diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/courseware/tests/tests.py b/lms/djangoapps/courseware/tests/tests.py
index 62456d65d5..f3b086748d 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/courseware/tests/tests.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/courseware/tests/tests.py
@@ -222,16 +222,9 @@ class PageLoader(ActivateLoginTestCase):
         handling.
         """
         resp = self.client.get(url)
-        # HACK: workaround the bug that returns 200 instead of 404.
-        # TODO (vshnayder): once we're returning 404s, get rid of this if.
-        if code != 404:
-            self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, code)
-            # And 'page not found' shouldn't be in the returned page
-            self.assertTrue(resp.content.lower().find('page not found') == -1)
-        else:
-            # look for "page not found" instead of the status code
-            #print resp.content
-            self.assertTrue(resp.content.lower().find('page not found') != -1)
+        self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, code,
+                         "got code {0} for url '{1}'. Expected code {2}"
+                         .format(resp.status_code, url, code))
 
 
     def check_pages_load(self, course_name, data_dir, modstore):
diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/static_template_view/views.py b/lms/djangoapps/static_template_view/views.py
index 90087e06d6..8ab6216eda 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/static_template_view/views.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/static_template_view/views.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 from mitxmako.shortcuts import render_to_response, render_to_string
 from django.shortcuts import redirect
 from django.conf import settings
+from django.http import HttpResponseNotFound, HttpResponseServerError
 from django_future.csrf import ensure_csrf_cookie
 
 from util.cache import cache_if_anonymous
@@ -40,9 +41,9 @@ def render(request, template):
 
 
 def render_404(request):
-    return render_to_response('static_templates/404.html', {})
+    return HttpResponseNotFound(render_to_string('static_templates/404.html', {}))
 
 
 def render_500(request):
-    return render_to_response('static_templates/server-error.html', {})
+    return HttpResponseServerError(render_to_string('static_templates/server-error.html', {}))