Education Law

Teaching to the Test: Not Such a Bad Thing, Sometimes

The phrase 'teaching to the test' usually brings shivers up the spines of most teachers, but to one English teacher there is a test she doesn't mind teaching to. Her name is Erica Jacobs and she writes in the DC Examiner why she loves teaching to the Advanced Placement (AP) Literature test. Her reasoning-- the test is designed to give teachers the freedom to use the texts they love as long as students are exposed to writing in each of the last four centuries. This enables Ms. Jacobs and other AP teachers to focus more on teaching their students to examine how an author writes effectively, instead of regurgitating facts from a book.

These analytical skills are what students need now. Unfortunately, too many tests today don't focus on analytical and problem solving skills. This makes 'teaching to the test' such a bad thing for so many teachers. However, if Congress provided more funds to states to develop better tests like the AP Literature test, then maybe teachers would be happy to teach to the test and our students would be better off for it.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on July 10, 2008 (boomark / email).