Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Teaching to the Test
Should teachers teach to the test? That is a big question with many different opinions. Teachers today are instructed to “teach to the test.” They do this by drilling the students. This can become a problem because students will only learn what they need to for the test, leaving out other important knowledge they will need for their future. I my opinion, teaching to the test is not letting students learn critical thinking skills. Instead they are learning the necessary information to pass the test. I believe when teachers are teaching to the test, it limits their creativity in the classroom. Teachers train their students to perform well on these tests by drilling them on different methods. Although teaching children to the test shows better scores, it doesn’t measure the teacher’s performance with instruction or students abilities.
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With the enactment of the No Child Left Behind it imposed new mandates and put strong emphasis on high-stakes testing. Many states are finding it nearly impossible to meet the goals required in the NCLB Act. These new mandates have changed the school system as we know it, changing the traditional teaching methods to forcing teachers to "teach to the test". Now the main goal of our education system is to achieve high scores on the mandated testing, thereby eliminating the teaching of critical thinking skills, reducing teacher innovation and creative instruction. With all the emphasis on high-stakes testing and “teaching to the test”, it seems as though children are being robbed of their childhood in order to meet the mandates of the legislation. In many schools recess is becoming a thing of the past. Schools are using recess time to prepare students for high-stakes testing. Recess is a vital part of a student’s health, mentally and physically. It allows students to interact with other students and increase their social skills. Also to make more instructional time to prepare students for high-stakes testing schools are cutting back on physical education, music and art classes. “Teaching to the test” has changed the landscape of elementary schools as we once knew it.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that teaching has become teaching the test because of accountability and funding. However, I do not believe it is so extreme. I do believe NCLB has good potential. The problem is, who is going to do so. The teacher can still teach and if they are teaching adequately, there would be no reason to teach the test. The students would already know the information.
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