ABSTRACT
Texas has been measuring student academic achievement for the past 16 years. Over time, these measures have been upgraded, extended and refined, and now students from the early elementary grades through high school are tested in reading, math, writing, science, and social studies. Simultaneously, the minimum passing rates on these exams for school-and district-accountability requirements have risen steadily, evidencing increasingly high expectations for students in Texas public schools. Special-education students, however, were not included in the state accountability system until the year 2000. Thus, until recently, Texas has had high expectations for only some students.
