True or False: “Should we be “Teaching to Test?”

“Teaching to the test. . .”

There has been no single phrase recently in public education that sends parents and educators into a educational philosophical feeding frenzy as these simple words (for those keeping score at home, frenzies are typically not a good thing.) Don’t believe me? Next time you are in a public place full of parents and educators, yell it out and see what happens, or better yet, wear it on a t-shirt.  I suggest that you have your escape well-planned.

Joking aside, I think it’s important to set aside the emotions of the issue and sit back, take a deep breath, and talk about the pink elephant in the room: Is teaching to the test a bad thing? Now let me stop and make one thing clear. For those who want me or even expect me to stand as judge and jury over the issue, you will be sadly disappointed.   I will leave that to you, but before you make up your mind, I do invite you to join me over the next few weeks as I write more on the issue.  Why did I choose this subject?  Well, it is quite simple.  How we teach kids and how kids learn is at the core of education. Second, I believe that informed parents make informed decisions.

The question above is akin to another question that has troubled man for centuries; which came first, the chicken or the egg? We all know how the original question is still unanswered today (even though I am leaning heavily on the side of the chicken.) And if we are not careful, the questions about teaching and testing will go unanswered as well if we do not collectively talk about it. To get you thinking, ponder this: Let’s say you are studying for an upcoming certification exam in your chosen career field. A lot is riding on you passing it, including a significant raise. You have spent hours upon hours studying the appropriate content, specifically “XYZ”. You even took a weekend course on the subject. As you sit down to take the test, you are absolutely floored to find that none of the content you studied is on the test, and you are most notably upset at the absence of any questions about “XYZ.”  Not only do you fail, you are demoralized! There goes the big raise, the corner office, and the company car all because of that silly test! You start to think, I would have done much better if I had actually know what was on the test.  Aha!  Welcome to the debate, my friend! Did you fail because of the content (the chicken) you studied was wrong or did you fail because the test (the egg) covered the wrong thing?

Assuming the content you studied was appropriate to your field and the test you took applied to your field, the answer is quite simple. Neither the content nor the test was particularly flawed. The system of communication or the process between the content and the test was flawed. As with most failures in life, it was a simple breakdown of communication between the two. We cannot simply look to place fault upon the chicken nor the egg, we must look at the whole farm. Similarly in education, any breakdown of the link between what is taught in the classroom and what is tested can have painful consequences.  I challenge that a much more suitable question for us all would be “Are we appropriately testing what we have appropriately taught?”  and vice versa. Teaching and testing are both equally important products of the system (the farm).

The good news is this: good teachers, good administrators, and good district leaders have been focusing on these tough questions. The reality is that as tough as these questions are, they are willing to ask them and wrestle with them because it is what’s best for our kids. We tip our hats to you, educators.  I hope that over the next few weeks, my series of articles will help inform you as parents and reinforce the need to keep our children’s education at the forefront of all that we do.