Barbara Bay said the tests will not drive instruction because teachers can't
look at the tests.
Barbara, is that true forever? In Ohio teachers can't look either, and
violations can invalidate the school and get the teacher fired. However,
this is only true before the test is released to the public. The tests are
not reused. Every summer the previous year's test is available on-line to
the public.
Of course next year's test will be different, but once you have a few years
of old tests to study you have a pretty good idea of what topics are covered
and what terminology is used.
My wife teaches fifth grade math. She is pleased that upon examining the
public tests for the last few years that the tests seem to follow the
standards pretty closely. If she is teaching to the standards, then she is
also teaching to the test for the most part. However, she says she has
modified her instruction a little bit because of things she noted on the
tests that were slightly different, or with higher/lower prevalance than
what she was teaching.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
1 University Drive
Bluffton, OH 45817
419.358.3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu