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I made the point in my last posting that teaching to the test in and of itself is not such a bad thing.

This brings me to my second point on this topic: which type of test?

It gets dicey when teachers are required by their state, district or whomever to teach all year long to the SAME TYPE of test, in particular the big standardized, multiple choice examination (SAT anyone?).

I have done research in schools where students spent hours practicing only the bubbling technique on practice scantrons. And I am not talking about second-graders who might need some help learning the technique. This was in a middle school.

Again, I do not see a problem with test-prep per se. Many of us took SAT or GRE test prep courses. There are techniques that all students need to learn to take this type of multiple choice test.

But I do see a problem when the bulk of an entire school year is spent preparing students for ONE multiple choice test. Students quickly become disinterested in learning for its own sake when they figure out that all anyone really cares about are the test scores. This ends up KILLING students' natural curiosity.

Part of a good education is being exposed to a variety of teaching styles and techniques as well as a variety of assessments, especially the more authentic assessments such as writing portfolios, projects, debates, essay exams, short answer tests, or projects involving technology.

In short, teaching to the test generally works. Test scores go up.

But if it involves teaching to only one type of test, in particular multiple choice tests, student interest goes down. Way down.