Despite being able to write about anything, having interests in thousands of subjects, hundreds of topics to provide an argument for. I always come back to one. The art of Teaching To The Test. Which is weird, because I do not want to go into to teaching, or anything educationally based for that matter. However this has always been something that has bothered me. A topic and idea that I could never agree with. A process that is destroying the American education system one course subject at a time.
I suppose now that I have introduced Teaching To The Test, I should explain what it is. It is a process that is currently running rampant through United States middle and high schools, in which the staff in charge of the STEM courses plan and arrange their course structure around state exams. During this process, the teachers choose to teach to the test, instead of teaching the subject and concepts for general knowledge and understanding. Instead, they target and arrange the “learning” process to memorize formulas and steps to get the right answers on the test.
Although this process does yield high results, and high test scores on a year to year basis, it has been shown that the students do not actually learn the subject, nor do they retain the information after the exams are over. This may not seem like a problem, however it has lead to a serious lack in general knowledge, performance on an international level as well as set backs in scientific as well as other areas.
This is a topic that needs to be addressed, a process that needs to be stopped and reformed in order to better American education as well as their international standing.
WRT 102.22: Science & Society 