Setting the Record Straight on Texas’s New Reading List — and the Bible
The State Board of Education has adopted Texas’s first required K–12 reading list. Democrats call it a religious takeover of our classrooms. The official list — 190 works, measured title by title and word by word — shows something very different, and my opponent, Aicha Davis, owes HD109 families an honest account of it.
- What Happened — The Board’s Decision and the Vote
- The Final List — What Students Will Actually Read
- How Much Reading Is It, Really? — Word Counts
- Why the Bible Is There — Culture, Not Catechism
- The Rhetoric vs. the Record — Talarico, Davis, and Clark
- What This Means for HD109 Families
- References
- Inspect the Data — Full List, Bible Selections, Word Counts
What Happened
The board’s decision, the final vote, and when it takes effect
On June 26, 2026, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) gave final approval to the state’s first required literary works lists for English language arts, kindergarten through English IV (Texas State Board of Education, 2026a). The lists exist because the Legislature told the board to create them: House Bill 1605 (2023) added Texas Education Code §28.002(c-4), which directs the SBOE to “specify a list of required vocabulary and at least one literary work to be taught in each grade level” (Tex. Educ. Code § 28.002), (Texas Education Agency, 2026d).
The adopted rule places the lists in the English language arts standards (19 Texas Administrative Code §§110.10, 110.30, and 110.70), takes effect July 1, 2027, and reaches classrooms on a staggered schedule: kindergarten through grade 5 in 2030–31, grade 6 in 2031–32, grades 7 and 8 in 2032–33, and high school in 2033–34 (Texas Education Agency, 2026d), (Texas Education Agency, 2026e). TEA’s published lists contain 190 required works in all (Texas Education Agency, 2026e).
The final motion passed 9–5 on a recorded vote, with one member absent (Texas State Board of Education, 2026a). All nine “yes” votes came from Republicans. The five “no” votes came from four Democrats — including Dr. Tiffany Clark, the DeSoto Democrat who represents District 13 — and one Republican, Evelyn Brooks. The fifth Democrat, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, was absent (Texas State Board of Education, 2026a), (Texas State Board of Education, 2026c), (Texas Tribune, 2024).
| District | Member | Party | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gustavo Reveles | D | No |
| 2 | LJ Francis | R | Yes |
| 3 | Marisa B. Perez-Diaz | D | No |
| 4 | Staci Childs | D | No |
| 5 | Rebecca Bell-Metereau | D | Absent |
| 6 | Will Hickman | R | Yes |
| 7 | Julie Pickren | R | Yes |
| 8 | Audrey Young | R | Yes |
| 9 | Keven Ellis | R | Yes |
| 10 | Tom Maynard | R | Yes |
| 11 | Brandon Hall | R | Yes |
| 12 | Pam Little | R | Yes |
| 13 | Tiffany Clark | D | No |
| 14 | Evelyn Brooks | R | No |
| 15 | Aaron Kinsey | R | Yes |
| Total | 10 R / 5 D | 9 Yes · 5 No · 1 Absent |
Supporters describe the lists as a shared literary canon — Aesop, Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Hughes, Frost, Anne Frank, Elie Wiesel, Lincoln, and King — that also includes a small number of biblical passages because of their influence on history and literature. Opponents argue that requiring any biblical text favors one faith. Dr. Clark told WFAA that “there is no way we should be focused on one specific religion, one mandated Christian belief when we have students of different faiths” (WFAA, 2026), and some Texas Jewish leaders objected to the board’s “Judeo-Christian” framing (Texas Tribune, 2026). Those objections deserve a factual answer, and the rest of this article provides one.
Three facts from the official record frame everything that follows. First, each listed work must be read in its entirety unless the list specifies an excerpt, and districts remain free to teach additional works (Texas Education Agency, 2026e), (Texas Education Agency, 2026d). Second, Texas law already lets a parent remove a child from any class activity that conflicts with the family’s religious or moral beliefs by giving the teacher a written statement (the statute does not excuse a student from a test) (Tex. Educ. Code § 26.010) — and TEA’s implementation guidance applies that right to the required works (Texas Education Agency, 2026e). Third, this list is separate from the optional Bluebonnet Learning elementary curriculum the board approved in November 2024, which districts may choose to adopt or not (Education Week, 2024). Critics frequently blur the two together.
The Final List
What students will actually read, grade by grade
The adopted list runs from kindergarten read-alouds such as The Snowy Day, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Langston Hughes’s “April Rain Song” to full-length classics such as Great Expectations, Julius Caesar, The Scarlet Letter, Fahrenheit 451, Hamlet, and Pride and Prejudice (Texas Education Agency, 2026a), (Texas Education Agency, 2026c). Middle school is built around anchor books — All Creatures Great and Small, The Diary of a Young Girl, The Outsiders, The Giver, and Elie Wiesel’s Night — each paired with shorter poems, speeches, and passages (Texas Education Agency, 2026b).
| Grade Band | Required Works | Biblical Selections | Biblical Share of Titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| K–2 | 73 | 2 | 2.7% |
| 3–5 | 51 | 3 | 5.9% |
| 6–8 | 30 | 5 | 16.7% |
| High School (English I–IV) | 36 | 4 | 11.1% |
| Total, K–English IV | 190 | 14 | 7.4% |
By title count, then, biblical selections are 14 of 190 works, or 7.4%. The other 92.6% of the list is fables, folktales, poetry, novels, plays, biographies, speeches, and founding documents. The list is also more diverse than critics claim: 57 works are by women, 15 are by Black authors, and 5 are by Hispanic authors (see Section 5).
Earlier versions of this discussion, including figures that circulated in January, described the board’s draft list. That January 2026 draft contained 293 works, 10 of them direct scripture passages — 3.4% of the list (Texas State Board of Education, 2026b), (Education Week, 2026). Between January and June the board cut the list by roughly a third, to 190 works, while the biblical selections were rearranged rather than cut. The share by title therefore rose to 7.4%. Both numbers are accurate for the list they describe; only the final list will be taught.
| Measure | January 2026 Draft | Final Adopted List |
|---|---|---|
| Total required works | 293 | 190 |
| Direct scripture passages | 10 | 12 |
| Children’s retellings/adaptations of Bible stories | 0 | 2 |
| State-written Bible-story books (“The Golden Rule,” “The Parable of the Prodigal Son,” “The Road to Damascus”) | 3 | 0 |
| Biblical share of titles — direct passages only | 3.4% (10 of 293) | 6.3% (12 of 190) |
| Biblical share of titles — all biblical selections | 4.4% (13 of 293) | 7.4% (14 of 190) |
| Earliest grade with a biblical selection | Kindergarten (“The Golden Rule”) | Grade 1 (Jonah) |
How Much Reading Is It, Really?
Measuring the list by words, not just titles
Counting titles treats a five-verse passage the same as a 500-page novel. Psalm 23 counts as one title, and so does Great Expectations. To see how much of a student’s actual reading the biblical selections represent, we measured the length of the works themselves.
