| Outcome based education (OBE) is the key method of education in the reform
movement that is sweeping the nation. Presently, 49 out ot 50 states have
adopted OBE in some form or another. OBE also goes by the names mastery
learning or performance based education. Under this type of education,
students must master certain "outcomes". A hypothetical example might
be that all students must attain a B in Algebra. It isn't enough for the
student to pass the course. Rather the student must be able to
demonstrate that he has mastered Algebra. Under this type of educational
method, time limits are taken away (quarters, semesters, years, etc). If
someone is not a strong math person, he would be remediated over and over
again until he can finally demonstrate mastery.
The curious thing about OBE is that is has a track record of failure.
Great Britian tried OBE and found it a failure. A report by Robert E.
Salvin of Johns Hopkins University critical of the results of this technique
states that it failed to increase student scores on standarized tests.
Programs in many states tried OBE and rejected including Montana, Tennessee,
Michigan, New Mexico, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and Washington. The Chicago
independent School District unanymously agreed to dump OBE when they found
that after investing $7.5 million over five years, their students were falling
behind on standardized tests. Then Secretary of Education William Bennett
called the Chicago school system the worst in the nation. In Pasco,
Washington, after adopting OBE, SAT scores dropped and the dropout rate
increased.
To understand why it fails, consider that fact that each student must master
each outcome. An outcome is an educational goal which the student must
*demonstrate* that he has "mastered". Since in each subject, there is a
distribution of performance levels, in order for OBE to be practical, the
level that is defined as "mastery" must be lowered in order for ALL the
students to master the outcomes. This is precisely what the Johns Hopkins
University report discovered. The very lowest achievers benefitted from it
however the performance of the rest of the students decreased. Since we have
fixed standards such as the SAT, this is easy to see.
Why in the world would these same states and others ever think about adopting
OBE then? Because while OBE decreases academic achievement, it is shown to
BE ABLE TO CHANGE BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES. OBE uses B.F. Skinner's model of
repetition to change the subjects values and attitudes. OBE is a control
issue! Benjamin Bloom, the father of mastery learning, defines good teaching
as "challenging the student's fixed beliefs". This practice is also coined
as "critical thinking" or "values clarification". Bloom, a professor of
education from the University of Chicago and a long considered guru of
educational restructuring said,
"The purpose of education and the schools is to change the thoughts, feelings,
and actions of the students...The curriculum may be thought of as a plan
for changing student behavior." He has also said, "We give the student
information intended to change his attitude...What we call 'good teaching' is
the teacher's ability to attain affective objectives through challenging the
students' fixed beliefs and getting them to discuss the issues."
In education reform pushed by the education establishment, it is universally
being declared that the teacher's role in the classroom is changing. Under
OBE, the teacher becomes a facilator or what is more commonly referred to
as a "change agent". State-defined attitudes, values, and beliefs become
the "outcomes" that students must master. Those who don't reach the goals
are remediated. If they don't master then after this, they are remediated
over and over again. It is a form of indoctrination or brain-washing.
For instance, in Pennsylvannia, the state uses what is called the Educational
Quality Assessment (EQA). The goal of the EQA is to assess whether students
are meeting what are called the "minimum positive attitudes". Local school
district funding is based upon how students do on the EQA and also how school
districts write their long range plans so that they students will meet the
"minimum positive attitudes". Of the 415 questions on the EQA only 30 are
academic and all the rest are attitudes!!
For instance, under Locus of Control, the correct attitude is
to go with the flow. Under citizenship, students are tested for "threshhold
of behavior". For instance one of the questions asks the students under
what conditions they would join a hypothetical group called the Midnight
Marauders that going around spray painting walls at night. The student has
to answer yes or no. The question reads:
I would join the group if:
a. My best friend asked me to join (y or n).
b. Most of the popular students were in the club (y or n).
c. My parents would ground me if they found out I joined (y or n).
The correct state-defined answers? a. yes, b. yes, c. no.
When a former teacher and gubernatorial candidate started to research
this new education, she expected to find in the OBE goals stuff like
geography, history, spelling, and reading. Instead she found adaptibility
to change, ethical judgement, family living, self-esteem, proper environmental
attitudes, etc. On the EQA, under "adaptibility to change", the proper
minimum positive attitude turne out to be:
"Rapid emotional adjustment to change without protest".
When the goals from 26 states were pulled, they all turned out to be the same!
Many of them word for word! Consider Ohio's outcomes and ask yourself if
the goals are about academics or about creating state indoctrinated robots:
1. Participate in civic and community service activities.
2. Function as a productive and responsible citizen of a GLOBAL SOCIETY.
(emphasis mine)
3. Exercise basic rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic
society.
and on and on. From state to state it's all the same. The "values" being
promoted include those like flexibility, adaptibility to sudden change,
tolerance, multicultural understanding, understanding others who are
different, diversity, sociability, positive view of self, empathy and
politeness in group settings, taking responsibility to save the earth,
interpersonal skills, ability to reach a group consensus, cooperation over
competition, viewing the world as a single interdepent community, etc.
The overall model is that of a compliant, nonprotesting worker who accepts
sudden changes, goes along with the group, does what the state tells him
to do. The social model is one of a global, interdependent community.
For instance in a local school district in my state a committee for student
outcomes came up with the following ideas as possible outcomes:
*Learn to live in a global environment, and accept responsibility for
waste management.
* Ability to cope successfully with economic and social issues of a global
society.
* National to global economy.
