Teaching With the Test, Not to the Test

By Amy H. Greene & Glennon Doyle Melton

A few years ago at Annandale Terrace Elementary, a top-notch Title I school in Fairfax County, Va., we learned that we had not made “adequate yearly progress” on our state tests, as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Our passionate and progressive staff was stunned. Not making AYP meant that parents could send their children to other schools. We never doubted the potential and abilities of our students; we knew the problem lay elsewhere, and, as a staff, we knew we had to take a long, hard look at our attitudes and approaches to the test.

The first question we asked ourselves was, “Why do our kids need to pass standardized tests at all?” After much soul-searching, we had to admit that state and federal pressures were not the only reasons students needed to learn to pass tests. Test-taking is a life skill. While we believed that the test was biased against our students, many of whom came from low-income families and spoke English as a second language, we also knew that much of their academic and professional futures would be determined by their performance on similarly flawed tests. Many would need to pass tests to get into college and to further their careers. Professions from restaurant employee to certified public accountant to teacher require success on tests just to get in the door.

We decided it was our duty to do everything we could to help our students beat this test—everything, that is, except give...