The Ambiguity of Teaching to the Test Standards

56 MONFILS ET AL.
And I learned that the children need to do the things hands on, because they
need to see it, they need to feel it, they need to understand it. And basically
everything in my classroom, to the best of my ability, I try to do it hands on.
Use the terms that are in the ESPA. I do a lot of research. I read a lot of things
that are expected on the ESPA. And I just try to bring it. Unfortunately it
sounds like that I’m teaching to the test, but in a way I am. I mean I know
you’re not supposed to do that, but I believe that you need to, if we need to
meet these standards.
At least one special-needs district in our sample supplements the classroom
teacher’s instruction. Children receive additional whole-class test preparation
in the month before ESPA by the in-house basic skills teacher and by an
outside consultant, both of whom drill students on ESPA-like problems
drawn from a commercial test preparation book.
Although many teachers in the least advantaged districts perceive the test
to be a force for improving instruction, some express doubts about fairness.
One teacher in a special-needs (low-wealth) district expressed praise for the
ESPA, but also talked of the constraints faced by teachers in her district:
And in my classroom the ESPA, and the accountability issues of the ESPA for
myself and for my students, have made me a better teacher …. I was very
pleased with the fact that I was allowed to include both math and technology
aspects in my PIP [Professional Improvement Plan] because I was able to indicate
that I wanted to improve student growth in math. Not through text study
and worksheet completion but through problem-solving activities that was
sometimes not finished in a day.
She told us that her students’ scores went up after she stopped teaching
exclusively from a math text and started using TERC Investigations (materials
developed by the Technology Education Research Center with funding
from the National Science Foundation), and some of the activities she
learned in her graduate courses and professional development workshops.
She pointed out that a shortage of materials had been an ongoing problem in
her district, so teachers set up a lending system. Her district offered graduate
credit through one of the local colleges, and provided professional development
workshops on math or “ESPA math” every 2 to 3 weeks at each grade
level. Participating teachers requested to have manipulatives distributed in
lieu of stipends.
As an Abbott district 1 adopting a whole school reform model, teachers in
this district were under pressure to change their practice to increase test
scores. District administrators visited classrooms with checklists of what
they wanted to see in terms of materials, instructional approaches such as
small-group work, posted standards and rubrics, and displays of student
work. This pressure filtered into classroom practice. In her colleague’s class-