Biblical selections: exact word counts of the specified verses in the public-domain King James Version (Bible API, n.d.). For the two children’s retellings, we counted the full Bible chapter they retell, which overstates their length. Other works: published word counts from Renaissance Learning’s AR BookFinder for books read in full (Renaissance Learning, n.d.), plus direct counts of public-domain texts where the listed work is a single story, chapter, or translation (Project Gutenberg, n.d.). Any work we could not measure exactly — most short poems, speeches, and anthology excerpts — was counted as zero words. Every assumption therefore makes the Bible’s share look larger, not smaller. “Standard pages” are our conversion at 250 words per page.
| Grade | Selection | Passage | Required Translation / Edition | Paired With | Words (KJV) | Std. Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 | Jonah and the Whale | Book of Jonah, Chapter 1, Verses 1-5, 10-17, and Chapter 2, Verse 10 | International Children’s Bible | Read-aloud | 398 | 1.6 |
| Grade 2 | David and Goliath | Retelling of 1 Samuel 17 (William J. Bennett, The Children’s Book of Heroes) | William J. Bennett (editor) | Read-aloud | 1,721 | 6.9 |
| Grade 3 | ROAR! Daniel and the Lions’ Den | Children’s adaptation of Daniel 6 (CBN) | CBN | Read-aloud | 905 | 3.6 |
| Grade 4 | The Necessity of Humility | Book of Luke, Chapter14, Verses 7-11 | New International Reader’s Version | Read-aloud | 138 | 0.6 |
| Grade 5 | Moses | Book of Exodus, Chapter 3 “The Burning Bush” Verses 1-22 and Chapter 14 “The Parting of the Red Sea” Verses 1-30 | New International Reader’s Version | Stand-alone | 1,699 | 6.8 |
| Grade 6 | Do Not Be Anxious | Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 25-34 | English Standard Version | All Creatures Great and Small | 251 | 1.0 |
| Grade 7 | The Shepherd's Psalm | Book of Psalms, Chapter 23 | King James Version | The Diary of a Young Girl | 118 | 0.5 |
| Grade 7 | The Eight Beatitudes | Book of Matthew, Chapter 5 Verses 1-12 | King James Version | The Outsiders | 172 | 0.7 |
| Grade 8 | To Everything There is a Season | Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 | King James Version | The Giver | 517 | 2.1 |
| Grade 8 | Book of Lamentations, Chapter 3 | Book of Lamentations, Chapter 3 | Tanakh (JPS 1917) | Night | 876 | 3.5 |
| English I | Parable of the Prodigal Son | Book of Luke, Chapter 15, Verses 11-32 | English Standard Version | Great Expectations | 507 | 2.0 |
| English II | The Book of Job | Book of Job, Chapters 1-7,11,14,19,28,38-42 | New International Reader’s Version | The Inferno | 7,244 | 29.0 |
| English III | Adam and Eve | Book of Genesis, Chapters 2 and 3 | New International Reader’s Version | The Scarlet Letter | 1,327 | 5.3 |
| English IV | The Definition of Love | Book of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13 | English Standard Version | Pride and Prejudice | 270 | 1.1 |
| All 14 biblical selections | 16,143 | 64.6 |
All 14 biblical selections together come to about 16,143 words spread across twelve years of school. That is roughly 65 standard pages in all. Nearly half of it is a single assignment: the selected chapters of Job in English II, which the list pairs with Dante’s Inferno (Texas Education Agency, 2026c). Every other selection is about the length of a picture book or short story, or shorter.
| Single Required Work | Grade | Words | Compared With All 14 Biblical Selections Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Expectations | English I | 183,349 | 11.4× |
| All Creatures Great and Small | Grade 6 | 155,989 | 9.7× |
| Pride and Prejudice | English IV | 121,342 | 7.5× |
| The Diary of a Young Girl | Grade 7 | 82,762 | 5.1× |
| The Scarlet Letter | English III | 63,604 | 3.9× |
| Across Five Aprils | Grade 6 | 61,778 | 3.8× |
| The Outsiders | Grade 7 | 48,523 | 3.0× |
| Fahrenheit 451 | English III | 45,910 | 2.8× |
| All 14 biblical selections, combined | Grades 1–12 | 16,143 | 1.0× |
Great Expectations alone, the English I anchor novel, is more than 11 times longer than all 14 biblical selections combined, and sixth grade’s All Creatures Great and Small is nearly 10 times longer. A student reads more words in Pride and Prejudice than in every Bible passage on the list from first grade through graduation.
| Grade Band | Biblical Words | Other Works Measured | Words in Measured Works | Biblical Share (Upper Bound) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K–2 | 2,119 | 46 works | 62,274 | 3.3% |
| 3–5 | 2,742 | 26 works | 195,442 | 1.4% |
| 6–8 | 1,934 | 9 works | 426,938 | 0.5% |
| High School (English I–IV) | 9,348 | 10 works | 546,319 | 1.7% |
| Total, K–English IV | 16,143 | 91 of 176 | 1,230,973 | 1.3% |
Even with every assumption tilted toward the Bible, biblical selections make up no more than 1.3% of the words on the required list. Counting the 85 unmeasured poems, speeches, and excerpts would push that share lower still. Some critics count each verse range as a separate “passage” to produce larger figures; measuring by words settles the question either way.
Why the Bible Is There
Cultural literacy, not catechism — no theology, doctrine, or worship is required
It is worth stating plainly what these selections are not. They are not a theology course. Nothing on the list asks a student to pray, worship, recite a creed, or affirm any belief. No catechism, statement of doctrine, or denominational teaching appears anywhere on it. The biblical passages are read the way students read Aesop, Greek myths, Lincoln, or King: as texts to understand in their literary and historical context.
The structure of the list makes that clear. In middle and high school, every biblical passage is a paired text attached to a classic anchor work. Psalm 23 sits beside Anne Frank’s diary, Lamentations 3 beside Elie Wiesel’s Night, the Parable of the Prodigal Son beside Great Expectations, Job beside Dante’s Inferno, Genesis 2–3 beside The Scarlet Letter, and 1 Corinthians 13 beside Pride and Prejudice (Texas Education Agency, 2026b), (Texas Education Agency, 2026c). Each pairing exists because the great book draws on the biblical one. Students cannot fully understand Dickens’s prodigal or Hawthorne’s fall from innocence without the texts those authors had in mind.
State law has long listed “religious literature, including the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament, and its impact on history and literature” in the curriculum Texas districts are required to offer (Tex. Educ. Code § 28.002). The reading list applies that existing standard to English class. It does not create a new one.
The founders’ own source book
The Bible was the most-cited source in American political writing of the founding era. In a peer-reviewed study published in the American Political Science Review, political scientist Donald Lutz cataloged 3,154 citations in 916 items of public political writing published between 1760 and 1805. The Bible accounted for about 34% of all citations — more than Montesquieu (8.3%), Blackstone (7.9%), or Locke (2.9%) (Lutz, 1984). In fairness to the full record, Lutz also reported that reprinted sermons, one of the era’s main forms of public political argument, supplied nearly three-fourths of those biblical citations, and that biblical citations were rare in the narrower 1787–1788 debate over the Constitution itself (Lutz, 1984). Both points are true. The Bible was the shared vocabulary of the founding generation’s public life even where it was not the source of the Constitution’s text, and students cannot understand that generation’s writing without knowing it.
The required list shows the same thing in the documents students will read. George Washington’s 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, a seventh-grade selection, promises religious liberty by quoting Micah 4:4: “every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid” (Washington, 1790/n.d.). The fifth-grade poem “Independence Bell” is about the Liberty Bell, whose inscription — “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof” — comes from Leviticus 25:10 (National Park Service, n.d.). And Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” an English II selection, ends with Moses’s view of the Promised Land: “I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you” (King, 1968/n.d.).
“It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion.”— Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836 (Lillian Goldman Law Library, n.d.)
Texas’s own founding shows both halves of the principle. The 1836 Texas Declaration of Independence appeals to “the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations” and to “the true and living God,” and it lists among Mexico’s abuses that it forced a state religion on Texans and denied them freedom of conscience (Lillian Goldman Law Library, n.d.). The men who founded Texas knew the Bible thoroughly and rejected government-imposed religion. Reading a few biblical passages to understand that culture, without being asked to believe or practice anything, fits that tradition exactly.
