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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Where are the parents in all of this?[/quote]

It’s gross exaggeration by parents who have never sent their kids to these schools and are spreading unsubstantiated gossip. Does it actually seem realistic that schools just skip big chunks of the standard curriculum for years on end? Of course not. If a cohort seems particularly crappy at test taking, then I’m sure they spend more time on test taking skills and prep. But that doesn’t mean that that’s ALL they do or that the advanced group is stuck doing the same thing. As with all matters, take what you read on DCUM with a very large grain of salt.[/quote]

It may be an exaggeration since a lot of the “teaching to test” schools still have very bad scores.[/quote]

Lol that’s how you know it’s an exaggeration. But it’s mostly trotted out when you have a school that performs higher than people think it should for it’s demographics, and people can’t believe that it could actually be the teachers and school itself.[/quote]

This. A few years ago LT hit it out of the park on PARCC scores. Go back and look at DCUM. The Brent, Maury and other groups that never heard the term "rising tide lifts all ships" went ballistic and were convinced that either there was cheating or LT was just "teaching to the test". Subtext was that poorer and browner kids couldn't possibly have scored that well. [/quote]

I noticed there was less of this response this year when LT again had stellar test scores even after the pandemic shut downs and instead people just keep talking about how LT is a great school.

One problem with this attitude that "teaching to the test" is so terrible is that ignores the fact that test-taking skills can be vital life skills for people and can help them down the road. An elementary school that teaches test-taking skills is helping set kids up to do better on college admissions exams which can afford them more options down the road. Great test-taking skills can make it easier to get merit aid for college and can make it easier to pass professional board exams.

A lot of the same UMC people who deride public schools that "teach to the test" will enroll their children in test prep courses and tutoring later on with no sense of irony.[/quote]

Wow, I can’t believe people are justifying schools spending an inordinate amount of time, some all year, teaching test taking skills.  That’s ridiculous.  It takes away time from actual teaching substance and content.  That’s sad.

If you know the answer and it’s obvious, you don’t need any inordinate amount of time on test taking skills.  This should not be one of the main focus of a classroom.

Lastly, no the majority of UMC people don’t enroll their kids in prep courses for PARCC.   A small minority might for SAT in high school or something like that.  Also if a kid is behind and needs tutoring, you actually think the tutor is teaching test taking skills??  Seriously?  The tutor is teaching content, comprehension, analysis, etc…

I grew up poor and was a FARMS kids.  Parents like PP do nothing to help similar kids in justifying what is wrong with a lot of school, one of which is teaching to the test.  I did well because I had a good curriculum full of content and analysis. I did well because I was challenged with appropriate material. There was no emphasis on test taking skills.[/quote]

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