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In this article, Julian Vasquez Heilig, Keffrelyn Brown, and Anthony Brown offer findings from a close textual analysis of how the Texas social studies standards address race, racism, and communities of color. Using the lens of critical race theory, the authors uncover the sometimes subtle ways that the standards can appear to adequately address race while at the same time marginalizing it-the "illusion of inclusion." Their study offers insight into the mechanisms of marginalization in standards and a model of how to closely analyze such standards, which, the authors argue, is increasingly important as the standards and accountability movements continue to grow in influence.
Mainstream education reform discourse today demonstrates an obsession with standards, tests, and accountability. The recent fruition of the Common Core State Standards as nationwide academic benchmarks is an example of the momentum to centralize educational policy. In the 1990s Governor George W. Bush was a progenitor of systemic reform through his support for the alignment of standards to high-stakes testing and accountability in Texas (McNeil, 2005) . A major theory of action underlying the Texas accountability model of school reform is that standards create more equitable opportunities for learning (Vasquez Heilig & Darling-Hammond, 2008) . This was an impetus behind the push toward state standards in Texas and elsewhere in the 1990s (Paige, 2006) as well as the reaudiorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2002, also known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
Yet some school reform and policy scholars have critiqued this notion of equality and instead recognize standards as political (Apple, 1992, 1999) and ideological (Sleeter, 2002, 2003; Sleeter & Stillman, 2005). Given this reality, it is important to look closely at the racial politics and ideologies embedded in modern standards, which shape the information presented in textbooks and are now increasingly aligned to high-stakes testing. In response to this need, this study looks at the revised Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards as codified in the decadal Texas standards-building process.
Drawing from critical race theory (CRT), we provide a careful textual examination of the quantity and quality of racial knowledge found in the current social studies standards. This level of analysis is vital to broadening the existing literature because it highlights the nuanced...