The Rhetoric vs. the Record
What Texas Democrats have said, compared with what the list actually contains
Texas Democrats have built a consistent message that Republicans are “forcing” religion on schoolchildren. That message is often applied without distinction to three separate policies: the optional 2024 Bluebonnet curriculum, the 2025 Ten Commandments classroom-display law, and this reading list. Each one deserves to be judged on what it actually does.
James Talarico
State Rep. James Talarico, now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, told the “Politics War Room” podcast in January 2026: “Instead of putting the 10 Commandments in every classroom, instead of forcing school children to read the Bible against their wills, why don’t we, all of us, look inward and figure out how we can be more Christ-like, even when it’s uncomfortable” (Fox News, 2026). He has also said, “I don’t want politicians and bureaucrats teaching my faith” (The 74, 2026), and in a 2024 hearing on the Bluebonnet curriculum warned that “when you’re talking about theology, you’re working with fire” (FOX 7 Austin, 2026).
“Instead of… forcing school children to read the Bible against their wills, why don’t we, all of us, look inward and figure out how we can be more Christ-like, even when it’s uncomfortable.”— James Talarico, “Politics War Room” podcast, January 2026 (Fox News, 2026)
Measured against the final list, “forcing school children to read the Bible against their wills” does not hold up. The list teaches no theology and asks no student to believe anything. State law lets any parent withdraw a child from a reading that conflicts with the family’s beliefs (Tex. Educ. Code § 26.010). And the biblical selections are, at most, about 1.3% of the words on the list, each one paired with literature that depends on it.
Aicha Davis and the reading list
My opponent in HD109, Aicha Davis, was elected to the State Board of Education in 2018 and served until August 2024, when she stepped down to run for the Texas House (Texas Tribune, 2024). She has a long, documented record of opposing the board’s Bible-related decisions. In 2024, discussing the earlier Bluebonnet curriculum (a separate, optional program), she told Spectrum News: “That’s when all of the stuff started getting introduced with the biblical references” (Spectrum News, 2024). That comment treated any biblical reference in instructional material as alarming in itself, regardless of how much of the material it was or the historical-literacy purpose it served.
Rep. Davis made her position on this exact subject even more explicit on July 20, 2025, at an event with James Talarico at Disciple Central Community Church (“D3 Church”) in DeSoto, where she voiced her full support for him (Will Campbell for Texas, 2025). Speaking from the pulpit of that church about the State Board of Education, Davis said: “When you have a state board of education that would rather pick and choose bible verses than learn about black history, it is not all good” (Will Campbell for Texas, 2025). Davis has since formally endorsed Talarico’s Senate campaign and campaigned with him in Dallas (Talarico for Senate, 2025), (Courier Texas, 2025).
The final list does not support Davis’s framing of a board that would “rather pick and choose bible verses than learn about black history.” Black authors and Black history run through every grade band: Langston Hughes’s “April Rain Song,” “Dreams,” “Mother to Son,” and “Thank You, M’am”; Carole Boston Weatherford’s Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom; Julius Lester’s John Henry; Valerie Flournoy’s The Patchwork Quilt; A Picture Book of Frederick Douglass; Teammates, the story of Jackie Robinson; William Kamkwamba’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind; Sundiata: The Lion King of Mali; four Jerry Pinkney retellings; Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask”; Thomas Sowell; and Dr. King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” (Texas Education Agency, 2026a), (Texas Education Agency, 2026b), (Texas Education Agency, 2026c). That is 18 works by Black authors or centrally about Black history, against 14 biblical selections. It was never an either/or choice. Students get both.
Dr. Tiffany Clark and the “no diverse authors” claim
Dr. Tiffany Clark, the DeSoto Democrat who represents SBOE District 13, which covers large portions of Dallas and Tarrant counties, voted against the list (Texas State Board of Education, 2026a), (KSAT, 2026). Talarico was one of her campaign’s major donors this year (KSAT, 2026). Days after the vote, she told WFAA’s Inside Texas Politics: “there are no female authors on this list. There are no black authors. There are no Hispanic authors” (WFAA, 2026). People can reasonably disagree about whether the list is diverse enough, but her statement is not a matter of opinion, and the official list contradicts it.
| Category (Final List, 190 Works) | Count | Share of 190 |
|---|---|---|
| Works by female authors | 57 | 30.0% |
| Works by Black authors, or centrally about Black history | 18 | 9.5% |
| — of which, written or retold by a Black author | 15 | 7.9% |
| Works by Hispanic authors | 5 | 2.6% |
| Biblical selections (all 14) | 14 | 7.4% |
| Total required works, K–English IV | 190 | 100% |
Women wrote 57 of the 190 required works (30%) — four times as many as the 14 biblical selections. Works by Black authors or about Black history (18) also outnumber them, and Hispanic authors Pat Mora, Gary Soto, Alma Flor Ada, Argentina Palacios, and Francesc Boada are all on the list. None of this makes it a “women’s literature list” any more than 7.4% of titles makes it a “Bible list.” It is a broad canon with all of these voices in it.
Why the distinction matters
Word choice matters, because it shapes how a parent feels about a child’s classroom. Telling HD109 families that the state is “forcing children to read the Bible against their wills,” that the board prefers “bible verses” to Black history, or that the list has “no” female, Black, or Hispanic authors suggests a religious takeover of the curriculum. The record shows something else: 14 short biblical selections, at most about 1.3% of the reading, each placed beside the literature it helps explain, with a parental opt-out written into state law. Rep. Davis served almost six years on the board that writes these standards (Texas State Board of Education, 2024), and her campaign lists education first among her issues, pledging to “stop MAGA’s attempts to rewrite science and erase history from textbooks” (Aicha Davis for Texas, n.d.). She knows how to read the list. HD109 families deserve that same accuracy from her.
What This Means for HD109
Cedar Hill, Lancaster, DeSoto, Glenn Heights, Wilmer, Hutchins, Combine, Ferris, and Seagoville
Families across House District 109 will see this list reach their children’s classrooms starting in 2030–31 for elementary students, and by 2033–34 in high school (Texas Education Agency, 2026e). Parents in Cedar Hill, Lancaster, DeSoto, and our neighboring communities deserve an accurate picture of what their children will read, not a version filtered through campaign rhetoric.
Nothing in this list requires a teacher to lead prayer, teach doctrine, or instruct a child in any denomination’s theology. No student of any faith, or of no faith, is asked to believe anything to complete an assignment. Any parent who objects can remove a child from a specific reading under existing state law (Tex. Educ. Code § 26.010). The biblical selections work the way the Greek myths, Aesop’s fables, and founding documents around them do: they help students understand the language, culture, and ideas of the people who built this country and this state.
Of the 190 works on Texas’s required reading list, 14 come from the Bible: 7.4% of the titles and, at most, about 1.3% of the words. Women wrote 57 of the works and Black authors wrote 15. The biblical passages sit beside Dickens, Dante, Hawthorne, Austen, Anne Frank, and Elie Wiesel because those authors drew on them. That is historical and literary literacy, not indoctrination, and HD109 families deserve leaders who will say so honestly.
As your representative, I will support literary standards that reflect the full, honest history and culture that shaped America and Texas, including the undeniable role biblical language and thought played in it. I will insist, as this list does, that no student is ever compelled into religious belief or practice in a Texas public school. And I will hold my opponent and other Democratic officials accountable when they describe this policy in ways the facts do not support. HD109 families can read the list for themselves, which is why we have published it in full below.
