Community Inquiry Project-Conclusion

This inquiry project gave us some insight into the Newark Public School system and the numerous challenges and difficulties faced by teachers, students and administrators. Some of the hurdles we encountered while undertaking this research included not getting access to “walk through” some of our target schools and as such had to observe the schools from the outside. Our efforts to meet with a few principals who have been in office for over 20 years proved futile and as such we were not able to get a cleared picture of the situation which existed prior to the implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy and in what ways standardized tests may have changed over the years. We also found it difficult to have a detailed interview with some of the teachers since they were either in the process of completing the preparation of their students for the NJ ASK test or in the process of reviewing before the test - another testimony that the lives of the teachers and the students are “governed” by test taking and not necessarily learning life skills.

Notwithstanding the aforementioned difficulties, we were able to deduce that there is an overwhelming attitude and mentality of despair hovering above and surrounding participants of the NPS system. There is a strong desire for the “powers that be” to realize that the current curriculum does not adequately prepare the New Jersey child for future success. Many of the respondents believed that the state can achieve a great deal by simply tweaking the current curriculum and test system to include areas such as etiquette, critical thinking, data analysis. Criticisms were also levied against the decision to “focus” on two subjects, math and literacy, in that, students and teachers tend to neglect other subject areas in favor of those being tested. There was also a call for a more comprehensive evaluation of students which takes into account the inability of some students to do well on structured tests.
We believe that there is hope for the Newark Public School system but it will take some bold initiatives on the part of the administration to deviate from the norm and implement new strategies that will make Newark students stand out from amidst the rest of the nation. There needs to be a direct reversal in the trends of test scores in the four target schools identified but there is also need for modifications to be made in order to improve those tests and make them more meaningful and representative of a complete evaluation.