While reading the Wagner book, something mentioned in chapter one caught my eye. Throughout this chapter, Wagner is discussing how there is a global achievement gap between middle class schools and lower economic class schools. The argument that the schools are struggling with "teaching to the test" so that their students perform well enough to keep the schools from failing under the No Child Left Behind Act is quite apparent in the schools today, even with the NCLB starting to be phased out. I taught in a school last semester that would be considered a higher economic class and high achieving school. In this school, we spent most of our time asking questions, analyzing literature, and building the skills up for the students for reading, writing, grammar, and speaking. There was almost no teaching to the test. The students were expected to pass the CAHSEE, and no time was spent on specifically teaching to this test. It was almost as if the students were already performing way above that test, so they did not need to bring themselves down to study for it. There was one day spent on teaching for a practice SBAC test, but it was not highly regarded as important...This semester, I am at a low achieving, low socio-economic school. This school spends a lot of time teaching to the test. Teachers are frustrated that they are asked to spend so much time out of their schedules to teach specifically for the CAHSEE. Students even take classes that teach them test taking skills to pass the CAHSEE. They are not taught the material on the test...they are merely taught skills on how to blindly pick multiple choice answers that will help them pass. This is appalling to me. The Principle places so much emphasis on teachers preparing their students just to perform well on tests, not to perform well in life. Students need to ask questions more and be comfortable with speaking with and in front of others. As mentioned by Wagner, employers find engaging and questioning people to be the most valuable. With the roll out of the common core, it is argued on whether or not there is going to be more or less testing. I hope that schools will be able to focus more on building upon what the students are learning, and engaging them in the joy of learning, rather than putting so much emphasis on teaching to the tests.
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