Teaching to the Test
Is teaching to the test a bad thing? The answer depends on the test in question. If it's a well-constructed test that actually measures what a student should have learned, teaching to the test is a good idea. You would be teaching what the students should already be learning through the curriculum. Aside from a few days of specific preparation for the test questions, teachers would not have to make major changes to their lessons.
Today, high-stakes tests are being used more and more often to evaluate teacher performance. It's a good idea to work with the other teachers at your school to come up with a plan for improving test scores among your students. If your school is deemed to be underperforming, this could have personal consequences for you.
On the other hand, if the test in question is poorly constructed, and it does not measure what students should have learned, then teaching to the test means that educators are not teaching students what they need to know. Instead of following the state and national standards, teachers might only include information relevant to the test. This is especially true when the stakes involved are high. Therefore, these students might become excellent at taking a particular test, but they will fail to understand what they should really be learning.
Testing is not inherently bad. However, students must be tested on the information that they should have learned in the first place. Only when this occurs will “teaching the curriculum” and “teaching to the test” mean the same thing.
