Rev. Romal J. Tune: Teaching to the Test and Calling It Success Is Like Landscaping Ghettos and Calling Them Condos
We are constantly hearing arguments from school boards and politicians on why student performance on tests should be an indicator of success and used to evaluate teachers. The assumption is that if students are passing tests then they must be learning. That's a very dangerous assumption.
Just because a child passes a test doesn't mean he or she has become a critical thinker, understands how processes work, is creative or able to conceptualize ideas. It simply means they passed a test. It assumes that if it looks good then it must be good. In the end, we may very well be doing nothing more than using the proverbial esthetically appealing garment of good test scores to cover up the unsightly fact that our children are not excelling inside or outside the class.
If we're not careful, the only problem teaching to the test will have solved is the desire to look as if we're attacking the problem when we are instead ignoring the root causes. It's like someone who exhibits symptoms of being sick, never goes to see a doctor because they are afraid of what they might hear, the symptoms
Just because a child passes a test doesn't mean he or she has become a critical thinker, understands how processes work, is creative or able to conceptualize ideas. It simply means they passed a test. It assumes that if it looks good then it must be good. In the end, we may very well be doing nothing more than using the proverbial esthetically appealing garment of good test scores to cover up the unsightly fact that our children are not excelling inside or outside the class.
If we're not careful, the only problem teaching to the test will have solved is the desire to look as if we're attacking the problem when we are instead ignoring the root causes. It's like someone who exhibits symptoms of being sick, never goes to see a doctor because they are afraid of what they might hear, the symptoms
