What does "teaching to the test" mean to you?

[MSNative]

Really, I'm not trying to be obtuse and I feel rather foolish asking this, but I am unclear what people mean when they say this. Help. I "teach to the test." I plan a unit that we are going to study, decide what core info my kids need to learn and then create a test that will evaluate whether or not they learned the info. Then I teach them with that in mind. The test serves as a road map for me. I'm sensing that this is not what people have in mind when they mention teaching to the test.

 

What does "teaching to the test" mean to you?

[Dawn in OH]

Really, I'm not trying to be obtuse and I feel rather foolish asking this, but I am unclear what people mean when they say this. Help. I "teach to the test." I plan a unit that we are going to study, decide what core info my kids need to learn and then create a test that will evaluate whether or not they learned the info. Then I teach them with that in mind. The test serves as a road map for me. I'm sensing that this is not what people have in mind when they mention teaching to the test.

 

What does "teaching to the test" mean to you?

 

When I hear "teaching to the test" I think of public school. It conjures up the idea, in my head, of teachers and schools only teaching the students the things they are going to need to know to pass the standardized tests and barely covering, if not skipping entirely, subjects or topics that will not be on the test.

 

I never think of "teaching to the test" in a homeschool environment.

 

Given your description of planning a unit and a correlating test, I do the exact same thing.

[Tap]

Lack of open ended questions/answer opportunities.

 

Only one answer can be correct.

 

Regurgitation of facts not context.

 

Assessment methods used during class time resemble testing forms with dots to color in or multiple choice answers.

 

Lack of integration between subjects.

 

Vocabulary definitions are more important that the meaning. (again only one answer is correct)

 

Giving the child the correct answers before exam often in the form of study guides that are identical to the test. So they only review the 'important, need to know," information.

 

Discouraging appropriate discussions and questions from the student to the teacher (ooops it may go off topic so that can't be allowed).

 

 

 

 

Little to no hands on opportunities.

[dansamy]

Having gone through nursing school, which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy because it's a huge pain in the rear, I can attest to the fact that simple regurgitation of facts as required on standardized testing does no one any favors. There were so many young women in my nursing classes who were unable to think critically, defend their position or extrapolate an outcome based on a scenario. All of which you need to be able to do to safely care for a sick patient.

 

Today's public education system churns out students who expect to be given a set of facts. They expect they will be asked to memorize these facts and be able to spit them back out on a test. They expect the test to ask them for this information. That is "teaching to the test".

 

Knowledge-based questions may be normal in other courses of study. I do not know since I went with nursing. Nursing school will require application-based mastery of the knowledge. You must be able to identify the components of a problem, contributing factors, predict an outcome and implement an intervention to manipulate the outcome in a positive manner for a living, breathing patient.

 

It's great that I know that a blood glucose level of 25 is a critically low value. But that knowledge does not help the combative, disoriented, confused patient getting ready to code on me if I don't get my rear in gear and get some sugar into him.

 

My experience with nursing school and witnessing my own children's educational objectives in the public school system, along with the adverse social environment of the middle school, are what have prompted me to explore homeschooling as a viable option for my family. It's my goal to produce adults that can think for themselves. Teaching to the test does not accomplish that goal.

[snickelfritz]

When I taught public middle school algebra, my kids got pulled out of my class for a two day crash course on art theory. Because it would be on the standardized test. That's what teaching to the test means to me.

[Melissa in FL]

When my son was in K the teacher had a set of things that she had to have all her kids know for the fourth grade state test. She was drilling the kids in different parts of punctuation when half the class couldn't even read a sentence. I thought it was stupid. This teacher put more into making sure the kids knew what "!" meant than what the sentence said. That was one example of how she "taught to the test". Teachers who teach to the test focus on those few things that the children need to know in order to pass the test instead of what the children really need to know.

Melissa

[Melinda in VT]

I remember one clear example of being taught to the test. I was a junior in high school. Our English final was written by someone at the district level.

 

My (excellent) English teacher said, "For some reason, they think you need to know how long Huck was under water. The answer is X." (I've since forgotten.)

 

But that was one point on a 100-point test.

[Lara in Colo]

Teaching to the test means that the state thinks you need to know, A.C. Y.Z so who cares about the rest of the alphabet. We can touch on them, but really this is what we focus on the whole year.

 

Lara

[Ellie]

It means checking to see what's on the tests and making sure to cover just those things, especially standardized tests which are government-mandated.

 

I rarely tested my children. I wanted them to learn as many things as possible, to have a wide variety of interests so they would find their passions; I believed that would best prepare them for life. It was not my goal to emulate public (or private) school in any way (other than using grade level-labels in certain circumstances). I might have felt differently if I'd lived in a state that required more accountability; probably it's a good thing that I didn't, lol.

 

The couple of times they were tested, they were at or above grade level. Both did exceedingly well in college, and both are mature, responsible, productive adults today, who still like to do all sorts of different things. :-)

[mommycheryl]

To me, teaching to the test is being more concerned about test results than actual retained information/knowledge. Unfortunately, when school funding, rankings, etc are based on those scores, it becomes the top motivator to administration.

