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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]But teaching to an internally-administered diagnostic test is not "teaching to the test". It means you use internal testing to assess levels and is simply part of your curriculum. It is not what is meant by "teaching to the test."

Usually when people level the "teaching to the test" criticism, what they mean is that a school is seeking to raise their overall scores on a test like PARCC (the scores for which are made publicly available and thus impact the school's public perception) but teaching kids how to excel on these tests without actually providing a well rounded education. It's usually coupled with criticism of such tests, because if it can be gamed in this way, it must not be a very useful test. You are talking about a total different thing.[/quote]

I'm not sure what you mean by "internally-administered diagnostic test".  The diagnostic tests I'm referencing are mandated by DCPS and administered district-wide. The results are analyzed and dissected at each school. The goal is to raise test scores.[/quote]

Yes, because the district shares a curriculum. The diagnostic tests are part of a curriculum. The goal is to raise test scores in that you want to see that students are progressing through the curriculum, so you expect to see a child score higher on these diagnostic tests at the end of the year than at the beginning.

The test is purely for teaching purposes. It is not used for funding, scores are not publicly distributed, it is simply a tool for teachers to use to assess where students are and whether or not they are progressing.

Though I believe in DC, teachers receive evaluations based on how well their students progress, which can be controversial. But again, not a "teaching to the test" issue.

I really think you just don't understand what is being discussed here. Diagnostic tests are a very standard part of most curriculums. Otherwise how does a teacher figure out what a new student knows? You need a way to figure out whether a kid knows their letter sounds and is ready to work on blends, or if a child needs to be focusing on basic 1-10 arithmetic this year before advancing. How else would you do this?[/quote]

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