Teaching has been fine tuned into “teaching to the test”. Eliminating important material in chapters knowing that it will not be tested and in turn focusing on material that will be tested. Testing has turned away from teachers learning from their students tests and seeing how they need to improve their teaching styles and methods. Teaching has turned into focusing on subject matter that will help students be prepared for a test. “ The core problem isn’t a particular format. It’s the predictability and limited scope of standardized tests.” (108)
Schools prep for tests in a number of ways. Class time may be cut short on those classes that are not involved in testing. Teachers are pressured to raise test scores so in turn subject matter deemed not important to the test is skipped or cut back on. Unfortunately some of the material that is being cut and deemed unimportant is important information for students to know. And in the long run may make them less competent in a field. So for instance more time on math may create a strong math student, but in turn less time is spent on science and reading creating an unbalanced curriculum.
Another type of test prep is reallocating time. Harping on content that is known to be tested. The importance here is not the content that is emphasized and instructed, but that is pushed aside. Analyzing past tests and knowing what material has had a heavier emphasis on what is tested. This does not only happen in an academic environment. It was pointed out that car manufacturers found out that drivers sides would be tested, the focused on safety on the driver’s side. In turn, the passenger’s side did not get the same safety upgrades as the driver’s side. At the time, the safety score was assumed to be for the entire car, but it actually was not. Back to tests, “For more than two decades, teachers have been reporting in studies that they cut back on important material, including content explicitly included in their curriculum , because it doesn’t help them on the test.” Overall, reallocation helps to inflate scores. Spending a lot of time and teaching to content that is known subject matter on a test leads toward mastery and inflated tests scores.
Coaching students to score well on a test requires analysis. Knowing how specific questions are going to be tested. Will the math concept be tested by means of a graph, specifically what kind of graph? And how will the answer be scored. Coaching directly to the style of the test and not necessarily on the thorough understanding of the material. Understanding the material outside of the specific way it is thought to be tested may not be mastered. Students who thoroughly know the material should be able to attack the information in a number of ways. Using the process of elimination is a good strategy when taking a multiple choice test, but just because the student got the right answer through process of elimination does not mean that the student knows the correct answer, they just knew which ones were wrong. Teaching kids math equations, for example, not through real life examples but in a way to make test answer come quicker and correct. Students are instructed to immediately write formulas on the top of test paper and memorize lists of words.
My role was looking into score inflation. Score inflation is used more in areas that serve high concentrations of students and students with disabilities. Score inflation was meant to help the students do better. But in reality it just demoralized them, made them feel like they were not good enough.
Without a doubt teaching for the test benefits nobody in the long run. You will not remember what you learned after you took the test. Teachers should be teachers should be teaching their students life skills that will help them in college and later in life.
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