I had a conversation this week that I haven’t been able to shake.
I was on the phone with a former student of mine who is now a high school English teacher. (And yes, before you ask, we didn’t exchange phone numbers until after she graduated. Professional boundaries have always been important to me.)
We were talking about how hard it is to actually teach around these standardized tests.
How much instructional time is lost to them, not just during testing windows, but all year long. She also vented about how frustrating it is that students don’t, or can’t, read for any real length of time anymore.
We talked about the role of technology, both in and out of the classroom.
But more than anything, we kept coming back to the same thing:
It’s nearly impossible to get students to those upper levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy when everything is driven by test prep.
And here’s the part that’s been bothering me…
Every teacher knows this.
And somehow, the system keeps pretending it’s not true.
More test prep and more practice tests are NOT how we improve test scores.
I learned that in one of the very first grad classes I ever took.
Students who practice the skills the test measures in a variety of ways consistently outperform students who spend all their time doing practice tests.
Students who interact with content in different formats, who think, who explore, who engage… they do better.
And in order to reach those top two levels of Bloom’s, Evaluation and Creation, students need the two things we are giving them less and less of: Time & Space.
They also need l low-pressure environments where their brains can actually play with ideas, make connections, and think critically. You know, like all the electives that keep being cut to make room for more tested subjects like math, English, and science.
So what do we do? Well, the really good teachers try to force real learning into a system that prioritizes test performance above everything else and then to prepare for those tests in the least effective way possible.
And it’s exhausting.
It’s disheartening.
It feels like pushing an ever-growing ball uphill.
Add in the lack of admin support, the behavior issues, the constant data collection, and all the non-teaching tasks… and it’s no wonder so many teachers are burning out, giving up, or leaving altogether.
This job used to get easier each year.
Now it feels like the opposite.
And here’s where things shift.
As a private practice teacher, I’m no longer bound by a rigid schedule or a scripted curriculum. I get to teach in ways that actually promote critical thinking, creativity, evaluation, and exploration. I provide the structure and the guardrails, but the learning itself is much more student-led.
And it’s fun.
Genuinely fun.
(And yes, teaching a world language helps. We can do almost anything as long as we do it in French, but I see this same shift with the teachers I work with across subjects, too.)
While I do miss certain dynamics that only exist in a traditional classroom, the professional freedom, autonomy, and respect I have now are worth it.
At least until classroom teachers are given the same level of trust and professional autonomy.
So here’s the thought I keep coming back to:
You don’t need to become a better test-prep tech.
You know how to teach and, miraculously, you still want to teach.
The problem is you’re barely given the opportunity to.
And all those skills and knowledge you have that actually help students learn:
Autonomy.
Creativity.
Critical thinking.
The very things the system is squeezing out.
They’re the same ones that make a private teaching practice thrive.
If you’re still in the classroom, let this be your reminder:
You are not the problem.
But you also don’t have to keep forcing yourself to operate inside a system that makes good teaching feel impossible.
If this resonates with you, you have lots of company.
What’s one thing you wish you had the freedom to do in your classroom?
Drop it in the comments or send me a message.
And if you’re starting to wonder what teaching could look like outside of this system… that’s exactly the work I do with teachers inside my mentorship program.