Reply to What does "teaching to the test" really mean?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "What does "teaching to the test" really mean?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]The problem isn't just teaching to the test.  It's the combination of Common Core, PARRC, and ANET, plus additional assessments.

Testing takes a huge bite out of the school year.  Take a look at the DCPS assessment calendar. It's nuts and it's incredibly disruptive to the school routine, especially when you consider the administrative task of providing accommodations.

Then you have the dilemma of what to do with all this data. Spoiler alert, unless you're using it to sort students or evaluate teachers, it's basically useless. Plus, it's not terribly accurate.  We have huge problems with test nullification.  Students just refuse to take the test, or they guess, or they mess with the laptops.

One year we were instructed to focus on the constructed responses because a large percentage of students just didn't write them. We spend a lot of effort teaching students how to analyze a prompt and how to use a formula to answer the prompt. If this isn't teaching to the test, what is it?

Then you have Common Core. If you actually read the standards you notice that most of them are nonsense, especially in ELA. The ELA standards were developed by consultants that weren't even educators. And yet, teachers are compelled to use this dubious data and common core standards to develop lessons with the goal of raising test scores on PARRC.

Most high-SES students don't really have a problem with all this testing.  It's unfortunate that they are missing out on what could be a compelling, content-rich curriculum. But they survive.  The students who are harmed the most by Common Core-ANET-PARRC are low-SES students who really need a rich curriculum in order to improve their reading comprehension.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics