Social Institutional Forces: The Social, Cultural, Political,

¶ … Social Institutional Forces: The social, cultural, political, and intellectual forces that influence present educational policy in K-16 programs. What do you believe to be the goals of American public education? What should the role of public education be? List the advantages your upbringing offered to you; think of themselves as part of a dominant group, a nuclear family, a middle- or upper-middle-class community, a member of a church or other religious group, etc.

Despite the lofty proclamations made by George W. Bush and members of his administration during the legislative effort to pass the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the optimistic reforms envisioned by conservative lawmakers more than a decade ago have failed to come to fruition. However, the educational system in place throughout America's small towns and major cities has been broken for quite some time, with the world's foremost superpower lagging far behind smaller and less affluent nations in terms of academic achievement for several decades running. While social norms and technological tools have evolved significantly during the last half century, a systemic lack of accountability has plagued American school districts throughout, simply because a consensus cannot be reached as to what educational goals public schools should prioritize. The gulf between various systems of educational development has only widened since Bush's vow to leave no child behind, and today the legislative emphasis on measurement has led to a fundamental divide, or what education writer Alfie Kohn describes as "the difference between important grown-ups who piously exhort us to hold our educational system 'accountable' and a nine-year-old who has come to detest school because the days are now full of practice tests in place of projects and puzzles" (2002). One of the central tenets of modernized education holds that standardization is essential to maximizing the number of high-achieving students, and that the most efficient and effective method of assessing achievement lies in standardized testing and measurement systems. As a result, a disturbing phenomenon has emerged within the public school system, whereby the overwhelming drive to satisfy state-instituted testing standards creates a self-perpetuating cycle now known as "teaching to the test." In my opinion, the primary goals of the educational system should not be to force the highest number of children to memorize the answers to test questions, but rather the true absorption of learning as demonstrated through competence and capability.