Blogs of the Week

The Most Misunderstood Strategy in Education

Repeating something often enough does not make it true. This axiom has particular relevance in the debate over how to improve test scores in today’s accountability movement. In this context, no phrase is as overused and misunderstood as “teaching to the test.” Let’s suppose English teachers want their students to be able to write a persuasive essay in which they provide evidence to support a thesis. It behooves teachers to provide their students with practice doing precisely that. That’s sound pedagogy. Yet technically, it is also...