References
Sources are organized by the article sections they principally inform. The official adopted lists, published by the Texas Education Agency and effective July 1, 2027, are listed first; each grade’s figure is linked individually so readers can go straight to the final list. Where we inferred or calculated a figure, the method is explained in the article and the data tabs below.
The Official Final List, Its Rules, and the Vote — Sections 1, 2, and 6
Texas Education Agency. (2026a). Figures: 19 TAC §110.10(f)(1)–(6), Required literary works lists, kindergarten–grade 5 [Adopted rule figures; adopted June 26, 2026; effective July 1, 2027]. https://tea.texas.gov/laws-and-rules/sboe-rules-tac/sboe-adopted/26-08-19-0110-0010-1.pdf
The official final list for the elementary grades. Grade-by-grade figures: Kindergarten Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5. Source for every K–5 title, author, ISBN, and read-aloud designation in this article and its data tabs.
Texas Education Agency. (2026b). Figures: 19 TAC §110.30, Required literary works lists, grades 6–8 [Adopted rule figures; adopted June 26, 2026; effective July 1, 2027]. https://tea.texas.gov/laws-and-rules/sboe-rules-tac/sboe-adopted/26-08-19-0110-0030-1.pdf
The official final list for middle school, showing each anchor text and its paired texts, including the five middle school biblical passages. Grade figures: Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8.
Texas Education Agency. (2026c). Figures: 19 TAC §110.70, Required literary works lists, English I–IV [Adopted rule figures; adopted June 26, 2026; effective July 1, 2027]. https://tea.texas.gov/laws-and-rules/sboe-rules-tac/sboe-adopted/26-08-19-0110-0070-1.pdf
The official final list for high school, including the four high school biblical passages and the anchor works they are paired with. Course figures: English I English II English III English IV.
Texas Education Agency. (2026d). Chapter 110, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading: Adoption of new §§110.10, 110.30, and 110.70 [Adopted rule preamble]. https://tea.texas.gov/laws-and-rules/sboe-rules-tac/sboe-adopted/26-08-110.pdf
The board’s formal adoption notice. Establishes the June 26, 2026 adoption, the July 1, 2027 effective date, the statutory basis in HB 1605 and TEC §28.002(c-4), and the board’s responses to public comments.
Texas Education Agency. (2026e, August 20). Literary works and social studies TEKS, K–12 [Presentation for superintendents]. https://tea.texas.gov/educators/superintendents/literary-works-and-social-studies-teks-k-12-published-august-20-2026.pdf
TEA’s implementation summary. Source for the 190-work total and per-grade counts, the staggered 2030–31 through 2033–34 rollout, the rule that each work be read in its entirety, and the parental right to remove a child from a reading.
Texas State Board of Education. (2026a). Official minutes, June 26, 2026 meeting. https://sboe.texas.gov/state-board-of-education/sboe-meetings/2026-06-26-sboe-mins.pdf
Primary record of the final vote: 9 yes, 5 no, 1 absent, with each member’s recorded vote. Source for the roll-call table in Section 1.
Texas State Board of Education. (2026b, January). Proposed new 19 TAC Chapter 110 literary works lists [Committee of the Full Board agenda attachments 1–3]. https://sboe.texas.gov/state-board-of-education/sboe-2026/sboe-2026-january/cofb4-chap110-128-literary-works-lists-att1.pdf
The January 2026 draft (293 works, 10 direct scripture passages) used for the draft-versus-final comparison. Middle and high school attachments use the same address ending in att2.pdf and att3.pdf.
Texas State Board of Education. (2026c). SBOE members. https://sboe.texas.gov/state-board-of-education/sboe-board-members/sboe-members
Official member directory and member pages; source for district assignments and party labels.
Texas Education Code § 28.002. Required curriculum. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ED/htm/ED.28.htm
Statutory text of §28.002(c-4), which requires a literary works list, and §28.002(a)(2)(G), which includes “religious literature, including the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament, and its impact on history and literature” in the required curriculum.
Texas Education Code § 26.010. Exemption from instruction. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ED/htm/ED.26.htm
Statutory parental right to remove a child from a class or activity that conflicts with the parent’s religious or moral beliefs.
Reuters. (2026, June 26). Texas state school board approves mandated reading list including Bible passages. https://www.reuters.com/world/texas-state-school-board-approves-mandated-reading-list-including-bible-passages-2026-06-26/
Contemporaneous report confirming the 9–5 vote with one member absent and noting that the list consists mostly of non-biblical and classical texts.
Associated Press. (2026, June 26). Texas board approves required Bible reading in public schools. https://apnews.com/article/texas-curriculum-bible-board-vote-06530403ff91c10462382422003e109f
Wire report describing the biblical selections by grade; used only for context. All counts in this article come from the TEA figures.
Texas Tribune. (2024, October 18). Five races for the Republican-dominated State Board of Education. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/10/18/texas-state-board-of-education-races-2024/
Confirms Staci Childs as a Houston Democrat and Aicha Davis’s departure from the board to run for the Texas House.
Education Week. (2024, November). Texas students may soon be reading Bible stories in English classes. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/texas-students-may-soon-be-reading-bible-stories-in-english-classes/2024/11
Background on the separate, optional Bluebonnet Learning curriculum, which is distinct from the required literary works lists.
Education Week. (2026, January). Is the Bible part of the U.S. literary canon? Texas reading list sparks debate. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/is-the-bible-part-of-the-u-s-literary-canon-texas-reading-list-sparks-debate/2026/01
Contemporaneous description of the January draft as including “10 different selections from the Bible”; corroborates our count of the draft attachments.
Word-Count Measurement — Section 3
Renaissance Learning. (n.d.). AR BookFinder [Database of book-level word counts]. https://www.arbookfind.com/
Source of published word counts for 88 of the measured works (for example, The Giver, 43,617 words; Great Expectations, 183,349). The direct record for every title is listed in the downloadable word-count dataset.
Bible API. (n.d.). King James Version [Public-domain Bible text service]. https://bible-api.com/
Verse text used to count the words of all 14 biblical selections; the KJV was applied uniformly as a single yardstick across the several translations the list specifies.
Project Gutenberg. (n.d.). Twice-Told Tales (eBook #13707); The Divine Comedy: Inferno, trans. H. W. Longfellow (eBook #1001); Winnie-the-Pooh (eBook #67098). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13707
Public-domain texts counted directly for “The Minister’s Black Veil” (5,154 words), Inferno (37,460 words, a stand-in for the Ciardi translation), and Winnie-the-Pooh chapter 1 only (2,193 words). Inferno: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1001; Pooh: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67098.
The Founders, Texas, and the Bible — Section 4
Lutz, D. S. (1984). The relative influence of European writers on late eighteenth-century American political thought. American Political Science Review, 78(1), 189–197. https://doi.org/10.2307/1961257
Peer-reviewed citation analysis of founding-era political writing (1760–1805); source for the Bible’s roughly 34% share of 3,154 citations in 916 items, its lead over Montesquieu, Blackstone, and Locke, the finding that reprinted sermons supplied nearly three-fourths of the biblical citations, and the scarcity of biblical citations in the 1787–1788 ratification debate.
Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School. (n.d.). The Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836 [The Avalon Project]. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/texdec.asp
Primary text quoted in Section 4: the Declaration’s appeals to the Almighty and its grievance against a state-imposed national religion.
Washington, G. (1790, August 18). From George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. Founders Online, National Archives. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0135
Primary text of a seventh-grade required work; source of the Micah 4:4 “vine and figtree” quotation.
