One of the goals of the strategic plan is that “the student growth rate for Kaleidoscope will exceed state expectations.” Student performance on the state assessments is one measurement that will be used to determine if this goal is accomplished.  What is important is not the test score itself, but that students have the skills necessary to do well on the test. Having great test scores is important to us as a school because it indicates that our students are good readers and have gained the math skills expected for their grade level. In the sense that we are teaching the skills that students should learn in their grade level, we are teaching to the test. We do not feel that teaching students to be better test takers is the way to improve test scores, but we do feel that having students who are learning to read and do math better will be reflected in our test scores.