 

Last year in 5th grade, my DD wasted 6 weeks on End of Grade exams. :confused: Two weeks review, one week of test, a couple of days of kids being sent to the playground so the teachers could meet about how to handle the remedial review and testing for those who failed, and the remaining time was used to stuff information into the heads of those whose failed and retest them. My DD spent that time reading or watching videos in a classroom.

 

As a parent, I was steamed about how much of my DD time in school was just wasted because actually passed her tests. As a parent and tax payer, who had recently used all the school ratings based on scores when evaluating schools when moving, I am really not happy to have the 2nd test scores used to represent the academic standing of the school. When 50% fail the Science EOG the first time, showing 80% because of the remedial testing is grossly inaccurate.

[tex-mex]

When I taught public middle school algebra, my kids got pulled out of my class for a two day crash course on art theory. Because it would be on the standardized test. That's what teaching to the test means to me.

 

:iagree: Or using a pre-test booklet for the students to learn how to take a standardized test. That is teaching to the test. It should ideally be taken cold w/o prompts or pre-tests like the TAKS.

[Mejane]

In our district it essentially meant giving students the answers to questions exactly like those that would be on the test. This according to my daughter who recognized it in fourth grade. :glare:

[6packofun]

To me it means I don't have the freedom to teach what I want, when I want because a scope and sequence and/or set of standards (state or national) is guiding the majority of our school content. To me it's a strait jacket to the individualized education of my children.

 

It's funny how well our children test every year without any regard to what they "should" be learning in first grade, second grade, third grade... LOL

[lovemyboys]

My funniest example was when ds was in preschool. He used to cut out those teeny-tiny pictures of books in the Scholastic order forms. While we met the teacher before school started, he sat and cut out a whole pile and handed them to her.

 

When I got an eval from the teacher several months later, "handling scissors well" was not checked. When I asked the teacher, she replied that she knew he could but it "hadn't been evaluated yet."

 

So I guess it didn't exist. :lol:

 

 

Locally, one friend's class had a short review lesson on filling in answer bubbles completely. :001_huh:

 

 

Others (3tap, ellie, cheryl) here gave more specific philosophical answers which do address why this is detrimental to education. It's an unfortunate trend. There's so much hue-and-cry for accountability, I doubt that these types of tests will go away anytime soon.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

For me, the phrase means nothing more than preparing your child for a test. Making sure that you have taught the necessary concepts so that the child does well on the test.

 

When I go over thoroughly go over the Review Exercises in my child's Algebra text with him, I am preparing him to do well on the end of chapter test. In MY mind, I'm teaching to the test.

 

For teachers however, it seems to mean a lot of different things, such as:

 

- Cramming unrelated facts into students just a few weeks before the state tests. OR

- Looking at the state standards and seeing how they relate to your lesson plans and integrating them into your teaching throughout the year.

 

- Complaining rights when your students do poorly (the test is so awful). OR

- Bragging rights when your students do well (the test is so accurate!).

 

- The reason you can't do dioramas or fun activities after spring break. BUT

- The reason you CAN schedule nothing but parties, show movies and go on field trips for the last 4 weeks of school and no one will look at you sideways.:glare:

[MSNative]

Thank you all for the thoughtful responses. I appreciate the clarity. It is a messy situation, isn't it? There does need to be some way to ensure that kids are learning, imo, but the tests and the handling of the tests seem horrible. I'm so glad y'all shared your stories so I could understand better how bad it really has gotten.

When I was in school we had end of year tests and it didn't seem to be a problem. The teachers taught what they taught which I guess was dictated in some measure by the tests, but I was never given a study guide or a bunch of unrelated facts just to pass. It was more like - hey, 4th grade you'll learn multiplication and division, writing paragraphs, etc. Then we got tested on the basics of those. We still had lots of time to go on rabbit trails, delve into subjects - I still remember that we spent a month studying the economy of Java in 4th grade.

What do you think changed? Bad test? Changes in funding linked to tests? Asking teachers to teach too much? Societal (students and parents) values changed? My bad/naive memory about it all?

[Photo Ninja]

Another example of teaching to the test:

 

A local middle school grade level was taught all year to write compare/contrast essays. That was the only writing they did the entire year because that would be the type of writing evaluated on the end of year standardized test. The students were very proficient at writing compare/contrast essays. The test day came for the writing test, and the essay was a different type. The students in that grade did poorly on the test and the teachers and administrators were furious. Their school received a lower ranking on writing ability than they wanted. They blamed the county for giving them bad information about the test. Now it would not have been a problem if they had taught the students how to write all types of essays - something that would actually be educating the students - but they wanted a high score on writing for the school so they taught to the test - to what they thought would be the type of writing. They failed the students because they only taught one type of writing. Had they taught students to write reviews, persuasive, narrative writing the students would not have collectively failed the writing test because they would have been taught to write. Teaching to the test results in a poor, narrow, shallow education.

 

What changed? More of an emphasis on test scores as an evaluation tool. Funding is associated with test scores and so called improved test scores. Teachers are increasingly being evaluated based on student test scores. Schools are evaluated based on test scores and money is associated with that. If they fail according to standards the schools, teachers and administrators suffer penalties. Thus teachers teach to the test in order to achieve high enough school rankings based on test scores and to keep their jobs.