Race Talks

Measuring Success

Although each learning environment is unique, we’ve noticed some telltale signs that real learning is taking place.

We find it useful to ask ouselves the following questions as we proceed.

Motivation

	Are participants committed to the learning process, as evidenced by time and energy devoted both inside and outside the classroom?
	Do participants continue to work on these issues or projects after the course ends?
	Do they try to meld their ideals, their professional identity and their in-class work?

Critical Analysis and Communication Skills

	Do participants listen and reflect critically on their experiences and assumptions?
	Do participants cultivate varied ways of thinking and acting, addressing complex problems that inspire them to join the learning environment?
	Do participants gain new confidence to speak out in contexts where they previously remained silent?

Relationship Building

	Do participants solve problems as a group and build on the strengths or diversity of opinion that other participants offer?
	Do they develop relationships outside of class for moral support, the pursuit of transformative ideas, and innovative professional dentities?

Intellectual Risk-Taking and Engaged Disagreement

	Are participants willing to make mistakes, expose their vulnerabilities, and speak up when they disagree?
	Do they learn from error and conflict rather than retreat?
	Do they involve themselves in the group and reach for new challenges?

Transformation

	Do participants experiment with their roles and grasp their potential as innovators?
	Do they rethink their perspectives on issues and question their own roles as law students, lawyers, parents, police officers, educators, or professionals?
	Do they begin to understand and address complex problems in new ways?

Challenges

These experiments of this type are resource intensive and may unsettle existing institutional arrangements and culture. For such experiments to endure in an educational setting, they require changes in the calculation of faculty course loads, allocation of student credit, and grading policies. They also call for an expanded conception of the professional role or the ability to find outside partners. In many environments, participants confront peer resistance and backlash, reinforced by the institutional culture. In the community context, recruiting teachers willing to work with parents may prove challenging. Overcoming such obstacles often requires committed individuals with persistence and energy and flexible leadership supportive of individual experiments. Sometimes these experiments thrive as under-the-radar laboratories, at the margins. Community training programs also require financial support to pay facilitators and to rent space.
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