Yes, it's teaching to a test, but I work in a public school under restructuring (two-thirds of the schools in my state and all of the high schools failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress this year). We are currently teaching to two different tests: the 3 times a year, state test and the monthly one from our restructuring consultant. Except in high school they only test 10th grade on the state test. Juniors and Seniors are either studying for the SAT, or the ACT, or they're not.

I shouldn't say "we". In restructuring it's only the reading/language arts and math teachers that are forced to teach to the test. As a social studies teacher, I'm free to pursue such frivolous pursuits as critical thinking and writing paragraphs.