* Understanding other cultures--smaller world, world citizen.
* World school--controlled by corporation.
Remember under OBE, students must not only acknowledge that they believe
these values, they must demonstrate it! Under OBE, our current assessment
standards such as standardized tests (SAT, etc) will be replaced. This makes
sense, otherwise we would all see how academic peformance was dropping with
the implementation of OBE. However with NEW standards of assessment, we won't
have past history to compare to so no one will be able to tell if OBE is
actually working.
Under OBE in the restructured education, report cards are replaced with
electronic portfolios that follow the student into the work place. Instead
of diplomas, students receive "Certificates of Mastery", once again computer-
ized. There is cooperation between the education establishment and big
business concerning education reform. The U.S Department of Labor has put
out a report by its committee called SCANS that is telling education what
labor expects. They recommend that student's not be hired for work without
a certificate of mastery. Colleges and Universities are also being challenged
to accept this in place of transcripts.
Heres how it works in the classroom. Textbooks are replaced with computers
that serve up the student what is called "learning nuggets". If the student
doesn't master the particular learning nugget, a central database is accessess
what is called a Student Information Module to remediate the student. The
Student Information Module contains biographical data and learning styles
that have been gathered on computer under a what is called EXPRESS
(Exchange of Personal Records Electronically for Students and Schools).
Yes information is being gathered in a centralized databank on an individual
level. Included is a whole array of information on the child including
personal information. Remediation is done on computer by "validated programs"
from all over the country that have been tested on the federal level and
proven to change behavior of students in specific subgroups. The Student
Information Module matches up a validated program to the biographical data
and learning styles stored on the individual student.
Mike
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| re Note 1015.2 by FRETZ::HEISER:
> OBE also goes by the names mastery
> learning or performance based education. Under this type of education,
> students must master certain "outcomes". A hypothetical example might
> be that all students must attain a B in Algebra. It isn't enough for the
> student to pass the course.
So instead of the "old way", in which the student must attain
a D in order to pass, in the "new order" the student must
attain a B?
This is sinister?
> Under this type of educational
> method, time limits are taken away (quarters, semesters, years, etc). If
> someone is not a strong math person, he would be remediated over and over
> again until he can finally demonstrate mastery.
While I too have my doubts whether this can be made to work
in all cases, it certainly seems preferable to "giving up" on
a student, or promoting/graduating them *without*
successfully completing the material.
This is sinister?
> The very lowest achievers benefitted from it
> however the performance of the rest of the students decreased. Since we have
> fixed standards such as the SAT, this is easy to see.
Then it seems as if OBE *is* good for some subset of the
student population, and that a modification of OBE, or
incorporation of some aspects of it into the educational
program, not a trashing of it, is in order.
(Also, it doesn't make a lot of sense that lowering the
"mastery" level so that it is achievable by poorer students
is any different than the "old system" of setting a fairly
low "passing" grade, but still expecting and encouraging
better students to perform better.)
This is sinister?
> Why in the world would these same states and others ever think about adopting
> OBE then?
Well, you certainly gave a couple of good reasons.
> Because while OBE decreases academic achievement, it is shown to
> BE ABLE TO CHANGE BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES.
Nothing you have described in your note supports this.
Substituting the word "mastery" for "passing" and remediating
students who have academic difficulty does not, in itself,
produce anything essentialluy differenmt from traditional
education.
Either there is "something else", or you have bought an
unwarranted conclusion.
(And, of course, education *by its very nature* is intended
to "change behavior and attitudes" -- nothing new, or
sinister, in that.)
> OBE uses B.F. Skinner's model of
> repetition to change the subjects values and attitudes.
Since when has education of any kind *not* used repetition?
This is sinister?
> OBE is a control issue!
Well, it's obvious that folks like Dobson and the Religious
Right in general have seized upon OBE as a rallying point to
achieve control of education in this country -- I'll agree
with you there!
There *may* be something sinister in that!
> State-defined attitudes, values, and beliefs become
> the "outcomes" that students must master.
Well, I have read the text of HR 6, and those are definitely
*not* the outcomes it *ever* refers to. Rather, it talks
about mastering the skills necessary to score well on
standardized tests in subjects like reading, math,
science.... If anything, the objective is to *improve*
standardized test scores.
> Those who don't reach the goals
> are remediated. If they don't master then after this, they are remediated
> over and over again. It is a form of indoctrination or brain-washing.
Yes, I remember Sister Rita Marie in eighth grade -- you may
have a point there, it *was* a form of brainwashing!
> When a former teacher and gubernatorial candidate started to research
> this new education, she expected to find in the OBE goals stuff like
> geography, history, spelling, and reading....
If what followed is OBE, then it would appear to have
*nothing* to do with recent legislation such as HR 6.
> The overall model is that of a compliant, nonprotesting worker who accepts
> sudden changes, goes along with the group, does what the state tells him
> to do. The social model is one of a global, interdependent community.
Yes, you're right; I've found the following sinister talk in
HR 6:
"(7) Foreign language study can increase childrens`
capacity for critical and creative thinking skills and
children who study a second language show greater
cognitive development in areas such as mental flexibility,
creativity, tolerance, and higher order thinking skills."
Of course, I have no document describing OBE (other than your
tirade), but I do have HR 6, and essentially none of what you
describe is in it, despite its nearly 30K lines of text.
Perhaps your attitudes and beliefs are being manipulated for
sinister political benefit through endless repetition of the
conservative mantras?
Bob
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