No Quick Fixes

“Every spring, education-related newspaper and magazine stories raise the alarm that schools are teaching to the test. Scores of articles and editorials paint a disheartening picture of frustrated teachers forced to abandon good instructional practices for a relentless stream of worksheets based on boring, repetitive test-preparation materials.”  Craig Jerald

It’s hard for teachers to stay the course and pursue real learning and teaching in an era of high stakes testing even though they know test preparation materials and an inordinate amount of review do not provide a rich and meaningful education.  Despite the advertisements from test preparation companies, there are no quick fixes to raise test scores or increase student achievement.  As in the tale of the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race.  So, instead of focusing on hitting the test prep hard, fast, and for a prolonged period of time, focus on these key areas.

Align Instruction-Classroom instruction must be based on the state or national standards.  Follow these.  They are set out for you.  How you teach them is based on what you know is best for your students.  Bone up on best practices for your subject area(s).

Use Formative Assessment-Make your own tests and use classwork to gain insight into where your students’ strengths and weaknesses are.  Watch how they process information when they solve a problem.  Take notes as you work with them or watch them work with others.  These types of informal and formative assessments give the most immediate and useful feedback.

Real World Examples-As often as possible connect what you are teaching to something in the real world.  “Why do I need to learn to write a persuasive piece?  Why do I need to learn different reading strategies?  What’s the reasoning behind reading Shakespeare?  How will I ever use algebra in my life?”  When anybody realizes why something is important/will be important, they take more of an interest in the subject matter.  If you can’t figure out why something is important to learn but you have to teach it, do a little digging on the Internet to figure out its long term benefits.

Motivate Students-Use all of your creative ideas when planning a unit of study.  Think about what excites your students and how you can use that to teach a new concept.  Bring in as much movement and activity as you can.  Remember all of those long meetings you have to sit through, and think of how you would have loved to have gotten up and moved around.  Your students feel the same way maybe even more so.

Plow Ahead-Push through with what you know about best practices.  Believe in what you’re doing.  This gives you at least one area you can control in this world of high stakes testing.  Do what you know works.

“Don’t give up!  The testing mania wears you down, doesn’t it? And it’s tempting to say, ‘Okay, you win, testing company! We’ll practice answering multiple-choice questions all day long…’ But you know your students deserve a rich experience in your classroom and lessons that get them excited about learning.”   Mary Ellen Flannery