The Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) developed the College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) in response to Texas Education Code (TEC), §28.008.

The CCRS are the standards that students must meet in order to succeed in college and career. The CCRS outline specific knowledge and skills that prepare students to enroll, without remediation, in entry-level community college and university courses.

CCRS Focus

The CCRS focus is on students achieving foundational knowledge in the following four disciplines:

• English Language Arts and Reading
• Mathematics
• Science
• Social Studies

The final section of the CCRS contains cross-disciplinary, foundational cognitive skills that apply to all content areas and support students’ academic success in all subjects. These skills include the students’ cognitive development of intellectual curiosity, reasoning, problem solving, and work habits.

An educator's understanding of Texas standards is important in meeting students’ linguistic and academic needs. Effective implementation of these standards provides all students the opportunity to become academically successful.

TEKS

• include content-specific essential knowledge and skills,
• are grade-specific, and
• are cumulative across grade levels.

Texas Education Agency TEKS webpage

ELPS

• address English-language needs,
• apply to all core content areas and electives, and
• are the same from grade to grade, with few exceptions.

19 TAC §74.4—ELPS Standards webpage

CCRS

• include specific knowledge and skills that prepare for college and careers,
• apply to core content areas and all grades, and
• include cross–disciplinary standards.

CCRS Standards Manual

While there are three sets of standards that are required for Texas ELLs, there are some common areas addressed by each set of standards. These common areas are

• reading,
• writing,
• speaking,
• listening,
• oral and written conversations, and
• learning strategies/metacognition.