NLA DIscussion:NRS, Accountability, and the Right to Learn Freely

[Archie Willard]

Much of the conversation on the NLA listserv has been around the NRS and
accountability and how we are going to record data and what it is going
to tell us. Will there be standardized tests or will all this
information be a compiling of data to measure us by?  By measuring adult
learners we can find out a lot. It will tell where we started and where
we need to go.  This information can help us as adults to make changes
in our lives to become good workers and family members. Adult literacy
programs have afforded people a second chance and a place to learn
freely.  There is no other place in education today where people can go
that does not tell us what we “have to” learn.  This should be a learner
driven field.

Standardized testing with all its facts and figures will take away this
freedom. It will not allow us to bring our personal needs for learning
to the programs.  It will become a barometer for the investors in this
country to tell them how many people there are that can work for low
wages. The NRS system will keep us at the place in life where we have
always been and tell us how we have to learn. It seems we must have
accountability to statistics and numbers, but who is accountable to the
millions of people who are losing this freedom?

The Bill of Rights provides us with many rights. Everyone in this
country, as adults, should have the right to learn freely. I feel that
this freedom needs to be claimed by the millions of people who are at
the lower end of skills in this nation. The state of Rhode Island has a
Bill of Rights for adults to be able to learn. I feel we need to go in
this direction in order to help others to keep learning freely.


--
Archie Willard
Eagle Grove, IA  50533 (US)
millard at netins.net
FAX - 515-448-3480
URL - http://207.28.234.137/archiew.html