Deck 5: Public Education in Texas

Question 1

Which Texas leader famously said, "It is admitted by all, that [a] cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy. . . "?

A) Stephen F. Austin
B) Sam Houston
C) Mirabeau B. Lamar
D) Coke Stevenson

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The federal government agency that sought to educate former slaves during Reconstruction was:

A) Department of Education
B) Lincoln Schools Fund
C) Carnegie Foundation
D) Freedman's Bureau

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which Article in the Texas Constitution of 1876, the current state constitution, deals with education?

A) Article I
B) Article VII
C) Article X
D) Article XII

Answer 3

B

Question 4

During WW II, the military rejected 12 percent of recruits due to illiteracy. What was the rejection rate among Texans?

A) 10 percent
B) 15 percent
C) 23 percent
D) 30 percent

Question 5

What leading Texan headed an education reform commission in the early-1980s?

A) Bob Bullock
B) Mark White
C) Kinky Friedman
D) Ross Perot

Question 6

Today, the state of Texas (not local or federal funds) provides about what proportion of school funds?

A) 30 percent
B) 50 percent
C) 70 percent
D) 90 percent

Question 7

Texas has spent more than the national average per pupil in only one year in the last 70 years. What year was that?

A) 1950
B) 1970
C) 1990
D) 2010

Question 8

Texas teacher pay has averaged about where in regard to the national average since 1950? (1=best, 50=worst)

A) 19^th
B) 29^th
C) 39^th
D) 49^th

Question 9

No Child Left Behind was the educational program of which president?

A) Lyndon Johnson
B) George H.W. Bush
C) George W. Bush
D) Barach Obama

Question 10

In 2014, what percent of Texas Hispanic adults held a high school diploma?

A) 50 percent
B) 63 percent
C) 677 percent
D) 85 percent

Question 11

All but one of these states has a smaller proportion of young Anglo students in public schools than Texas. Which state does not?

A) Hawaii
B) New Mexico
C) California
D) Florida

Question 12

Which Article of the Texas statehood Constitution of 1845 dealt with public schools and education?

A) Article 1
B) Article 10
C) Article 12
D) Article 18

Question 13

The Reconstruction Era Republican governor of Texas who instituted integrated schools for black and white children was:

A) E. J. Davis
B) Coke Stevenson
C) Allan Shivers
D) Mirabeau B. Lamar

Question 14

In 1900, Texas per pupil expenditures were what percent of the national average for per pupil expenditures?

A) 40 percent
B) 46 percent
C) 56 percent
D) 70 percent

Question 15

The 1918-1920 school improvement movement in Texas was called?

A) Better Schools Campaign
B) Texas Literacy Initiative
C) Movement for School Choice
D) Educational Excellence Initiative

Question 16

The 1949 Texas legislature passed what famous set of educational reforms?

A) Better Schools bills
B) Connally Education laws
C) Gilmer-Aiken laws
D) Lamar Education laws

Question 17

The governor of Texas who resisted desegregating public schools in the 1950s was:

A) Coke Stevenson
B) Allan Shivers
C) John Connally
D) Dolph Briscoe

Question 18

Texas public schools get their funding from the state and federal governments and from:

A) local property taxes
B) parental contributions
C) local sales taxes
D) local income taxes

Question 19

The school funding law suit of 2013-2016 was conducted before Texas District Judge:

A) David Dewhurst
B) Patrick Higginbotham
C) Oswaldo Guitterrez
D) John Dietz

Question 20

Since 1950, Texas spending per pupil has been what percent of the national average for spending per pupil?

A) 70 percent
B) 78 percent
C) 84 percent
D) 94 percent

Question 21

In what two years did Texas teacher pay beat the national average?

A) 1950, 1954
B) 1971, 1972
C) 1982, 1983
D) 2000, 2004

Question 22

The student assessment system in use in Texas today is:

A) TEAMS
B) STARR
C) TAAS
D) TAKS

Question 23

In 2013, the legislature reduced STARR end of course exams from 15 to:

A) 12
B) 8
C) 5
D) 0

Question 24

In 2017, 90 percent of U.S. adults held a high school diploma. What was the number for Texas?

A) 65 percent
B) 75 percent
C) 824 percent
D) 90 percent

Question 25

In 2019, the most recent data, the national average for SAT test-takers was 1059. The Texas average was:

A) 1000
B) 1022
C) 1096
D) 1115

Question 26

What social and economic changes in Texas motivated the legislature to approve the 1949 Gilmer-Aiken educational reforms?

Question 27

How does the thesis of the book by the Harvard economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, entitled The Race Between Education and Technology, inform our view of the education policy choices Texas has made over the course of its history?

Question 28

What are the strengths and weaknesses of educational assessment as it has been performed in Texas since the Perot reforms?

Question 29

What factors and influences led Texas to be late in establishing free public schools open to all children?

Question 30

Describe the educational structures and goals laid out in the 1949 Gilmer-Aiken laws.

Question 31

Describe the "Robin Hood school funding program adopted in the early-1990s. What are its pros and cons?

Question 32

Why do Texas politicians wait to be ordered by courts before they raise school funding?

Question 33

Do the results earned by Texas students on the SAT and ACT exams suggest that they are "college ready?"

Question 34

Only three states have a smaller proportion of Anglos among their young students than Texas.

Question 35

The Gilmer-Aiken educational reforms were passed in 1982.

Question 36

Edgewood ISD v. Kirby was a 1989 school funding case.

Question 37

Texas has lost nine of ten educational funding court cases since 1984.

Question 38

Texas has spent more than the national average per pupil in its public schools in all but two of the last ten years.

Question 39

What _______ % of adult Hispanics in Texas lack a high School diploma.

Question 40

The federal government agency charged with taking care of former slaves, including their education, was _______

Question 41

The 1954 Supreme Court case ending racial segregation in the nation's public schools was _______

Question 42

The Texas governor who defended school segregation in the 1950s was _______

Question 43

Who was the Texas businessman who headed a school reform panel in the mid-1980s _______?

Question 44

Which U.S. president initiated the No Child Left Behind educational reforms _______?

Question 45

The educational assessment test now being used in Texas schools is _______