National Park Service. (n.d.). The Liberty Bell. Independence National Historical Park. https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/stories-libertybell.htm
Documents the Liberty Bell inscription and its source in Leviticus 25:10, which bears on the fifth-grade poem “Independence Bell.”
King, M. L., Jr. (1968, April 3). I’ve been to the mountaintop. Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/ive-been-mountaintop
Primary text of an English II required work; source of the “Promised Land” passage.
Statements by Democratic Officials — Section 5
Fox News. (2026, January). Texas Democrat James Talarico faces outrage over atheist comments. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-dem-who-said-god-nonbinary-now-says-atheists-more-christ-like-than-christian-colleagues
Reports Talarico’s full on-record podcast statement on the “Politics War Room” podcast, including “forcing school children to read the Bible against their wills.” Quoted for his own words, not the outlet’s framing.
The 74. (2026). Texas Senate candidates embrace Christianity, but diverge on its role in schools. https://www.the74million.org/article/texas-senate-candidates-embrace-christianity-but-diverge-on-its-role-in-schools/
Reports Talarico’s PBS remark, “I don’t want politicians and bureaucrats teaching my faith.”
FOX 7 Austin. (2026). Talarico vs. Paxton: How the candidates differ on schools. https://www.fox7austin.com/news/talarico-vs-paxton-education
Reports Talarico’s 2024 House Public Education Committee remark on the Bluebonnet curriculum: “you’re working with fire.”
Spectrum News. (2024, July 12). Texas may pay schools to use curriculum critics call overtly Christian. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2024/07/12/texas-may-pay-schools-to-use-curriculum-critics-call-overtly-christian
On-record quote from then-SBOE member Aicha Davis: “That’s when all of the stuff started getting introduced with the biblical references.”
Will Campbell for Texas. (2025, July 20). Aicha Davis remarks at Disciple Central Community Church (D3 Church), DeSoto, Texas [Video]. https://youtu.be/w4kWMrqN4BA
Primary recording of Rep. Davis’s statement, “When you have a state board of education that would rather pick and choose bible verses than learn about black history, it is not all good,” and her support for James Talarico at the same event.
Texas State Board of Education. (2024, November). Resolution honoring retiring SBOE member Aicha Davis. https://sboe.texas.gov/state-board-of-education/sboe-2024/sboe-2024-november/resolution-honoring-retiring-sboe-member-aicha-davis
Official board resolution documenting Davis’s election in 2018, her service of “almost six years,” and her departure to run for the Texas House.
Aicha Davis for Texas. (n.d.). On the issues [Campaign website]. https://www.davisfortexas.com/on-the-issues
Davis’s own campaign platform, which lists Education & Workforce first and pledges to “stop MAGA’s attempts to rewrite science and erase history from textbooks.”
Talarico for Senate. (2025, October 28). More than 100 Texas officials endorse James Talarico for U.S. Senate [Campaign press release]. https://www.quorumreport.com/downloadit.cfm?DocID=11825
Campaign endorsement list naming Texas Rep. Aicha Davis and SBOE member Tiffany Clark among Talarico’s endorsers.
Serrano, K. (2025, September 23). Educators rally behind James Talarico at Dallas campaign event. Courier Texas. https://couriertexas.com/news/politics/educators-rally-behind-talarico-dallas/
Reports Davis and Clark endorsing and campaigning for Talarico at a Dallas event, with their own quoted remarks.
WFAA. (2026, July 5). Inside Texas Politics: D’rinda Randall, Kendall Scudder, Tiffany Clark and the GOP midterm convention [Episode transcript]. https://inside-texas-politics.simplecast.com/episodes/july-5-drinda-randall-kendall-scudder-tiffany-clark-and-the-gop-midterm-convention/transcript
Program transcript containing Dr. Clark’s full remarks, including “there are no female authors on this list. There are no black authors. There are no Hispanic authors,” and her objection to “one specific religion.”
KSAT. (2026, October 16). Meet the candidates running for Texas’ State Board of Education in 2026. https://www.ksat.com/news/texas/2026/10/16/meet-the-candidates-running-for-texas-state-board-of-education-in-2026/
Voter guide listing Talarico as a major 2026 donor to Clark’s campaign and noting her opposition to the biblical selections.
Texas Tribune. (2026, June 25). Texas Jewish leaders object to “Judeo-Christian” Bible framing in required reading list. https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/25/texas-education-board-judeo-christian-required-reading-list/
Presents opposing views from Texas Jewish leaders, included for balance.
Inspect the Data
The complete final list by grade band, every biblical selection, and the word-count and draft-versus-final datasets behind this article. Every title and grade comes from TEA’s adopted figures.
| Grade | Title | Author / Source | Notes | Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | April Rain Song | Langston Hughes | Read-aloud | — |
| Kindergarten | The Bald Eagle | Norman Pearl | Read-aloud | 1,018 |
| Kindergarten | The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule | Stan Berenstain | Read-aloud | 1,659 |
| Kindergarten | Blueberries for Sal | Robert McCloskey | Read-aloud | 1,042 |
| Kindergarten | The Cat in the Hat | Dr. Seuss | Read-aloud | 1,621 |
| Kindergarten | Chicka Chicka Boom Boom | Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault | Read-aloud | — |
| Kindergarten | Cinderella/Cenicienta | Francesc Boada (adapted by) | Read-aloud | — |
| Kindergarten | Classic Nursery Rhymes (selected excerpts: Baa Baa Black Sheep, Hickory Dickery Dock, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Little Boy Blue, Little Miss Muffet, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Old King Cole, One Two Buckle My Shoe) | Nicola Baxter (compiler) | Read-aloud | — |
| Kindergarten | George Washington and the Cherry Tree (excerpt from The Children's Book of Virtues) | William J. Bennett (editor) | Read-aloud | — |
| Kindergarten | Goldilocks and the Three Bears | Jim Aylesworth | Read-aloud | 1,173 |
| Kindergarten | The Grasshopper and the Ants | Jerry Pinkney (retold from Aesop) | Read-aloud | 137 |
| Kindergarten | How Grandmother Spider Brought Fire (A Choctaw Story) (excerpt from A Year Full of Stories: 52 Folktales and Legends from Around the World) | Angela McAllister | — | |
| Kindergarten | The Keeping Quilt | Patricia Polacco | Read-aloud | 927 |
| Kindergarten | L is for Lone Star: A Texas Alphabet | Carol Crane | Read-aloud | 2,321 |
| Kindergarten | The Little Red Hen (excerpt from The Children's Book of Virtues) | William J. Bennett (editor) | Read-aloud | — |
| Kindergarten | The Lion and the Mouse (excerpt from The Children's Book of Virtues) | William J. Bennett (editor) | Read-aloud | — |
| Kindergarten | Luna Loves Art | Joseph Coelho | Read-aloud | — |
| Kindergarten | A Picture Book of George Washington | David A. Adler | Read-aloud | 684 |
| Kindergarten | A Picture Book of Thomas Alva Edison | David A. Adler | Read-aloud | 1,370 |
| Kindergarten | The Runaway Bunny | Margaret Wise Brown | Read-aloud | 404 |
| Kindergarten | The Snowy Day | Ezra Jack Keats | Read-aloud | 316 |
| Kindergarten | The Three Little Pigs / Los tres cerditos | Patricia Seibert | Read-aloud | 743 |
