Good teaching, low scores?

It will be interesting to follow this: 

http://m.washingtonpost.com/local/education/good-teaching-poor-test-scores-doubt-cast-on-grading-teachers-by-student-performance/2014/05/12/96d94812-da07-11e3-bda1-9b46b2066796_story.html

and see how it plays out. It's hopeful that this research now exists and can be a part of the education debate. 

I've certainly seen this to hold true. When teachers become focused on test scores as their only goal the teaching can suffer. I saw this years ago with a particular kindergarten reading assessment. Teachers who focused on the assessment had kids who scored extremely well on that particular assessment, but they didn't maintain their scores into first grade. The teachers with lower scores had students who became better readers in the long run. 

(I don't have the numbers or data to back that up, just my personal observations from in the trenches). 

When we teach to the test the test becomes the end goal. We forget to think beyond it and don't teach the skills the students will need for the next steps.