student expectation are the same 1.1A. What resources does TEA provide to support the K to8 reading language arts TICSS? The TIESS guide was created to help teachers understand each student expectation in the Texas essential knowledge and skills and to provide valuable resources to support instruction. The link to the TICSS guide can be found on the English language arts and reading Texas Education Agency
014web page in the section titled TIKS guide. You'll notice that this information is what you will see when you go to the TISK guide homepage. The TEIKS guide allows you to unpack student expectations, explore assessment examples by SE and navigate alignments. You'll notice two buttons at the bottom. First one is to tour the TE's guide. If you click on this option, it allows you to do just that, tour the TICS guide. Look at the various components of the TE's guide and determine what information is provided for you as the user. You can also download the user guide. This also gives you information as to the various components of the teeth guide and what information is provided. Once you have selected your student expectation, you will come to a page that looks like this. For this
015particular example, we have chosen English language arts and reading 7.11b. You'll notice in the middle there is an orange box with three sections. an overview section, an alignment section, and a resources section. When you click on each of these, you will get additional information specific to an overview of the student expectation, alignments, and resources to help with understanding the student expectation further. You'll notice a knowledge and skill statement is also written on this page. Additionally, in the student expectation, there are some texts that are highlighted in blue. If you hover over these blue highlighted um texts, you'll notice a popup that gives you a detailed explanation as to what those mean. In this example, we highlighted composedformational text and you'll notice a light blue box that gives a detailed information as to what it means
016for students to composeformational texts. Additionally, in the bottom left, there's some a section called takes talk for composition. This is a short video that gives a [clears throat] further explanation of what this student expectation means. What resource does TEA provide to support the RLA taks across grade levels? The K to2 vertical alignment documents were created to reflect the alignment of the English and Spanish language arts and reading TESS across grade levels kindergarten to grade 12. These documents can be found on the English language arts and reading Texas Education Agency web page in the section titled vertical alignment. Once the vertical alignment document is opened, you are able to see the progression of a particular student expectation from kindergarten to English 4. In this example, we're seeing 7.11b starting from kindergarten to English 4. The purpose
017of this vertical alignment document is to help stakeholders make connections within and among the student expectations. Breakouts allow teachers to visualize each component of a student expectation, while the vertical alignment shows related knowledge or skills in other grade levels. The focal points are intended to show the multiple connections among student expectations within the grade level. You'll notice in kindergarten, the student expectation says that students will be able to discuss topics and determine the basic theme using text evidence with adult assistance. When we get to seventh grade, the student will be able to infer multiple themes within and across texts using text evidence. You'll notice the difference here is that now students are determining multiple themes in seventh grade and they are no longer doing so with adult assistance. Where can Spanish language and English as
018a second language support resources be found? The Spanish language support Texas Education Agency web page provides resources and guidance to support highquality academic programs for students whose first language is Spanish. Resources include Spanish translations of the kindergarten to grade 6 core content area, TEICSS, ELAR NSR vertical alignment documents, English Spanish glosseries for terms in K to6 TICS, English and Spanish Star Spanish resources, frequently asked questions related to middle school and high school English as a second language courses, and English language proficiency standards or ELPS along with recent Spanish curriculum standards communications. Middle school FAQ. Can a student in middle school be offered a high school course for credit? Yes. Per section 24.76 award of credit? B. Districts may offer courses designated for grades 9 to 12 relating to high school graduation requirements in earlier grades.
019A course must be considered completed and credit must be awarded if the student has demonstrated achievement by meeting the standard requirements of the course, including demonstrated proficiency in the subject matter, regardless of the time the student has received instruction in the course or the grade level at which proficiency was attained. The academic achievement records transcript shall reflect that students have satisfactorily completed courses at earlier grade levels then 9 to 12 and have been awarded state graduation credits high school FAQs. Are the English 1 through 4 courses required to be taken in sequential order? No, the English 1 through 4 courses do not have prerequisites that would require them to be taken in a particular order. However, there may be some risks associated with taking the courses in non-sequential order. The TEICS for these courses were
020written with a vertical alignment plan in mind. So, in many cases, student expectations in English 3 and four build upon student expectations in English 1 and two. Therefore, students taking English three and four without first taking English 1 and two may have gaps in knowledge that may hinder them from successfully mastering English 3 and four. How can students meet the speech graduation requirement? As specified in Texas Administrative Code section 74.11a3, to receive a high school diploma, students must demonstrate proficiency in delivering clear verbal messages, choosing effective non-verbal behaviors, listening for desired results, applying valid critical thinking and problem solving processes, and identifying, analyzing, developing, and evaluating communication skills needed for professional and social success. in interpersonal situations, group interactions, and personal and professional presentations. Each school district or local school system is responsible for ensuring
021that students demonstrate proficiency in these communication skills. A local school system can fulfill this responsibility by various means such as requiring a specific communications course or embedding the skills in one or more other courses. Local school systems also have flexibility to provide various means for students to demonstrate the skills. These are all local school system decisions. Since there are a variety of methods for demonstrating proficiency in these skills, districts are required to document the completion of the speech requirement on student transcripts. Closing remarks. Reading language arts communications ways to stay connected. Visit the English language arts and reading Texas Education Agency webpage for the most up-to-date information regarding English language arts or you can scan the first QR code. Visit the Spanish Language Support Texas Education Agency web page for the most up-to-date information regarding
022Spanish language support and ELPS. For that, you can scan the second QR code. If you have questions, please submit them to the TEA curriculum help desk. For that you can scan the third QR code. Additionally, please subscribe for newsletter updates from the reading language arts team. And to do that, you can scan the fourth QR code. Thank you for taking the time to view this recording.