EDUCATORS DECRY OBE AT CAPE MEETING

Outcome Based Education is "totally socialistic in nature" and ultimately prepares students to become politically correct citizens rather than high achievers.

So proclaimed Arkansas teachers Debbie Pelley and Iris Stevens. Both Pelley and Stevens have had an opportunity to see the OBE plan at work in Arkansas, and neither likes what she sees.

Pelley, who has been a teacher for 20 years and has a master's degree in English and education counseling, cited a five-year study that showed scores from national standardized tests were down by 21 percent after the OBE system was introduced.

"The reason Bill Clinton wanted Outcome Based Education in the first place when he was governor of Arkansas was because students in Arkansas were showing a decline in standardized test scores," Pelley said. "After they implemented OBE in Arkansas, the scores were down even more. But then OBE supporters were saying grades don't really mean much anyway when it comes to evaluating a student."

Pelley and Stevens were at the Cape Girardeau Public Library Saturday to inform area teachers and the public about the OBE system in Missouri. The talks were sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Chapter of the American Family Association.

Missouri Senate Bill 380, which also is called the Outstanding Schools Act, is coupled with a federal movement known as Goals 2000.

It will transfer decision-making authority over curriculum, teacher selection and assessment from the local to the state and federal levels.

Five schools in St. Louis -- A.B. Green Middle School, Kirkwood High School, McClure High School, Parkway South High School and Whitfield School -- are members of a Coalition of Essential Schools using OBE.

A book written by Theodore Sizer, titled "Horace's School Redesigning the American High School," lists facets of the OBE formula that would change the way most schools operate:

-- Doing away with the traditional diploma, units of credit and grades.

-- Changing the schedule into large blocks of time on some days and having completely different schedules on other days.

-- Lumping several subjects together. For example, English, foreign languages, art, music and physical education would be taught together.

-- Having teachers undergo extensive retraining for this new type of teaching.

-- Changing the teacher's role from deliverer of information to coaches who help students develop the habit of learning on their own. Thus no more lecturing.

-- Requiring a major change in administrators' roles from director to supporter, coordinator and overseer.

-- Having students keep a portfolio of exhibitions or projects to be open to inspection by the student's parents, faculty members and administrators. This portfolio would be the means of evaluation rather than grades or a diploma.

-- Requiring 90 percent of the students to reach all the recommended learning goals or outcomes by the time they graduate.

-- Changing the school calendar by adding six weeks to the school year and changing the school day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

-- Having extracurricular activities, such as varsity sports, taking place after school.

But using a portfolio instead of standardized tests is time-consuming and costly, Pelley said.

"Instead of being able to grade tests by computer, you have to evaluate each portfolio," she said. "It's hard to tell if the student even did the work, and a parent is unable to compare his or her child's portfolio with other students' portfolios."

Stevens said the portfolio is an easy way to push students through school and let them graduate regardless of whether they have earned it.

"It also puts the teacher in a difficult position because if the student's portfolio looks bad, everyone thinks the teacher didn't do his or her job," Stevens said.

The OBE system stresses group work, which Pelley said can stymie some students while others skate through school unchallenged.

"What they found in states that used this is that students weren't all doing the same amount of work," Pelley said. "The students who were doing most of the work didn't want this because they felt it wasn't fair."

Stevens said she uses group projects in her junior high classes.

"It can be good if you don't use it all of the time," she said.