Tennessee SRC finalizes reading standard edits, adds diversity and multimodal language

The Tennessee State Board of EducationEnglish Language Arts Standards Recommendation Committee (SRC) met electronically on Sept. 30, 2025, to continue final revisions to the K'012 reading standards and related guidance. Committee members agreed to a set of wording changes, to add explicit references to "diverse cultural perspectives" across grade bands, and to include language covering multimodal (print and digital) texts.

Why it matters: the committeewhose work will guide instructional materials and textbook selection in Tennesseeapproved wording that publishers and districts will use when selecting and designing materials. Those edits affect how teachers are asked to sequence instruction, what kinds of texts students should encounter, and how the department will assess alignment with the standards.

Most significant outcomes

- The SRC agreed to revise several cross-grade phrasings (for example, editors replaced "as well as" with "and" in places and favored "synthesize" over "integrate" in certain grade-band standards) to improve clarity and grammatical consistency across the progression.

- The committee added explicit language about "diverse cultural perspectives" to the reading cornerstone and to sub-standards (K—), and directed staff to carry that language through the progression so instructional materials include texts representing a range of cultures and experiences.

- Members reached consensus to make the standards explicitly include multimodal and digital texts (print and digital formats) where appropriate, and to use language that publishers will understand when assembling both literary and informational text sets for each grade band.

- The SRC preserved a focus on both literary and informational texts across the progression and agreed to ask publishers to…