The Texas common curriculum for higher education: its origins, development, implementation and assessment

The State of Texas started an educational endeavour called the Texas Common Curriculum in 1987 which was structured to ascertain and require that all graduates from Texas institutions of higher learning, who received a baccalaureate degree from a public college or university, would be required to successfully finish the state’s general education Core curriculum within the components of their specific degree requirements. Over time changes were made to the curriculum initially on an institutional level and then on a state level. Designed, almost wholly, to allow for easy and free transferability between accredited institutions in Texas the Core curriculum has yet to actually satisfy this most basic of its foundational missions. The history of this process for educational reform mirrors changing times in the state, and nation. This is a descriptive study.