The recent Knight Foundation study of student awareness of the First Amendment is frightening. From their survey of more than 100,000 high school students they found that young people on the verge of citizenship are woefully uninformed and, in fact, disinterested in their fundamental democratic rights.

The findings are striking:

• Nearly three-fourths of high school students either do not know how they feel about the First Amendment or admit they take it for granted.
• Half believe the government can censor the Internet.
• More than a third thinks the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees.

Here's something else that is even more frightening, school administrators are more likely to believe that "people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions" and that "newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories" than are students. School administrators more democratic than their students? How did this state of affairs come about?

The report does note that students who are involved in school papers or after school publications are more likely to value the First Amendment than those who are not. But it also notes that these publications are declining, especially in schools with fewer resources. Neither of these findings should surprise anyone.

Our students learn what they experience. When they are engaged in democracy, they learn democracy. Unfortunately, the current push for test-based accountability pushes these experiences out of the curriculum.

Every student is taught a lesson on the First Amendment. You can find it in any set of state standards and teachers know it will be on the state assessments. But what appears there falls far short of actually teaching students to value, use, and protect their democratic rights. Instead, they learn to memorize the order of the Amendments to the Constitution, perhaps recite the clauses of the First Amendment, and be ready to ferret out the correct application of the establishment clause on a multiple choice test. All worthwhile skills, but none of them go far enough.

The reason our students don't value the First Amendment is because they do not experience it. That is why students engaged in student publications know more about and value the First Amendment — they have used it. But if we continue to pressure schools to be just about test scores and not the actual abilities of our students we will continue to see results such as those in the Knight study.

Unfortunately, nothing in the official "school reform" agenda from either the federal government or most states addresses how our future citizens are prepared for this role. Preoccupied with scores on standardized tests, the focus is solely on what students know on test day, not what they will be able to do with the rest of their lives.

It seems odd that at a time when our President travels the world scolding others on their commitment, or lack of it, to democracy we make so little of this commitment in our schools. We are fooled if we think memorizing the Bill of Rights for a test will prepare young people for the rigors of democratic life. In fact, the Knight study shows us precisely the error of our ways.

What we need is a commitment to helping young people learn how to use, value, and protect their democratic rights and obligations. They need to be actively engaged in doing the things citizens in a democracy do — debating issues respectfully, making decisions that matter, studying controversial issues from multiple viewpoints, reading widely and carefully, and engaging in activities that promote a common good. None of these things are tested, and thus, given the press on schools to get up test scores, they are, for the most part ignored in our schools.

It does not have to be this way. Here's a suggestion for policy makers. In considering what makes a good school, reward them for what matters. Calculate a school's "adequate yearly progress" toward a demonstrated commitment to preparing the young for a life of democracy. This could include an active student media program, a curriculum that engages students in critical thinking, graduation requirements that include demonstrations of learning and citizenship, and including students in real decision-making.

A far-fetched idea? Maybe so. But no more far fetched than the vision of Thomas Jefferson, W.E.B. Dubois, and other great Americans that this country should provide a free, public education to all our children in order to make democracy possible. It is long past time we live up to this vision, at home as well as abroad.