(2003-12-03) -- U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige today praised a Texas achievement test on which Houston students have shown dramatic improvement, despite their continued mediocre performance on a similar national assessment.

Mr. Paige served as superintendent of schools in Houston before President George Bush brought him to Washington in hopes of replicating Houston's success nationwide through the 'No Child Left Behind' program.

Today's New York Times reports that while Houston students showed major gains over several years on the Texas Assessement of Academic Skills (TAAS), their Stanford Achievement Test scores showed little improvement.

"For decades, educators have yearned for a test that would show that the billions of dollars we pour into public schooling actually have an impact," said Mr. Paige. "This Texas test is the Holy Grail of public education. If other school systems will simply adopt this test, and the curriculum that prepares students for it, they too may appear to improve."

The real challenge in public education, said Mr. Paige, has never been to prepare productive citizens of our republic who are able to think and learn on their own.

"The challenge has always been to come up with statistics that guarantee increased funding levels," he said. "The Texas test is a cutting-edge assessment tool whose results can be measured in real taxpayer dollars. With this test, no NEA bargaining unit will be left behind."