Meaningful practice: Test prep in a third-grade public school classroom

Abstract

Preparation for high-stakes testing, while unavoidable, may become meaningful, these authors argue. The article illustrates the case of a third-grade classroom in a metropolitan public school, where test preparation was approached as genre study. In addition to examining the specific unit of study, the authors describe the efforts of the classroom teachers to make test preparation useful for their students, who participated in such testing for the first time. The analysis of test preparation practices is combined with the teachers perspectives on what was effective in the particular context. The authors provide insights into effective test preparation and argue that success on testing depends also on the unique ways teachersand schoolsinvent to make such curriculum relevant and meaningful to their students. The article concludes with thoughts on the ways this example may inform test preparation instruction.