English III and English IV teachers are often expected to prepare students for several different outcomes at once: grade-level TEKS mastery, TSIA2 college readiness, SAT and ACT performance, AP coursework, local assessments, and continued support for students retaking English I or English II STAAR. Yet unlike English I and English II, there is no official TEA assessed-curriculum document for English III or English IV.
These locally developed frameworks were created to address that gap.
The English III College-Readiness Assessed Curriculum and English IV College-Readiness Assessed Curriculum identify the high-leverage TEKS that have the greatest instructional value across multiple assessment systems. Each framework preserves the identity of the grade-level course—American literature in English III and British literature in English IV—while helping teachers intentionally develop the transferable reading, writing, reasoning, and language skills students need beyond the course itself.
Each document provides:
The frameworks distinguish between skills that are directly assessed, skills that provide strong transfer, supporting standards, and standards that are not meaningfully assessed by a particular test. This distinction helps teachers avoid treating every assessment as though it measures the same skills in the same way.
These resources are not designed to turn English III or English IV into remediation courses or test-preparation classes.
The central principle is:
Teach the grade-level TEKS first, then use vertically aligned English I and English II standards as access points for retesters.
Students can work with the same text, essential question, and success criteria while receiving different levels of cognitive support. Retesters may identify and analyze foundational elements, while grade-level students evaluate, critique, synthesize, and defend. This approach allows teachers to support unfinished learning without replacing the upper-grade curriculum.
The English III framework emphasizes:
English III is positioned as the primary bridge to rhetorical analysis, argument, source evaluation, and college-level writing.
The English IV framework emphasizes:
English IV is positioned as a capstone course in which students evaluate complex texts, produce sustained analysis and argument, and prepare for postsecondary reading and writing expectations.
Both frameworks identify E3.10(C) and E4.10(C)—composing argumentative texts using genre characteristics and craft—as the clearest grade-level alignment to the TSIA2 essay.
The documents connect argumentative writing to the major TSIA2 scoring dimensions:
They also clarify an important distinction: the TSIA2 essay requires students to develop and support a position, but it does not require formal research citations, a provided evidence set, or a mandatory counterclaim. Those features may be added for AP, STAAR source-based writing, or local assessments, but they are not the minimum demands of the TSIA2 essay.
These documents are locally developed instructional-planning frameworks. They are not official TEA assessed-curriculum documents, state test blueprints, or predictions of future assessment forms.
The priority labels, instructional percentages, and cross-assessment ratings represent a professional analysis of the overlap among the English III and English IV TEKS and the literacy demands of TSIA2, English I/II STAAR, SAT, ACT, AP English, and local assessments.
A TEKS-first framework that connects English III instruction to TSIA2, English I/II STAAR retesting, SAT, ACT, AP Language, AP Literature, and local assessment while preserving American literature as the course-content anchor.
English IV College-Readiness Assessed Curriculum
A TEKS-first capstone framework that connects English IV instruction to TSIA2, English I/II STAAR retesting, SAT, ACT, AP Literature, AP Language, and local assessment while preserving British literature as the course-content anchor.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.