Report details tougher standards for Texas classrooms

The report not only outlines standards for the four major disciplines, but it also identifies a fifth set of "cross discipline standards" that are key to success in all disciplines and careers. In large part, the report calls for "deep thinking and reasoning" skills that public educators have complained are absent from Texas public school curriculum.

The new standards are part of a larger effort to toughen high school academics and stop the steady flow of unprepared college students being placed into costly remedial education courses. Lawmakers also have mandated four years of math and science instead of three, and will soon replace the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS, with end-of-course exams.

One example of how the new standards will be applied is by adding questions to those end-of-course exams that will gauge students' college readiness. The questions must be answered, but will not be graded.

If adopted, the proposed standards could be woven into the public school curriculum within a couple of years. The proposed standards are subject to public comment, a full vote of the Coordinating Board and the approval of Commissioner of Education Robert Scott and the State Board of Education. Board members expect the draft report to be revised before it is formally adopted. To that end, the board is inviting public comments on the draft through Dec. 10.