Testing the Test: New Legislation Filed to Audit STAAR
More challenges emerge to Texas’s least favorite exam.
Mimi Swartz, the author, with Sherron Watkins, of Power Failure, The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron, is an executive editor of Texas Monthly. Previously, she was a staff writer at Talk, from April 1999 to April 2001, and a staff writer at the New Yorker from 1997 to 2001. Prior to joining the New Yorker, she worked at Texas Monthly for thirteen years. In 1996 Swartz was a finalist for two National Magazine Awards and won in the public interest category for “Not What the Doctor Ordered.” She was also a National Magazine Award finalist for her November 2005 issue story on tort reform, titled “Hurt? Injured? Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!” and won the 2006 John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest, Magazine Journalism, for the same story. In 2013 she won her second National Magazine Award (again in the category of public interest), for “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives,” a compelling look at the state of women's health care in Texas.
Over the years, Swartz’s work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, Slate, National Geographic, and the New York Times’ op-ed page and Sunday magazine. It has also been collected in Best American Political Writing 2006 and Best American Sportswriting 2007. She has been a member of the Texas Institute of Letters since 1994. Swartz grew up in San Antonio and graduated from Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts. She now lives in Houston with her husband, John Wilburn, and son, Sam.
More challenges emerge to Texas’s least favorite exam.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Leading educators and testing experts have studied the exams and find that they are asking kids to understand passages aimed two or more years above their grade level.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
He built an oil empire, revitalized the state’s Republican party, gave rise to a political dynasty, and forever changed the Lone Star State. Yet the question dogged him his entire life: Was he a real Texan or merely a Yankee transplant?
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
The Houston mayor understands the wisdom of maintaining good relations even with people you disagree with again and again.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
A Houston couple brings the ”Moneyball” philosophy to social change.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
The president and CEO of Houston’s Episcopal Health Foundation has some bold ideas for retooling our medical system.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
The video ad reminds viewers of Donald Trump’s Ted Cruz insults and of Cruz failing to act ’Texas Tough.’
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Of course it wasn’t any wonder that our Texas senators couldn’t find it in their hearts or minds to consider Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s version of events.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Inspired by the Senate hopeful’s bumper sticker, Judy Masliyah, owner of My Flaming Heart, has also created a Western shirt for men.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
When the company collapsed, the former CEO went to prison for fraud and insider trading. Turns out, he was just ahead of his time.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
A year after Hurricane Harvey brought Houston to its knees, the city is still wrestling with how to prepare for the next great storm. There’s no shortage of good ideas, but in Houston, that’s never been the problem.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
In this exclusive excerpt from 'Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart,' world-renowned Houston surgeon Bud Frazier races to help an ailing patient by implanting a revolutionary device that may one day save millions of lives.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Outside a cookie shop in one of Houston’s most idyllic neighborhoods, a West University Place council member spied Trump’s name on a teenager’s shirt and yelled a few of the president’s worst words at her. Then the internet found out. It's springtime in the age of hysteria.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Abbott’s school safety plan could land us back in darker times.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
As I have aged and faced my own challenges as a female on this planet, I have come to a different understanding of Barbara Bush.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Why the remarkable heroism displayed by my fellow Houstonians will be required for years to come.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Dear Governor Abbott,I just happened to catch your remarks from yesterday afternoon, the ones you made while visiting the Austin gun range to sign the bill that lowers the cost of gun licenses in Texas. The Dallas Morning News story I read said that you celebrated by firing a 9 mm
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
A heart surgeon leads his city to the forefront of medical innovation.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Public school parents with special-ed kids often find themselves squaring off against school districts and the taxpayer-funded lawyers who protect them.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Anna Nicole Smith rose from a small town girl in Mexia to an icon, but her demons followed her far beyond Texas.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Executive editor Mimi Swartz says goodbye to Tom Curtis, a writer, reporter, and former Texas Monthly contributor, who died earlier this week.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
in a state known for austerity, how can Texas's largest cities be nearly broke?
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Houston says farewell to its legendary heart surgeon.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Sherron Watkins, fifteen years later.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Winning the MacArthur “genius grant” was a career highlight for Rice professor Rebecca Richards-Kortum. But it was a visit to Malawi that changed her life.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Why do so few novelists write about Houston?
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Since he finished his prison sentence, Andy Fastow, Enron’s disgraced CFO, has been quietly trying to make amends. But is the public ready to accept his apology?
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Mimi Swartz discovers the Texas she remembers in a small cafe in Cisco.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Houston greets its new mayor, Sylvester Turner, with a host of big-city problems.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Houston’s super-rich are learning to love the brand-new, very ritzy, much-heralded River Oaks District. (Maybe.)
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
HERO evokes another era—one we shouldn’t be proud of.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
The election only determines who will lead the nation's fourth-largest city, no big deal.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
How did smog-breathing, gridlock-prone Houston become the newest natural wonder of the urban world?
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Mimi Swartz cross-examines the Court of Criminal Appeals’ unprecedented sanctions against a death penalty lawyer.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
For the first time in its history, Blue Bell is in a right sticky mess.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Mimi Swartz wonders why, in this day and age, there are so few Hispanics serving on the boards of Texas nonprofits.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
The story of Texas can be reduced to one sentence: somebody has something somebody else wants and will put up a fight to get.In the beginning, these fights were over land. The Spanish explorers came here in the 1500’s; ignoring native peoples, they claimed a vast region that included
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Mimi Swartz on what Houston’s fractious mayoral race says about the city.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
How did he perform in eight areas that are critical to the state? The grade book is now open.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Bryan Cranston’s portrayal of LBJ was just another sad caricature of what the world thinks a Texan ought to act like.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Mimi Swartz on how the rise of our cities will lead to a new kind of government.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Rachel Bonyton's film "Big Men" follows Dallas oilman Jim Musselman as he contracts with the government of Ghana to find and develop the first oil field in that country.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
First Bettina Siegel went after the beef industry. Now she’s tackling the Chinese government.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Woodland Heights may not be the fanciest neighborhood in Houston, or the quietest, or the coolest (and it can be a little full of itself), but it’s mine.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
If you have kids, being a caregiver to an elderly parent may feel a bit familiar.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Is Charlotte Allen Houston's true founder?
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
The lessons of a family heirloom.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Houston put a man on the moon and performed the first artificial heart transplant. So why can’t it save the Eighth Wonder of the World?
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Bev Kearney, UT's former celebrated track-and-field coach, filed suit against the university yesterday. The smart thing to do would be to make the whole thing go away—though it might benefit the larger world of college athletics to have the whole sordid mess played out in public.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.
Last year, UT forced prominent track-and-field coach Bev Kearney to resign because of her affair with a student. Now she’s fighting back, with a lawsuit that opens a window onto the world of high-stakes collegiate athletics—a window that many people would just as soon keep closed.
Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.