Texas started an exam that is actually challenging, and the teachers find difficult to teach to.
It is called the TAKS.
There is a bit of the pitiful whining as exemplified in your 'barbie' comment, but not many are paying attention to the whiners.
My daughter took the TAKS and blew past all four sections, but has room to improve on science and math.
On her own motivation she is taking a summer program in pre-calculus so she can be positioned to get AP calculus AP Statistics done in HS.
The point is she knows, like I bet your daughter knows, what the primary mission of HS is.
The author of the whining piece, if he or she was a reporter on my staff, would be severely reprimanded for writing such infanitle garbage.
Ed