The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released its final proposed Required Literary Works List on January 9, setting the stage for a vote by the State Board of Education (SBOE) later this month.
If approved, the list would establish required literary works for students in kindergarten through 12th grade in all Texas public and open-enrollment charter schools. According to the TEA, the list is intended as a minimum requirement, allowing local districts to add additional texts and permitting students to self-select other books for independent reading.
The proposed list was developed from more than 10,000 titles gathered from “various states, educational institutions and organizations.” The agency cross-referenced those titles with survey responses from more than 5,700 Texas teachers collected in January and February 2025. Texts were evaluated using multiple criteria, including alignment with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), text complexity, suitability under the SBOE’s instructional materials rubric, cross-curricular connections, and statutory compliance.
Elementary selections include folktales, fables, fairy tales, and myths such as “Cinderella,” “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” “The Golden Rule,” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Historical readings at the elementary level cover figures such as George Washington, Thomas Edison, James Madison, Frederick Douglass, Daniel Boone, and Davy Crockett, along with topics including the Revolutionary War, the Constitution, the first Thanksgiving, and the Alamo.
In accordance with state education code, the list includes religious texts taught for their literary and historical significance, including The Parable of the Prodigal Son, The Road to Damascus, and The Golden Rule. Elementary novels on the list include “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” and “Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective.”
Middle school students would read works such as “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” “The Outsiders,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Johnny Tremain,” “All Creatures Great and Small,” and “The Giver.” High school selections include “Animal Farm,” “The Odyssey,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “Of Mice and Men,” “The Great Gatsby,” “The Scarlet Letter,” “Up From Slavery,” and “Pride and Prejudice.”
For kindergarten through fourth grade, literary sources are divided between teacher read-alouds and student-read texts. From kindergarten through second grade, students are assigned only read-aloud texts, paired with decodable books to support phonics instruction. Novels are introduced in third grade, and by fifth grade students are expected to read independently without assigned read-alouds.
Students learning English would also be required to read the listed works. Schools may use Spanish translations when available, and if a direct translation does not exist, “a different Spanish-language literary work with a nearly identical topic and linguistic complexity can be identified.”
TEA cited Texas’ 16 percent within-year student mobility rate as a key reason for creating a standardized reading list, stating that “when students switch schools, they will often read the same text twice or skip a text entirely due to local grade level selection differences.”
SBOE Member Audrey Young (R–District 8) said inconsistency across districts has contributed to lower literacy outcomes. “Inconsistency across the state has perpetuated the continuance of reduced literacy scores and Texas' public school model failing students,” Young said.
High Plains Pundit spoke with Dr. Shannon Trejo, TEA deputy commissioner for the Office of School Programs, about how the list would be implemented. Trejo said that once approved, the Required Literary Works List would become part of the TEKS, and students could “expect to see content related to these titles included on the [state] assessment.”
She described the effort as an attempt to create a shared foundation of knowledge for students statewide. “Students who can read well, really need to have the opportunity to have a common set of knowledge topics that they can utilize that skill set of reading on and create that shared base of knowledge,” Trejo said.
According to State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) data, between 49 and 57 percent of students met grade-level reading standards during the 2024–2025 school year. When asked about students’ ability to engage with the required texts, Trejo emphasized the role of teachers in supporting comprehension. “Our teachers are highly qualified. They understand how to meet student needs, and they work with each student to ensure that they can gain access to the content,” she said, adding, “Sometimes I think if we will just allow students the opportunity to read, they will rise to the occasion.”
Young said she believes a statewide reading list will benefit students by providing consistency across districts and reflecting shared educational priorities. She said the approach will ensure that “students are exposed to a rich variety of texts and the same concepts, regardless of the district in which they are learning.”
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