ABSTRACT
While the debate continues from the two extremes in academia, some for and others against TAAS, the overall performance of the Texas schools and in particular of low-income, Limited English Proficient (LEP), African-American, and Latino children, is improving radically, at least, according the scholars who support the state system of accountability. The purpose of this brief review is to present arguments on both sides of the issue and to explore these arguments. I then consider what can help us better understand this new phenomenon of change from above, this legislated equity from the top down, and this forced compliance with a testing system viewed by some as progress and by others as anathema, or at least as inappropriate and insensitive.