| Kindergarten | The Tortoise and the Hare (excerpt from The Children's Book of Virtues) | William J. Bennett (editor) | Read-aloud | — |
| Kindergarten | The Very Hungry Caterpillar | Eric Carle | Read-aloud | 221 |
| Kindergarten | You Are Special: A Story for Everyone | Max Lucado | Read-aloud | 1,104 |
| Grade 1 | Abe Lincoln: The boy who loved books | Kay Winters | Read-aloud | 1,049 |
| Grade 1 | Abuela | Arthur Dorros | Read-aloud | 660 |
| Grade 1 | Ada Twist, Scientist | Andrea Beaty | Read-aloud | 903 |
| Grade 1 | Amelia Bedelia’s First Day of School | Herman Parish | Read-aloud | 1,000 |
| Grade 1 | A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers (selected excerpts: Won't You Be My Neighbor, I Like You As You Are, Children Can, Smile in Your Pocket, Take My Time, What Can You Hear?, I'd Like to Be Like Mom and Dad, Summer Rain, Are You Brave?, The King and the Ocean, Then Your Heart is Full of Love, The Truth Will Make You Free, You're Special, Perfect Day, I'm Proud of You) | Fred Rogers | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 1 | The Boy Who Cried Wolf (excerpt from The Children's Book of Virtues) | William J. Bennett (editor) | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 1 | Classic Nursery Rhymes (selected excerpts: Jack Be Nimble, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater, Simple Simon, Sing a Song of Sixpence, There Was an Old Woman, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Yankee Doodle) | Nicola Baxter | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 1 | Curious About the White House | Kate Waters | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 1 | Daniel Boone (excerpt from A Book of Americans) | Stephen Vincent Benét and Rosemary Benét | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 1 | Davy Crockett (English) | Emma E. Haldy | Read-aloud | 203 |
| Grade 1 | Invitation (excerpt from Where the Sidewalk Ends) | Shel Silverstein | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 1 | Jack and the Beanstalk | Thomas Nelson | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 1 | Jonah and the Whale (Book of Jonah, Chapter 1, Verses 1-5, 10-17, and Chapter 2, Verse 10) | International Children’s Bible: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament | Biblical, Read-aloud | 398 |
| Grade 1 | The Legend of the Bluebonnet | Tomie dePaola | Read-aloud | 803 |
| Grade 1 | The Life of Paul Revere | Maria Nelson | Read-aloud | 308 |
| Grade 1 | The Little Engine That Could | Watty Piper | Read-aloud | 1,167 |
| Grade 1 | Madeline | Ludwig Bemelmans | Read-aloud | 418 |
| Grade 1 | Medio Pollito/Half Chicken: A Folktale in Spanish and English | Alma Flor Ada | Read-aloud | 1,079 |
| Grade 1 | Now and Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin | Gene Barretta | Read-aloud | 890 |
| Grade 1 | A Picture Book of Frederick Douglass | David A. Adler | Read-aloud | 1,403 |
| Grade 1 | Amazing Americans: Pocahontas | Sharon Coan | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 1 | Red Riding Hood | James Marshall | Read-aloud | 634 |
| Grade 1 | The Tale of Peter Rabbit | Beatrix Potter | Read-aloud | 975 |
| Grade 1 | The Ugly Duckling | Jerry Pinkney | Read-aloud | 1,818 |
| Grade 1 | Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (excerpt from Aesop's Fables: The Classic Edition) | Aesop (illustrated by Charles Santore) | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 2 | America Is… | Louise Borden | Read-aloud | 783 |
| Grade 2 | Beauty and the Beast | Marianna Mayer | Read-aloud | 4,456 |
| Grade 2 | Bluebonnet at the Alamo | Mary Brooke Casad | Read-aloud | 2,285 |
| Grade 2 | The Courage of Sarah Noble | Alice Dalgliesh | Read-aloud | 6,715 |
| Grade 2 | David and Goliath (excerpt from The Children’s Book of Heroes) | William J. Bennett (editor) | Biblical, Read-aloud | 1,721 |
| Grade 2 | The Donkey in the Lion’s Skin (Excerpt from Aesop's Fables: The Classic Edition) | Aesop (illustrated by Charles Santore) | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 2 | Falling Up (excerpt from Falling Up) | Shel Silverstein | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 2 | James Madison: The 4th President | Josh Gregory | Read-aloud | 630 |
| Grade 2 | John Henry | Julius Lester | Read-aloud | 2,115 |
| Grade 2 | Johnny Appleseed | Steven Kellogg (retold and illustrated by) | Read-aloud | 2,976 |
| Grade 2 | The Legend of the Dipper (excerpt from The Children's Book of Virtues) | William J. Bennett (editor) | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 2 | Paul Bunyan | Steven Kellogg (retold and illustrated by) | Read-aloud | 1,004 |
| Grade 2 | Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom | Carole Boston Weatherford | Read-aloud | 1,424 |
| Grade 2 | The Patchwork Quilt | Valerie Flournoy | Read-aloud | 1,912 |
| Grade 2 | Sam: The Minuteman | Nathaniel Benchley | Read-aloud | 1,078 |
| Grade 2 | Stellaluna | Janell Cannon | Read-aloud | 1,463 |
| Grade 2 | Susan B. Anthony | Laura K. Murray | Read-aloud | 1,149 |
| Grade 2 | The Swing | Robert Louis Stevenson | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 2 | Teammates | Peter Golenbock | Read-aloud | 1,172 |
| Grade 2 | The Thanksgiving Story | Alice Dalgliesh | Read-aloud | 2,869 |
| Grade 2 | Try, Try Again (excerpt from The Children's Book of Virtues) | William J. Bennett (editor) | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 2 | We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States | David Catrow | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 2 | Winnie-the-Pooh (Chapter 1 "In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees, and the Stories Begin" and Chapter 2 "In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets Into a Tight Place") | A. A. Milne | Read-aloud | 2,193 |
| Grade | Title | Author / Source | Notes | Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | Abraham Lincoln (excerpt from A Book of Americans) | Stephen Vincent Benét and Rosemary Benét | — | |
| Grade 3 | Archimedes and the Door of Science (Chapter 1 "Who Was Archimedes?," Chapter 4 "Archimedes and his Lever," Chapter 9 "Archimedes and Numbers") | Jeanne Bendick | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 3 | Charlotte’s Web | E. B. White | 31,938 | |
| Grade 3 | Enemy Pie | Derek Munson | 1,504 | |
| Grade 3 | The Fisherman and His Wife | Rachel Isadora | 673 | |
| Grade 3 | George Washington (excerpt from A Book of Americans) | Stephen Vincent Benét and Rosemary Benét | — | |
| Grade 3 | Icarus and Daedalus (excerpt from Classic Myths to Read Aloud) | William F. Russell | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 3 | King Midas and the Golden Touch | Charlotte Craft | Read-aloud | 1,538 |
| Grade 3 | ROAR! – Daniel and the Lions’ Den – Children’s Adapted Version | CBN | Biblical, Read-aloud | 905 |
| Grade 3 | Miss Rumphius | Barbara Cooney | 1,243 | |
| Grade 3 | Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs | James Rumford | Read-aloud | 1,210 |
| Grade 3 | Smart (excerpt from Where the Sidewalk Ends) | Shel Silverstein | — | |
| Grade 3 | The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf (excerpt from Aesop's Fables) | Aesop (adapted and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney) | — | |
| Grade 3 | Stone Soup | Marcia Brown | 1,087 | |
| Grade 3 | Benjamin Franklin (Life Stories/Biografías) | Gillian Gosman | 631 | |
