|  Teaching
to the Test
Most
teachers have resistance and some resentment to the increasing importance
and pressure around test scores. One of the down sides of high stakes testing
is that it puts more pressure to demonstrate academic achievement in a narrow
manner. Most teachers resent the focus on testing because in their experience,
there are many more ways to know if the student is learning than just a
single test score. For example, teachers observe student’s daily participation
and work. Teachers observe the effort that is made. Teachers also see samples
of student’s work and can monitor their progress. Some students don’t
do well on tests but can do well when demonstrating in the classroom that
they know the material. Other students can create products or processes
that show they to know the material. In states where high stakes testing
has been implemented, the phenomena called “teaching to the test”
has surfaced. This term suggests that teachers are only focused on making
sure that students are drilled and prepared to take that test. The impact
on judgment of the student, the teacher and the school is just too high.
In Utah, we say teaching to the test would be teaching the CORE curriculum.
Utah has established a CORE curriculum in language arts, math, science and
social studies. For each grade level, this CORE curriculum spells out the
minimum concepts that students should be learning for that grade level.
The end of level test, called the CRTs, are the tests that test for knowledge
of the CORE curriculum. So if a teacher is teaching the CORE, they are in
fact teaching to the test. It is frustrating
for most educators because there seems to be a growing assumption that
just testing kids will improve education. Educators feel passionate about
teaching children the broad range of what students need to know. There
is frustration and concern that the curriculum will be narrowed when the
focus is only on the CORE subjects. Many children respond and learn and
grow through creative processes and programs such as band, orchestra,
music, arts, speech and debate. Therefore, it is important to protect
the rights for students to learn and grow as a whole, well-rounded person.
It is important that every student have a quality teacher who is doing
quality work with students. However the UEA is concerned when the approach
is to focus solely on test scores as an indication of the quality of instruction
and student learning. Just putting more pressure on students and teachers
will not get the kind of results that we want. |
