The phrase "teaching to test" is repeated as if it were a bad thing to test students on what has been taught. Wrong. It would be a bad thing to test students on what has not been taught--for instance, to spend weeks talking about what everyone did on vacation, and then test students on material that should have been covered during the vacation discussions.
As for teaching just to improve scores on standardized tests ( achievement tests ), this is probably not possible. The teacher might drill students all day in vocabulary and basic math skills, and that might, or should, improve standardized test scores. But since the teacher doesn't know what the questions on the standardized test are going to be, this could not really be "teaching to test". Drilling in vocabulary and math would be a vast improvement, anyway, on drilling in "imagination and creativity"--which are not covered on standardized tests.
The emphasis a teacher places on "imagination and creativity" may be meant to hide the teacher's own lack of basic skills--especially when "imagination and creativity" seem to be taking the place of education.
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