| Grade 3 | Stuart Little | E.B. White | Read-aloud | 18,841 |
| Grade 3 | Thomas Jefferson (excerpt from A Book of Americans) | Stephen Vincent Benét and Rosemary Benét | — | |
| Grade 3 | Tomás and the Library Lady | Pat Mora | 1,216 | |
| Grade 3 | Too Many Tamales | Gary Soto | 990 | |
| Grade 3 | The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse (excerpt from Aesop's Fables: The Classic Edition) | Aesop (illustrated Charles Santore) | — | |
| Grade 3 | What Do You Do with a Problem? | Kobi Yamada | 348 | |
| Grade 3 | The Wind in the Willows: Retold from the Kenneth Grahame original (Chapters "The River Bank," "The Open Road," "The Wild Wood," and "Mr. Badger") | Kenneth Grahame | — | |
| Grade 4 | The Ant and the Dove (excerpt from Aesop's Fables) | Aesop (adapted and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney) | — | |
| Grade 4 | The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Picture Book Edition) | William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer | 1,351 | |
| Grade 4 | Brave Irene | William Steig | 1,615 | |
| Grade 4 | Dreams | Langston Hughes | — | |
| Grade 4 | Number the Stars | Lois Lowry | 27,197 | |
| Grade 4 | Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow (excerpt from Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow and a World of Other Stories, pages 11-21) | Geraldine McCaughrean | — | |
| Grade 4 | Sea Fever | John Masefield | — | |
| Grade 4 | Stone Fox | John Reynolds Gardiner | 8,957 | |
| Grade 4 | The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (Part 1 "The Winning of Kinghood" Chapters 1 and 2) | Howard Pyle (adapted by Tania Zamorsky) | Read-aloud | — |
| Grade 4 | Sundiata: The Lion King of Mali | David Wisniewski | 1,446 | |
| Grade 4 | Treasure Island (Classic Adventures) | Robert Louis Stevenson (adapted by Jacqueline Dembar Greene) | — | |
| Grade 4 | Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? (Chapter 1 "Who Was Leonardo DaVinci?", Chapter 2 "The Unwanted Boy", Chapter 3 "The Art Studio" and Chapter 4 "The Wider World") | Roberta Edwards | — | |
| Grade 4 | The Necessity of Humility (Book of Luke, Chapter14, Verses 7-11) | New International Reader’s Version: New Testament | Biblical, Read-aloud | 138 |
| Grade 5 | Adventures of Don Quixote (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) | Argentina Palacios | — | |
| Grade 5 | Casey at the Bat | Ernest Lawrence Thayer | 551 | |
| Grade 5 | The Colonization of Texas: Missions and Settlers | Stephanie Kuligowski | 3,911 | |
| Grade 5 | Declaration of Independence in Translation: What It Really Means | Amy Jane Leavitt | 2,649 | |
| Grade 5 | “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” (speech to the Second Virginia Convention) | Patrick Henry | — | |
| Grade 5 | Independence Bell – July 4, 1776 | Anonymous | — | |
| Grade 5 | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | C.S. Lewis | 36,363 | |
| Grade 5 | The Mayflower Compact | William Brewster, William Bradford, Edward Winslow | — | |
| Grade 5 | The Monkey as King (excerpts from Aesop’s Fables) | Aesop (illustrated by Charles Santore) | — | |
| Grade 5 | A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution | Betsy Maestro | 2,002 | |
| Grade 5 | Moses (Book of Exodus, Chapter 3 “The Burning Bush” Verses 1-22 and Chapter 14 “The Parting of the Red Sea” Verses 1-30) | New International Reader’s Version: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament | Biblical | 1,699 |
| Grade 5 | Paul Revere’s Ride | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 1,022 | |
| Grade 5 | The Phantom Tollbooth | Norton Juster | 42,156 | |
| Grade 5 | Sam Houston: A Fearless Statesman | Joanne Mattern | 3,307 | |
| Grade 5 | Thomas Jefferson: Third President | Mike Venezia | 1,696 | |
| Grade 5 | Who was Davy Crockett? (selected excerpts: Who was Davy Crockett?, A Pioneer Family, Young David, On His Own, Crockett Speaks Up, David Goes to Washington, The Alamo, Folk Hero) | Gail Herman | — |
| Grade | Title | Author / Source | Notes | Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | Across Five Aprils | Irene Hunt | Anchor | 61,778 |
| Grade 6 | Abraham Lincoln, a Man of Faith and Courage: Stories of Our Most Admired President (Chapter 7 “The Road Back to God”) | Joe Wheeler | Paired | — |
| Grade 6 | The Blue and The Gray | Francis Miles Finch | Paired | — |
| Grade 6 | The Gettysburg Address | Abraham Lincoln | Paired | 265 |
| Grade 6 | General Order 108 to the "Soldiers of the Armies of the United States" | Ulysses S. Grant | Paired | — |
| Grade 6 | All Creatures Great and Small | James Herriot | Anchor | 155,989 |
| Grade 6 | The Power of the Dog | Rudyard Kipling | Paired | — |
| Grade 6 | A White Heron | Sarah Orne Jewett | Paired | 4,254 |
| Grade 6 | Do Not Be Anxious (Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 25-34) | English Standard Version: New Testament | Biblical, Paired | 251 |
| Grade 6 | The Peace of the Wild Things | Wendell Berry | Paired | — |
| Grade 7 | The Diary of a Young Girl, translated from Dutch by B. M. Mooyart | Anne Frank, translated from the Dutch by B.M. Mooyart | Anchor | 82,762 |
| Grade 7 | Blessed is the Match | Hannah Szenes | Paired | — |
| Grade 7 | Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport | George Washington | Paired | — |
| Grade 7 | The Shepherd's Psalm (Book of Psalms, Chapter 23) | King James Version: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament | Biblical, Paired | 118 |
| Grade 7 | The Outsiders | S. E. Hinton | Anchor | 48,523 |
| Grade 7 | The Eight Beatitudes (Book of Matthew, Chapter 5 Verses 1-12) | King James Version: New Testament | Biblical, Paired | 172 |
| Grade 7 | Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night | Dylan Thomas | Paired | — |
| Grade 7 | Mother to Son | Langston Hughes | Paired | — |
| Grade 7 | Nothing Gold Can Stay | Robert Frost | Paired | — |
| Grade 7 | The Road Not Taken | Robert Frost | Paired | — |
| Grade 7 | Thank You, M’am | Langston Hughes | Paired | 1,346 |
| Grade 8 | The Giver | Lois Lowry | Anchor | 43,617 |
| Grade 8 | Harrison Bergeron (excerpt from Welcome to the Monkey House) | Kurt Vonnegut | Paired | — |
| Grade 8 | The Man in the Arena Passage (excerpt from Citizenship in a Republic speech by Teddy Roosevelt in 1910) | Teddy Roosevelt | Paired | — |
| Grade 8 | O Me! O Life! | Walt Whitman | Paired | — |
| Grade 8 | To Everything There is a Season (Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3) | King James Version: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament | Biblical, Paired | 517 |
| Grade 8 | Night | Elie Wiesel | Anchor | 28,404 |
| Grade 8 | Book of Lamentations, Chapter 3 | Tanakh: Jewish Publication Society 1917 | Biblical, Paired | 876 |
| Grade 8 | The Perils of Indifference (excerpt from White House Official Transcript at Remarks of Millenium evening) | Elie Wiesel | Paired | — |
| Grade 8 | The Survivor | Primo Levi | Paired | — |
| Grade | Title | Author / Source | Notes | Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English I | Animal Farm | George Orwell | Anchor | 29,060 |
| English I | The Clever Teens' Guide to the Russian Revolution | Felix Rhodes | Paired | — |
| English I | I, Pencil | Leonard E. Read | Paired | — |
| English I | Lyceum Address | Abraham Lincoln | Paired | — |
| English I | Ozymandias | Percy Bysshe Shelley | Paired | — |
