Members of LTISD's School Health Advisory Council, or SHAC, presented information on the Choosing the Best curriculum and results from a community survey during the April 16 board of trustees meeting.
Breaking it down
According to the SHAC, Choosing the Best is a free program with no additional costs for textbook or online access. The program is also facilitator-led and aligned with the required Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS.
Choosing the Best offers abstinence-centered curriculum for sixth grade through 10th grade students, per its website. LTISD sexual health curriculum is only administered to sixth through ninth grade students.
Some context
According to the SHAC, LTISD's partners with LifeGuard—the district's current sexual health curriculum which was voted in two years ago—said the program was going to be adopting the Choosing the Best curriculum in the 2024-25 school year.
The SHAC was able to grandfather in LifeGuard's old curriculum last school year instead, allowing the council to explore Choosing the Best first before making any recommendations.
The council then spent the fall semester reviewing human sexuality curriculum across 26 districts in the area, and the spring semester surveying staff, students and community members with curriculum options.
When looking at options, some of the SHAC's scoring form included questions regarding:
- Alignment to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS
- Medical accuracy
- Student age appropriateness and inclusivity and sensitivity
- Moral and ethical values
- Lesson clarity, engagement and real-world relevance
- Teacher training requirements
- Implementation timeline and integration flexibility
The SHAC said the biggest difference between LifeGuard and Choosing the Best is the modernization of the curriculum and includes more interactivity and video elements.
The SHAC also considered two other curriculum options from Goodheart-Willcox and Living Well Aware.
The Goodheart-Willcox textbook and online access for one year would cost $326,880, or $361,260 for three years, while Living Well Aware included access for one year for $8,280.
Both programs would also incur additional costs for teacher training and require 12-14 consecutive days for instructional planning time, while Choosing the Best only requires six.
In January, the SHAC removed Goodheart-Willcox from consideration due to its cost.
The spring survey included 26 respondents for Choosing the Best and 20 respondents for Living Well Aware. Each curriculum survey had 18 questions.
Of the 25 SHAC members there were 19 voting for the curriculum, with 14 voting in favor of Choosing the Best, one voting for Living Well Aware and four voting for neither curriculum.
Another point of view
Trustee Lauren White commended the SHAC for handling the curriculum change in a "transparent and thorough way," but said this change could represent a larger issue at the state level.
"We're not really left with choices when we're in a situation, like the majority of districts and have a budget deficit, of what's best," White said. "We have to go into it with the mindset that one of these options is free and also comes with instructors. ... It's a lingering kind of concern of mine that this represents, to some degree, an erosion of local control."
Next steps
The board will consider the curriculum during its May 21 meeting. A second and final public hearing on the curriculum will also be held at this time.
