Resisting the test. Problems-solvers verses test-takers.

Nike's new Scantron back to school line.

Many of our discussions in our classes have involved questions related to teaching in an environment that is set up to reward the teachers that successfully get all of theirs students through the test and how this can be done as we try to influence minds into becoming critical thinkers.

In the latest edition of EW, this topic is explored as Kelly Gallagher makes the claim that the state standards do not allow for deep and meaningful instruction that allows for the mind of students to work in a problem solving and critical way that will be required once these students are faced with real world situations.  Teaching to the test by "sprinting" through the material verses a slower and more in depth approach was looked at by researchers.  The findings showed what we would expect. The findings showed what we have brought up in class as some of our concerns about teaching to the test.  The research showed that the "sprinters" grades were better than the grades of the students who slowed down and worked in depth.  However, the study also showed that once the students moved on to college, the students that studied in depth did better and got better grades that their "sprinting" counter-parts.

This article addresses the teacher assessment problem, as well as the understanding that is being made clearer each day by  studies such as the one sited here, that we are creating a system that rewards mediocre teachers and devalues the kind of teaching that we would like to see in our classrooms.  The kind of classrooms we would like to see where our students to come away with minds that are capable of problems solving.  The kind of classrooms where our students learn to come away prepared to ask critical questions about the world around them.   The kind of classrooms where our students are prepared to be more than test takers.  Don't we?