Everyone is talking about “teaching to the test.”
Teachers are frustrated. Parents are worried. Social media is full of commentary about how testing has taken over classrooms.
So let me say this clearly, as someone who works in educational measurement:
Teaching to the test is the last thing we want teachers doing.
No one becomes a psychometrician hoping to design tests that narrow instruction or turn classrooms into endless drills of test questions. We want teachers teaching meaningful content and students learning real things.
A statewide assessment is not an instructional tool.
Psychometrics is the science of measuring psychological attributes, such as intelligence or understanding. … For example, they make scores comparable from different versions of a test. And they use score data to create reports or make recommendations—such as suggesting curriculum changes for improving student performance.
Source: Purdue University
It is a measurement instrument designed to collect information about something very specific. When we start treating a data collection event as if it should drive daily instruction, we’ve missed the point entirely.
So if teaching to the test isn’t the goal, what should we be doing instead?
Teach the Standards — Not the Test
One of the most common questions teachers ask is: “What’s actually on the test?”
It’s a fair question, especially when standards documents are overwhelming.
But the reality is this: tests can only measure what is measurable in a testing environment.
Some of the most important things students learn simply cannot be captured by a standardized assessment.
- Presentation skills
- Creative expression
- Extended research
- Collaboration and discussion
Those things matter deeply for students’ futures and their ability to navigate the world beyond school.
Teaching the full breadth and depth of the standards ensures students encounter the knowledge and skills that assessments measure, while also developing the ones that cannot be tested.
If the standards are driving instruction, the test will take care of itself.
Normalize the Testing Experience
Helping students understand how testing works is not the same as teaching to the test.
Students benefit from knowing:
- what the testing platform looks like
- how to interact with the different types of items
- what test navigation and support tools are available and how they work
- what testing day(s) will look like: where they will be and when they’ll get breaks
- what they can and cannot do during testing and when they are done
This is orientation, not coaching.
When students walk into a completely unfamiliar situation, their brains spend valuable cognitive energy simply managing uncertainty. That extra cognitive load can interfere with their ability to focus on the actual questions.¹
This is one of the reasons it is so important to have a strong, predictable testing schedule for both students and administrators. For more on this topic, check out our article on Statewide Testing Schedules.
Normalizing the testing environment helps students focus on the thinking they need to do rather than the mechanics of the situation.
Notice what this preparation does not involve:
- Drilling question types
- Repeated practice tests
- Daily “test-like questions”
- Timed practice blocks
- Simulated testing sessions
- Practicing filling in bubbles or clicking answer choices
Nor does real instruction involve:
- Always choosing the longest answer
- Looking for key words in the question
- Skipping hard questions and guessing later
- If two answers are similar, choose the one with more detail
- Warning students that the test is trying to trick them
Because this is not preparation or instruction. Those tactics are a waste of precious classroom time.
Stop the Drill-and-Kill Test Prep
Practicing large sets of test-like questions rarely improves learning. At best, it helps students answer those specific questions better. And in modern testing environments, the chance of seeing the same question again is essentially zero.
Many statewide assessments now use computer adaptive testing, where question difficulty adjusts based on a student’s responses. Two students sitting next to each other may receive entirely different questions as the test adapts in real time.
Drilling specific test items doesn’t prepare students for that environment.
What prepares students is a deep understanding of the content.
Make Learning More Important Than Testing Day
Testing day is just a snapshot.
What matters far more are the hundreds of instructional days leading up to it.
- Did students have consistent access to instruction?
- Did they have time to engage with the material?
- Did they have opportunities to practice thinking deeply about the content?
Those factors matter far more than any last-minute preparation.
Ironically, many of the testing experiences students encounter in school are actually quite similar to the ones they will face as adults. Many professional certification exams and even academic entrance tests like the SAT® and PSAT-related assessments are computer-based and adaptive.³
But just like in school, the preparation that matters most happens long before the testing session begins.
Bridging the Teacher–Administrator Perspective Gap
Another reason “teaching to the test” becomes such a charged phrase is that teachers and administrators are often looking at the same issue from very different perspectives.
Teachers experience student growth at the individual level.
They see the student who finally grasps a concept after weeks of effort. They see the small steps forward that happen day by day. This progress can be so incremental it may not immediately appear in large-scale assessment data.
Administrators, however, are responsible for understanding population-level trends.
They look at patterns across classrooms, grade levels, schools, and districts. Moving those measures even a few points can represent a significant amount of collective effort.
Both perspectives are valid. They are simply operating at different scales.
The incremental growth teachers see every day is exactly what accumulates into the broader patterns administrators measure. At the same time, without those daily incremental gains supported by quality instruction, those larger measurable improvements will not happen.
This Is Where Compassionate Assessment Comes In
This is also where the Compassionate Assessment Framework becomes so important. Two parts of the framework matter especially here:
Assessment Environment
Students perform best when they understand what to expect. Clear communication about how testing works reduces anxiety and cognitive load.
Adult Attitudes and Beliefs
When teachers hear administrators talk about performance metrics without context, it can sound like pressure to teach to the test. When administrators see stagnant scores without understanding classroom-level growth, it can feel like instruction is not improving. Bridging that communication gap is essential for the system to continue to run smoothly.
Keep the Focus Where It Belongs
Standardized tests are just one way of measuring what is happening inside a school.
They cannot capture:
- The friendships students build.
- The confidence they develop.
- The creativity they express.
- The sense of safety and belonging a school community creates.
Those things matter deeply on both individual and social scales.
So as testing season approaches, keep the focus where it belongs.
- Teach the standards.
- Support learning.
- Reduce unnecessary stress.
- Help students understand what to expect.
The assessment will take care of itself.
And if you hear someone insisting that teaching to the test is the goal, take it from someone who works with these assessment systems every day: They’re wrong.
- https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/109075257/Dolmans_2022_Task_complexity_and_cognitive_load.pdf
- van der Linden, W. J., & Glas, C. A. W. (2010). Elements of Adaptive Testing. Springer. https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/37631/1/Wim%20J.%20van%20der%20Linden_2010.pdf
- https://blog.collegeboard.org/what-digital-sat-adaptive-testing
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