Texas Administrative Code
Title 19 - EDUCATION
Part 2 - TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY
Chapter 74 - CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS
Subchapter A - REQUIRED CURRICULUM
Section 74.3 - Description of a Required Secondary Curriculum

(1) A school district that offers Grades 6-8 must provide instruction in the required curriculum as specified in § 74.1 of this title (relating to Essential Knowledge and Skills). 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, theatre), health, physical education, technology applications, and to the extent possible, languages other than English. The school district may provide instruction in a variety of arrangements and settings, including mixed-age programs designed to permit flexible learning arrangements for developmentally appropriate instruction for all student populations to support student attainment of course and grade level standards.

(2) The school district must ensure that, beginning with students who enter Grade 6 in the 2010-2011 school year, each student completes one Texas essential knowledge and skills-based fine arts course in Grade 6, Grade 7, or Grade 8.

(3) A district shall offer and maintain evidence that students have the opportunity to take courses in at least three of the four disciplines in fine arts. The requirement to offer three of the four disciplines in fine arts may be reduced to two by the commissioner of education upon application of a school district with a total middle school enrollment of less than 250 students.

(1) A school district that offers Grades 9-12 must provide instruction in the required curriculum as specified in § 74.1 of this title. The district must ensure that sufficient time is provided for teachers to teach and for students to learn the subjects in the required curriculum. The school district may provide instruction in a variety of arrangements and settings, including mixed-age programs designed to permit flexible learning arrangements for developmentally appropriate instruction for all student populations to support student attainment of course and grade level standards.

(2) The school district must offer the courses listed in this paragraph and maintain evidence that students have the opportunity to take these courses:

(3) Districts may offer additional courses from the complete list of courses approved by the State Board of Education to satisfy graduation requirements as referenced in this chapter.

(4) The school district must provide each student the opportunity to participate in all courses listed in subsection (b)(2) of this section. The district must provide students the opportunity each year to select courses in which they intend to participate from a list that includes all courses required to be offered in subsection (b)(2) of this section. If the school district will not offer the required courses every year, but intends to offer particular courses only every other year, it must notify all enrolled students of that fact. A school district must teach a course that is specifically required for high school graduation at least once in any two consecutive school years. For a subject that has an end-of-course assessment, the district must either teach the course every year or employ options described in Subchapter C of this chapter (relating to Other Provisions) to enable students to earn credit for the course and must maintain evidence that it is employing those options.

(5) For students entering Grade 9 beginning with the 2007-2008 school year, districts must ensure that one or more courses offered in the required curriculum for the recommended and advanced high school programs include a research writing component.