Teachers describe students arriving in their class with fewer grade-level skills than in previous years, and they attribute this to testing and boxed curriculum.

Some educators have begun to share concerns about gaps in the expected skills of students at certain levels. Many educators point towards curricula that strictly teaches to standardized tests as a driving factor in these student learning gaps, particularly in areas of literacy and novels.

Sample Educator Conversations:

  • A sixth-grade teacher noted that they are seeing students arrive with significant knowledge gaps, such as not knowing continents and oceans, and asked, “What is happening in elementary school?” Many teachers replied describing the way boxed curriculum and testing have shifted the emphasis in elementary school.
    • Teachers note that “we are testing too much so all that time” that they are teaching less content and offering fewer opportunities such as reading full-class novels.
    • “Lately it feels like we are spending so much time on basic school readiness skills (how to sit for more than a few minutes at a time, how to listen to a person that’s not on a screen) as well as social emotional skills.”
    • Multiple teachers note that standardized testing pushes elementary teachers to “minimize social studies (not tested) in order to focus on reading and math (tested).” 
    • Teachers say students are burned out by middle school because of too much emphasis on testing, which has “killed the love” for school.
  • Teachers react to an article in the Atlantic, where it’s noted that “at elite colleges like Columbia, many students are showing up unprepared to read full books. It’s not that they don’t want to, Rose Horowitch writes. Middle and high schools have stopped teaching them how: The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books”
    • Teachers point out that this is the “direct result of testing culture & scripted curriculum.”
    • Teachers say they are discouraged from reading whole-class novels or small-group book clubs with students, instead using text excerpts to teach skills.
    • Multiple teachers make a connection between the prevalence of the HMH curriculum and the lack of teaching books, calling this “dispiriting.”
    • Several teachers describe needing to “fight” to teach full-class novels because they are not included in the provided curriculum, and they point out how hard it is to inspire joy of reading without giving students this experience, which decreases student drive to practice reading and build skills.