Teaching the test is a waste of time

By Dan Cahoon
Posted Friday, June 22, 2007

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Moncure, NC - Public schools in North Carolina (and almost all states) use a common curriculum that breaks down the individual strands of a subject area into supposedly developmentally appropriate sections. Every few years those "curricula" are modified to reflect new theories of learning and development or to prepare students earlier for higher level thinking (i.e. -learning fractions before algebra, etc.).

In North Carolina we also have an End of Grade test that measures (supposedly) the achievement of students on a given curricular year. Teachers are supposed to teach the curriculum and let the test measure the student, but it rarely happens that way. Teachers do not see the test until the testing day but many spend the second semester of the school year "teaching to the test". In other words, teaching young children how to maneuver through the jargon filled structure created by the NCDPI (NC Department of Public Instruction). Efforts to make the test "rigorous" include the addition of new vocabulary, concepts, and syntax (how the question is framed). The test is continually modified and corrected for bias and validity (so they say).

Every few years the curriculum is altered to the point where certain concepts are moved either up or down the continuum of learning (ie. up or down a grade level). New Tests are then developed that reflect that change.

Last year the curriculum changed midstream. I was teaching the old curriculum and the new curriculum at the same time. My third graders were struggling with second grade math concepts and the entire concept of a ninety minute EOG test. Teachers call this test an endurance test. The kids are given a test that does not reflect any experience that they have ever had and are required to read all questions and understand them (despite reading levels that should also alarm anyone who knows how tests work). Research has shown that good readers perform much better on math tests than do poor readers. Every test is a reading test (if the test taker has to read the questions).

Last year the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students at my school were given a field test at the beginning of the year. This field test contained questions based on the "new" curriculum. Very few students performed up to expectations on this test, but hey, we knew that third graders wouldn't do well (it's all new to them) and the rest were just rusty from the summer. The kicker was that the EOG test also contained field questions, BUT TEACHERS HAD NO CLUE HOW MUCH OR WHAT TYPE OF FIELD QUESTIONS WOULD BE ON THE EOG!. I saw questions so poorly worded and obfiscated that I doubt many on this chatlist (or in our legislature) could answer them correctly. The questions are designed to make the test taker use higher level thinking to solve them. I call that
"tricking the test taker". Frankly, third graders are the most gullible test takers in the universe. They will fall for anything, and if they can't read then.....

So the reason ALL schools took a big hit last year and probably this year is that the test and curriculum were changed midstream. We all are trying to adjust our expectations for performance based on the new data. It would be like changing the money policy at the Fed. Just how much is our dollar worth? Just what does this new percentage of passing students mean?

I know it means that the test is not a reflection of learning in North Carolina. I know that the EOG is the stupidest measure of student achievement that could possibly be used. As a teacher, I see how harmful our reliance upon this instrument is to student progress. The students are not learning math, they are learning how to take a math test. They are not learning how to read for pleasure and information but how to pick out the right answer for a biased and invalid reading test. It is just a bad way to do business. I wonder who out there could pass the 5th grade EOG's. I predict a low number.

The most accurate measure of student achievement can be made authentically, that is, the student is measured in the same manner in which they are instructed. Teaching the test is a waste of time. It does not stick and it takes teachers away from real teaching.

The ABC's, EOG, NCLB (No child left behind) are all very useful for politicians and beaurocrats but are absolutely worthless to teachers, parents and students.