Some critics of Texas' largely subjective state teacher evaluations want them to include more emphasis on measures of student performance like standardized exams. But with support among lawmakers to scale back testing, those efforts have hit a roadblock.

Two years ago, lawmakers couldn't find the money they needed to run the government they had promised their voters. Now they have the money — and a completely different set of political problems. 

As the Texas Legislature looks to overhaul the state’s standardized testing program amid outcry from parents and school leaders, state lawmakers have focused their criticism on the company that develops the tests.

Batheja on a House budget without vouchers or Medicaid expansion, Aguilar on obstacles to a new power plant in El Paso, Permenter on deer breeder regulations, E. Smith’s interview with San Antonio’s Castro twins, Galbraith on proposals for new underground water reservoirs, Root finds holes in a UT regent's appointment files, M. Smith on a planned school rating system that defied recommendations, Murphy maps oil and gas disposal wells in Texas, Dehn on objections to a bigger Medicaid program and Hamilton on efforts to lure gun makers to Texas: The best of our best for the week of April 1-5, 2013.

Texas Appleseed and the Brazos County branch of the NAACP have filed a federal complaint against Bryan ISD, saying the school district's reliance on ticketing as a form of discipline "disproportionately harms" black students.

The president of Rice University on the declining reputation of higher education, the difference between public and private universities, and the future of academic research.

Texas Southern University has the state's lowest graduation rate, but TSU President John Rudley says that steps are being taken to put the university on the right track.

UTEP's graduation rates are among the worst in the state, but President Diana Natalicio is adamant that the metric doesn't accurately reflect the institution.