The School Is Cheating: A result of teaching to the test.

We now have an incident where a local principle has been put on leave because of actions that could lead to a cheating scandal.  At this point, with so few details, it is kind of hard to determine what happened exactly, so I will not assume anything other than a group of kids has to retake a portion of the Stars test.

As I have said many times, teaching to a test, any test, is not teaching.  And these types of incidents just prove what I and many others have been saying for years.

If you teach the subject matter, you will then be able to measure the performance of the teacher, the students, and the methodology of the how the school district implements and guides teachers in executing their curriculum. There is no excuse of "well the forms we were using to teach to the test were not comprehensive,"etc.etc.....

I know that the high stakes placed on the test results are partially to blame, but testing is a way of life, and those are high stakes when it comes to livelihoods.  If the schools (school boards and administrators) were honest, our local kids would find out a couple of weeks in advance that on such and such a day there will be a state test.  There would be no pep rallies, not marching bands, just come in one day, pick up your pencil and show the world what you have learned up to this point.  

You cannot get good feedback on your process if all you are concerned with is how will I beat the test.  You should have your process designed so that the product you create is exactly what the customer (student) needs to succeed, not just create a product so it will pass some specific test during production.

So, Mr. Chief Administrator, Mr./Mrs. School Board Member, Mr./Mrs. Teacher, please quit teaching to the test, and remove the emphasis on the state test, and reapply those emphasis and efforts on teaching the subject matter.  The test will take care of itself.