Texas school districts using the state-developed Bluebonnet Learning curriculum saw slightly better year-over-year achievement last school year than other districts, according to Texas Education Agency data released Sept. 30.
What you need to know
During the 2025-26 school year, 619 of Texas' roughly 1,200 public school districts opted in to implement at least one of the three Bluebonnet curriculum programs, which include elementary math, secondary math and elementary language arts. On average, those districts saw better student performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, than districts that did not adopt the curriculum.
This spring, districts using the state-developed math materials saw student improvement that was 0.6 percentage points higher than that of students in other districts, while districts that implemented the reading materials performed 0.2 percentage points higher on the STAAR than other schools.
The TEA pointed to the Bluebonnet curriculum as "high-quality," calling the gains in student achievement an "encouraging sign of early progress."
"With insights from year one, we will continue our investments in rigorous curriculum to make Texas No. 1 in public education," state Education Commissioner Mike Morath said in a Sept. 30 news release.
Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, a statewide educator union, disagreed that the academic gains were evidence that the Bluebonnet materials were the right approach for Texas schools. In an Oct. 1 statement to Community Impact, he called the results "rather paltry" and questioned if the slight improvements in student outcomes were "statistically significant."
"It may take a few more years to determine if this is a valid trend or simply an anomaly or noise in the data," Capo wrote. "I’m much more interested in seeing how each of these districts compares using [the National Assessment of Educational Progress]—the one stable and objective measure educators and parents have to really compare how their schools and districts are doing in relation to other schools, districts and states."
For more details on the use of Bluebonnet Learning materials in local school districts in Community Impact's coverage areas, visit communityimpact.com/education.
How we got here
The TEA spent several years developing curriculum materials for elementary school reading and language arts, kindergarten through eighth grade math and Algebra 1, known as Bluebonnet Learning.
The State Board of Education approved the state-developed curriculum and textbooks from other publishers in November 2024, adding them to a list of "high-quality instructional materials" as required by House Bill 1605, a 2023 law that overhauled Texas’ public school curriculum standards. TEA leaders said the state curriculum was designed to help close student achievement gaps and reduce the amount of time teachers spend creating lesson plans.
The state-owned materials became available for classroom use ahead of the 2025-26 school year. Use of the materials is optional, but districts that do so receive up to $60 per student in additional state funding to purchase and print them, according to previous Community Impact reporting. Apart from that allotment, districts receive about $175 per student to acquire instructional materials.
Over a four-year period, printing the Bluebonnet materials for second-grade math would cost a school about $1,350 less per classroom than "the next comparable available material approved by the SBOE," the TEA said in its Sept. 30 news release. On average, the agency said second-grade reading materials are about $500 cheaper than other options.
The Bluebonnet curriculum has been criticized for frequent biblical references in the reading materials, which critics have said are inappropriate for public schools and could isolate students with different religious beliefs.
"I support public schools teaching about religion, including the Bible, in legal, age-appropriate ways,” Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at Southern Methodist University told the SBOE in September 2024. “Unfortunately, these materials do not do that. ... They are very religiously biased."
State officials have said the materials are rigorous, align with state standards and present biblical stories in "an educational or historic context."
More details
In February, the SBOE voted to direct the TEA to correct roughly 4,200 errors in the Bluebonnet materials, including replacing improperly licensed images, fixing formatting errors or typos and correcting factual errors.
The TEA's publishing division was required to update its digital curriculum materials within 30 days and replace all textbooks, teacher guides and other physical materials purchased by school districts, Community Impact reported.
“If this is a product they've been using because they believe it was a high-quality instructional material, we have failed our students this school year,” SBOE member Tiffany Clark, D-DeSoto, said during the Feb. 25 board meeting. “If we've been teaching incorrectly, this is going to have an impact.”
SBOE member Pam Little, R-Fairview, noted that the TEA will replace over 1,000 images across the math and reading textbooks due to licensing issues.
“That's going to cause big reprints,” Little said at the time. “Because this is the agency's product, that means the taxpayers will cover that expense, and that's concerning to me.”