| English I | Great Expectations | Charles Dickens | Anchor | 183,349 |
| English I | A Brief History of Life in Victorian Britain (excerpt Chapters 1, 2 and 6) | Michael Paterson | Paired | — |
| English I | Love is not all | Edna St. Vincent Millay | Paired | — |
| English I | Parable of the Prodigal Son (Book of Luke, Chapter 15, Verses 11-32) | English Standard Version: New Testament | Biblical, Paired | 507 |
| English II | The Tragedy of Julius Caesar | William Shakespeare | Anchor | 27,309 |
| English II | General Douglas MacArthur’s Farewell Speech to the Corps of Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (excerpt paragraph 3: Duty, Honor, Country) | Douglas MacArthur | Paired | — |
| English II | Eulogy for President Reagan | Margaret Thatcher | Paired | — |
| English II | Pericles’ Funeral Oration (excerpt of Book 2 from Chapters 34 -46 of History of the Peloponnesian War) | Thucydides (edited by M.I. Finley and translated by Rex Warner) | Paired | — |
| English II | The Raven | Edgar Allen Poe | Paired | 1,087 |
| English II | The Inferno | Dante Alighieri | Anchor | 37,460 |
| English II | The Book of Job (Book of Job, Chapters 1-7,11,14,19,28,38-42) | New International Reader’s Version: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament | Biblical, Paired | 7,244 |
| English II | I've Been to the Mountaintop | Martin Luther King, Jr. | Paired | — |
| English II | The Middle Ages: A Very Short Introduction (selected excerpts: Chapter 1 The ‘Middle’ Ages?, Chapter 2 People and Their Lifestyles, Chapter 3 The Big Idea: Christian Salvation, Chapter 4 Kingship, Lordship, and Government) | Miri Rubin | Paired | — |
| English III | Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury | Anchor | 45,910 |
| English III | Dear Mr. McCarthy, I am very real (excerpt, Section 1 from Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage) | Kurt Vonnegut | Paired | — |
| English III | What is Capitalism? (excerpt, Section 1 from Capitalism, The Unknown Ideal) | Ayn Rand | Paired | — |
| English III | Flattering Unction (excerpt, Chapter 1 from The Vision of the Anointed) | Thomas Sowell | Paired | — |
| English III | The Veldt (excerpt from The Illustrated Man) | Ray Bradbury | Paired | — |
| English III | The Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Anchor | 63,604 |
| English III | Adam and Eve (Book of Genesis, Chapters 2 and 3) | New International Reader’s Version: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament | Biblical, Paired | 1,327 |
| English III | The Minister’s Black Veil | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Paired | 5,154 |
| English III | We Wear the Mask | Paul Laurence Dunbar | Paired | — |
| English IV | Hamlet | William Shakespeare | Anchor | 32,044 |
| English IV | Hamlet and His Problems (excerpt from The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism) | T. S. Eliot | Paired | — |
| English IV | If | Rudyard Kipling | Paired | — |
| English IV | The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock | T. S. Eliot | Paired | — |
| English IV | Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen | Anchor | 121,342 |
| English IV | The Definition of Love (Book of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13) | English Standard Version: New Testament | Biblical, Paired | 270 |
| English IV | “Hope” is the thing with feathers | Emily Dickinson | Paired | — |
| English IV | The Parson’s Daughter of Oxney Colne | Anthony Trollope | Paired | — |
| English IV | When I Was One-and-Twenty | A. E. Housman | Paired | — |
| Grade | Selection | Passage | Required Translation | Paired With | Words (KJV) | Std. Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 | Jonah and the Whale | Book of Jonah, Chapter 1, Verses 1-5, 10-17, and Chapter 2, Verse 10 | International Children’s Bible | Read-aloud | 398 | 1.6 |
| Grade 2 | David and Goliath | Retelling of 1 Samuel 17 (William J. Bennett, The Children’s Book of Heroes) | William J. Bennett (editor) | Read-aloud | 1,721 | 6.9 |
| Grade 3 | ROAR! Daniel and the Lions’ Den | Children’s adaptation of Daniel 6 (CBN) | CBN | Read-aloud | 905 | 3.6 |
| Grade 4 | The Necessity of Humility | Book of Luke, Chapter14, Verses 7-11 | New International Reader’s Version | Read-aloud | 138 | 0.6 |
| Grade 5 | Moses | Book of Exodus, Chapter 3 “The Burning Bush” Verses 1-22 and Chapter 14 “The Parting of the Red Sea” Verses 1-30 | New International Reader’s Version | Stand-alone | 1,699 | 6.8 |
| Grade 6 | Do Not Be Anxious | Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 25-34 | English Standard Version | All Creatures Great and Small | 251 | 1.0 |
| Grade 7 | The Shepherd's Psalm | Book of Psalms, Chapter 23 | King James Version | The Diary of a Young Girl | 118 | 0.5 |
| Grade 7 | The Eight Beatitudes | Book of Matthew, Chapter 5 Verses 1-12 | King James Version | The Outsiders | 172 | 0.7 |
| Grade 8 | To Everything There is a Season | Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 | King James Version | The Giver | 517 | 2.1 |
| Grade 8 | Book of Lamentations, Chapter 3 | Book of Lamentations, Chapter 3 | Tanakh (JPS 1917) | Night | 876 | 3.5 |
| English I | Parable of the Prodigal Son | Book of Luke, Chapter 15, Verses 11-32 | English Standard Version | Great Expectations | 507 | 2.0 |
| English II | The Book of Job | Book of Job, Chapters 1-7,11,14,19,28,38-42 | New International Reader’s Version | The Inferno | 7,244 | 29.0 |
| English III | Adam and Eve | Book of Genesis, Chapters 2 and 3 | New International Reader’s Version | The Scarlet Letter | 1,327 | 5.3 |
| English IV | The Definition of Love | Book of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13 | English Standard Version | Pride and Prejudice | 270 | 1.1 |
| All 14 | 16,143 | 64.6 |
| Grade | Draft Title | Source / Author |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | The Golden Rule | State of Texas (State-written reader) |
| Grade 1 | The Parable of the Prodigal Son | State of Texas (State-written reader) |
| Grade 3 | The Road to Damascus | State of Texas (State-written reader) |
| Grade 6 | Do Not Be Anxious (Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 25–34) | New Testament (trans. ESV) |
| Grade 7 | Jonah and the Whale (Book of Jonah) | Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (trans. NIrV) |
| Grade 7 | The Definition of Love (Book of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13) | New Testament (trans. ESV) |
| Grade 7 | The Shepherd's Psalm (Book of Psalms, Chapter 23) | Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (trans. KJV) |
| Grade 8 | The Eight Beatitudes (Book of Matthew, Chapter 5, Verses 1–12) | New Testament (trans. KJV) |
| English I | David and Goliath (Book of 1 Samuel, Chapter 17) | Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (trans. NIrV) |
| English I | Lamentations 3 (Book of Lamentations, Chapter 3) | Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (trans. JPS Tanakh 1917) |
| English II | The Tower of Babel (Book of Genesis, Chapter 11, Verses 1–9) | Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (trans. NIrV) |
| English III | To Everything There is a Season (Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3) | Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (trans. KJV) |
| English IV | The Book of Job (Book of Job, Chapters 1–7, 11, 14, 19, 28, 38–42) | Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (trans. NIrV) |