APPLICATION OF REFORMS BRINGS SHARP CRITICISM

Critics of Missouri's education reform claim it takes control away from local boards of education, question if new standards will actually improve performance and believe the changes resemble outcomes-based education.

John Ritland, senior principal engineer at McDonnell Douglas Corp. in St. Louis, served on the ad hoc committee charged with looking at statewide academic performance standards after teachers had written the draft.

The standards are the first component of a three-pronged educational reform movement. The other two components are statewide curriculum frameworks and assessment.

Ritland and others on that committee were so disturbed by what they read, they wrote a dissenting report concerning the standards.

"Basically, they are replacing the core competencies and key skills, which tend to be very academic, by standards that are very vague and process-oriented and general in nature," Ritland said.

Core competencies and key skills are part of the Missouri Mastery and Achievement Test, a standardized test used in Missouri since 1987.

"In the name of academic reform, we have a tendency to move away from academics as we have known them, as knowledge-based subject matter. I just don't agree that's the way we should be moving," Ritland said.

Ritland believes the changes outlined in the academic performance standards move schools from "the cognitive to the affective domain. We are moving in the wrong direction."

For example, one of the standards states that students will demonstrate the ability to work individually and with others to solve problems.

"I think people do a pretty good job working together, and they will work together. Working together not the purpose of school. Schools should teach knowledge," Ritland said.

Otis Baker, assistant education commissioner, said educators who wrote the standards expanded the definition of academics.

"A lot of people hold a traditional idea of academics, algebra, chemistry, biology and literature," he said. "Another group says academics has to mean more. Surely academics means writing well. Surely it means knowing where and how to get data and information and how to organize that information into a meaningful format."

Baker said being able to solve an algebra problem is not useful unless students understand how the problem was formed and what situation it addresses.

In addition to the what Ritland sees as a change of focus away from traditional academics, Ritland also questions the new system of assessment.

"They are moving away from objective testing or assessment to more subjective assessment," he said.

And Ritland said the state mandates ultimately mean less local control. "Basically we are losing local control. The state now has authority, based on different criteria, to come in and take control," Ritland said. For example, under specific situations, state officials could call for a special election to replace local boards of education.

Ritland believes these steps move Missouri toward statewide outcomes-based education. "That's exactly where they're heading. They just don't want to use the terms," he said.

"The real concern among those critics of outcomes-based education is when it moves away from the cognitive to the affective domain. Then it can be used for social engineering," he said. "People have to think a certain way."

Outcomes-based education, a specific model for educational reform, has received criticism nationally for a variety of reasons.

State Board of Education member Bekki Cook of Cape Girardeau said she doesn't view the reform as outcomes-based education.

"That's become a real negative buzzword," she said. "Outcomes-based education can be defined in a lot of different ways, and it has lost a lot of significance for that reason. I view this as goal oriented. It's not a strict curriculum or a strict way of teaching."

"Outcomes-based education is not a terrible thing," said Baker. "It's a good thing when done right, a very powerful thing."

But is this reform package outcomes-based education? Baker said the system outlined in Senate Bill 380 has two things in common with outcomes-based education, setting goals and establishing a form of assessment.

"Senate Bill 380 sets high academic performance standards," Baker said. "Outcomes-based education sets outcomes. Both are a form of goals.

"Outcomes-based education assess kids to make sure they are achieving the desired outcomes. Senate Bill 380 assesses the kids to see if they are achieving the academic performance standards. From that point on the similarities end," Baker said.

"Senate Bill 380 is silent on how we are getting all the kids to achieve these standards."

One of the options is implementing outcomes-based education, he said. But local schools can choose the method that fits best.

"Somehow or other people believe the point of outcomes-based education is to teach children politically correct thinking or values that are very different than parents. My answer to that is `nonsense,'" Baker said.

"We don't know what politically correct thinking is and it changes daily. Schools have always taught values -- honesty, integrity, respect for other people, for other people's property, patriotism. Those are affective. Nobody I know of has any other values in mind."

Baker said he's not surprised by the criticism of the impending changes but hopes Missourians will take a look at the standards for themselves before drawing conclusions.

Ritland said he has been told criticism is premature, that he should wait to review the curriculum frameworks before making a judgment. "How far down this process do you go before you approve the standards?" he asked.

He and other dissenters from the ad hoc group have been in contact with legislators, members of the state board of education and state education officials to express their concerns.

"We really don't know what to do after that," he said.