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Teaching to the Test is not a bad thing -- if the test is good.

The problem is that so many of these state-mandated tests are bad. Then the schools are stuck teaching dumb stuff to kids and losing opportunities to teach the stuff that would really benefit the kids.

The solution: FIX THE TEST!

Then, teaching to the test would be exactly the right thing to do, because the test would meaure skills that we desperately want our children to have.

But it begs the question: Why are these tests so bad? And so hard to fix?

The answer: The tests are created by Teachers Unions which want the tests to be an abomination, so that little childen will suffer, so that school reform will fail, so that the unions will get more money, which will be spent to hire more administrators, who will be told to go study the problem.

Fix the tests. The rest will follow.

I honestly think the opposite. The teachers don't write tests to make their kids fail because the consequences would be too high. The teachers teach the test because they are afraid their kids will fail.

The reality is that the problem schools will continue to be problem schools. Schools fed with families that don't care about education will continue to fail no matter how many staff changes are made. The problem identified here is that when school district priorities are to "pass the test" then smart kids suffer. Smart kids don't need tests that they could already pass, they need curricula that challenges them and lets them meet their potential.

Test results are needed to show schools what they need to work on, not be the sole input driving the curricula. My personal soapbox on this issue is that the people writing elementary curricula have spent way too much time trying to make it fun and not enough time teaching the basics. Once that opportunity to learn the basics is lost you end up with students in high school that understand the subjects being taught, but lack the basic skills to solve the problem, or communicate the answer. Timed mathematics tests, flash cards, etc. may seem tedious but it worked for me.

"The answer: The tests are created by Teachers Unions which want the tests to be an abomination,..."

While I agree that the tests are created by the Teachers Union, I belive they created a test they could teach too rather than being an abomination.