Title: What's so bad about teaching to the test? | Parenting
Headings: What’s so bad about teaching to the test?
What’s so bad about teaching to the test?
Is teaching to the test bad?
No Child Left Behind puts testing on the front burner
It’s all about alignment
Some test-taking skills are important to learn
Tests can be used as diagnostic tools
Focus on the tests brings attention to state standards
When there isn’t alignment, there are problems
Where does teaching critical thinking fit in?
Is there too much emphasis on the tests?
High stakes mean high risks
Tests are here to stay
Questions to ask at your school

Content: It’s expensive to align testing with curriculum and they are not willing to make the investment. They want something cheap, which is not necessarily good. They cut and paste parts of tests used in other states. To create good tests, they need to involve teachers and give them release time from the classroom to help create tests, and that becomes very expensive for states to do that properly.” Test results alone don’t tell the whole story, notes Raymond. In the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, they are looking at quantitative measures (the test scores) and qualitative measures (attendance, writing assessments, literacy-building activities across the curriculum) to see how schools and students are performing. “ We’re trying to dig deeper,” he says. Where does teaching critical thinking fit in? Some teachers feel that the emphasis on testing takes away time from teaching critical thinking and problem solving. Steven Weinberg, a teacher on special assignment in Oakland, California, where a major part of his job is “helping teachers teach to the test,” says: “