asking if the school could prepare the students gifted in science to achieve on the ACT test by the end of middle school rather than high school.
This may be seen as counter to a public school's efforts to close the achievement gap, performance gap, excellence gap. This may also be seen as an indicator of tiger parenting, causing the school to seek to "protect" the child from the parent(s), as discussed in several posts on a recent thread about
teacher ideology.
the unexpected response was that it is illegal to teach to a test.
This individual's statement provided false information.
You may have read this about
test prep elsewhere on the forums... Oversimplifying, there are basically two types of tests:
IQ/ability tests and
achievement tests. It is widely considered unethical to teach to an
IQ/ability test, and this may yield a false (invalid), artificially high and unsustainable score. By contrast, good test prep for an
achievement test such as ACT/SAT has traditionally been a summary of a well-rounded, comprehensive education.
College Board provides SAT prep: free practice questions, full practice test, online course, study guide.
ACT provides test prep: online course, guide, question of the day, sample questions, full sample test, test tips.
might bring it up again in a future meeting with different participants.
Different participants, such as staff at a private/independent, or parochial school, not a public school? Understanding that public schools are charged with closing achievement gaps, the type of achievement test prep you are seeking may more readily be provided by the school for low performing students, rather than for gifted students who are achieving. Therefore, in a public school setting, this type of achievement test prep, when desired by a gifted student, is typically overseen by a gifted student's family on an after-schooling basis.
