"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?"---George Bush, 1/11/00

 From an academic standpoint, i.e. looking solely at the results of tracking and assessment in American schools, I agree with this statement. In my opinion, standardized test results are not always a good indication of what children know and the depth of their knowledge. However, that being said, I think that one real way of knowing if students are learning is to talk to them and actually observe what is happening in schools today.

During the spring semester of 2011, I observed in an alternative high school in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Though my original goal was to generate curriculum for pregnant teens and teen parents based on what I observed (there is a high teen pregnancy rate among students at the school), my objective quickly changed once I actually got into the classroom at A.I.M (the name of the high school).

The classroom at A.I.M. consisted of one very large room filled with three long rows of computers. In fact, one might initially think that s/he is in the computer lab. Students are expected to come in each day for three hours (either from 8 to 11 or 12 to 3), sit in front of a computer, and work on an academic software program called PLATO. Aside from a person who was hired to help children with any math questions they might have, there is virtually no teaching instruction. The principal of the school and teacher’s assistant sit in the back of the room for the duration of the school day. At A.I.M. the computer serves as an instructor, and the PLATO program is not particularly engaging or informative. On any given day, a number of students are asleep at their desks or chatting with one another within minutes of arriving.

When I asked kids at A.I.M. what they felt about the academic format as it is now, the responses I got included “We’re not learning anything,” “This program is boring me to sleep,” “I miss having actual teachers,” and “Could you (Ms. Collins) please teach us so that we can learn from a real, live teacher?”

These kids were more than able to voice that they were not learning in school. Moreover, when I worked with many of them one on one, I found that they were retaining very little, if any knowledge, from one PLATO test answer to the next.

While A.I.M. is an alternative school, and, in theory, shouldn’t be an indication of a “norm,” I am sure there are many more schools like it in America. Furthermore, I know that the standards of learning at the umbrella high school of A.I.M. also does not teach students in the best manner possible. From this experience, I concluded that  getting into schools and observing classrooms is a way to gauge whether or not children are learning. In reference to some of the articles we’ve read during the course of the past few weeks, there are numerous indications that education is so often affected and manipulated for political purposes, many students suffer. For example, in “The Silenced Dialogue,” Lisa Delpit talks about the deep alienation that many faculty members of color feel when talking to white colleagues about the needs of minority students. More often than not, white colleagues are unwilling to listen to what their minority counterparts have to say if it goes against what they feel they already know. This form of dismissiveness and superiority---that is, a minority teacher being silenced when talking about the needs of minority students—is not an uncommon occurrence. Ultimately, ignoring the voice of multi-cultural faculty members ultimately affects how students are taught. Thus, the knowledge students receive is compromised.

Meanwhile, Lipman and Apple wrote about neoliberalism and neoconservatism, and in so doing, illustrated how incredibly political the educational arena has become. Both neoliberals and neoconservatives have entirely different views of what education should be, and both groups are on a continual quest to pass various policies, bills, and laws in an effort to realize a certain educational vision. Meanwhile, nothing seems to be really addressing the needs of children, and, in the end, many students in American schools are not learning much. Thus, looking at educational policy and how politics affect daily school life is another way of measuring the knowledge that students receive (or not).

It is hard to say where we should go from here, but in terms of my personal vision for American schools, I believe that the public school system should remain, but, in an ideal world, be completely reorganized and restructured to far better suit the needs of children. The American public school system should feature the following:

·      Equal access to education for all, regardless of race, class, gender, and socio-economic status

·      This quality of education should be free for all

·      A mutually agreed upon, high-quality, academic program for all

·      Equal quality of education and training for teachers

·      Trust in teachers from schools and parents

·      High standards set for all students

·      Special support should be provided for children who have difficulty with academics

·      There should be early recognition and prevention of learning problems when possible, i.e. a pro-active, rather than reactive approach should be employed

Finally, I believe that we can let go of teaching students for the sole purpose of doing well on standardized tests. Standardized tests should not be issued multiple times a year, and, ideally, should only be administered no more than twice in one academic calendar. Finally, I believe that NCLB, at least as it is currently structured, should be let go.