Extensive research conducted by Professor Walt Haney of Boston College shows that the improvements claimed for Texas public schools are often based on pure myth. A former Texas native, Haney is now a researcher at the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy at Boston College in Massachusetts. In order to graduate, Texas high school students must pass a TAAS high school exit test administered in the 10th grade. In a paper entitled The Myth of the Texas Miracle , presented by Haney in April to a meeting of the American Educational Research Association, he showed that the real story of Texas schools is far different from the one Bush has been telling. TAAS test scores determine whether a Texas school will be given financial rewards for student test score achievement or be subject to a state takeover if scores are low.
Educators charge that such high stakes testing adversely impacts students and schools as a whole.
It causes a narrowing of school curriculum, teaching to the test, test coaching and even cases of outright cheating by teachers and administrators. Nevertheless, both Republicans and Democrats have pointed to the Texas model as a lesson in bipartisanship. The reforms have their origin in a 1984 special commission on education chaired by Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot. Former Democratic governor Mark White is credited with legislation that supported the reforms. Though Bush became governor only six years ago, he claims credit for continuing the spirit of the commission's decisions.