The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test is a continuation of the standardized testing Texas has been doing for the past 15 years, a good bit of which George W. Bush pushed as a way to measure teacher aptitude and school performance. The company that administers the test claims that cheating is "extraordinarily rare" but the Dallas Morning news found about 50,000 cheating students in 1/3 of all Texas schools. The most prevalent was the 11th grade science exam, also known as the one you must pass to get a diploma. The article even has cool coverflow-like visualizations of what a cheating school exam looks like. [via the journalist's blog, which promises parts 2 and 3 in the next couple days]
posted by mathowie on Jun 3, 2007 - 65 comments

Textbook Publishers Learn to Avoid Messing With Texas. "Out of Many," the work of four respected historians, is one of the biggest sellers among American history college textbooks in the United States, but it is not likely to be available to Texas high school students taking advanced placement history. Conservative groups in Texas objected to two paragraphs in the nearly 1,000-page text that explained that prostitution was rampant in cattle towns during the late 19th century, before the West was fully settled.
posted by ncurley on Jun 30, 2002 - 24 comments

Maybe evolution never happened. And maybe industry doesn't cause pollution and population growth is no problem. At least that's what they're teaching kids in Alabama and Texas (and maybe your state as well).
posted by conquistador on Nov 9, 2001 - 108 comments

Texan Teen Lands $550 Fine For Saying 'F*ck' The US school system certainly seems to over-react to small issues (drawing guns on paper, etc). Will this keep American from turning into violent thugs, or not? Recently, in the UK, a man got let off for saying 'f*ck off' to a policeman, since the judge said it was 'the language of his generation'.
posted by wackybrit on Jun 8, 2001 - 29 comments

Janna Bush's homework is funny on so many levels:

1. This is college-level work in Texas?
2. People in Texas think that people in Harlem attend dances at the VFW?
3. Dubya's daughter, having been sent to a state school to bolster dad's political image as a down-home Texan even though she could surely have legacy'd at Yale as he did (and Skull & Bones admits women now!), is getting just the sort of politically correct education that her father's cohort reviles.

posted by nicwolff on Dec 21, 2000 - 38 comments

Does GW's great Texas education system really work? Teachers say Texas has given up on normal school subjects in favor of test taking strategy in order to produce nice round numbers for politicians. Kids spend the school year preparing day and night for massively hyped state wide tests instead of actually learning. Is this any way to educate our children?
posted by tomorama on Sep 10, 2000 - 26 comments