African-American Students: Texas Public School Facts

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STAAR Performance Labels: Is ‘Approaches’ On or Below Grade Level?

Introduction: STAAR performance labels offer helpful information to parents and policymakers because they indicate students’ success and are also an early-warning sign that students need more support. The STAAR performance labels are: Masters, Meets, Approaches, Does Not Meet. Each label offers an indication of how a child is performing in three categories: a child’s likelihood...

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What The Atlantic Gets Right — And Wrong — About The Mississippi ‘Miracle’

The highly publicized “Mississippi Miracle” — the implementation of teacher training, literacy coaches, and grade retention for struggling students that skyrocketed the state’s ranking from 49th in 2013 to nineth in 2024 — has created a well-earned outpouring of praise. Here at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, we have taken notice. In fact, the Lone...

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As someone who has spent most of his life working in American universities, my subsequent writing about it in these pages has been for the most part negative. And not without reason: My on-campus experience, coupled with my research, has led me to agree with the assertion that constitutes the subtitle of Allan Bloom’s “The...

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STAAR Performance Labels: Is ‘Approaches’ On or Below Grade Level?

What The Atlantic Gets Right — And Wrong — About The Mississippi ‘Miracle’

The Last, Best Hope: A New Texas University Looks to Restore Genuine Higher Education