Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 13, 1993 TAG: 9307130352
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES P. JONES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
For example, one recent letter-writer complained that outcome-based education was the reason our public schools have failed over the past 50 years, while another writer argued against outcome-based education because it is too experimental and untried!
Unfortunately, any specific education reform becomes a blank slate on which is projected many of the widespread (and often justified) frustrations with our public schools. What are the facts?
There is general agreement that schools need to do a better job of educating our children. Polls have shown overwhelming support for that proposition - from parents, business leaders or teachers. Like health care, education is one of those public issues where the need for change is universally accepted, but where the rub comes is in prescribing the proper remedy.
The principal education reform, which is taking hold across the country, is to introduce more accountability into our schools. If our schools are not held accountable for the results of education, then little will change. In an effort to make schools accountable, reformers have come up with the idea of setting standards of performance that all students must demonstrate. This, in its essence, is outcome-based education.
Of course, any time a student receives a grade in a course, it is measurement of that student's performance. The problem is that we simply don't have a system of comparable courses or grades throughout our public schools. An `A" in algebra at one high school may have little comparison with the same grade in algebra at another school, insofar as measuring what the student has actually learned. If we are to hold all our schools accountable, we need to have performance standards applicable to every school.
No fair-minded person could object to judging schools by their results, in an effort to improve them. The key is to develop the appropriate results or "outcomes" - and that is where there can be honest differences of opinion.
The Board of Education has been in the process of developing performance measures for Virginia's schools, which we call a "Common Core of Learning." This is nothing more or less than a general statement or framework for the performance outcomes we believe all children should reach.
There is nothing radical about the theory of outcome-based education. Currently, the majority of the states are in the process of developing outcome-based systems, and some school divisions around the country have successfully used them for years. Where controversy has occurred, it has been over the development of the specific performance standards. In some states, most notably Pennsylvania, the outcomes were criticized as being too filled with education jargon and "politically correct" attitudes. As a result, changes were made to make the outcomes more acceptable to parents.
There is no place in Virginia's reform efforts, in my opinion, for the state to mandate the teaching of politically correct attitudes or fuzzy thinking. Our outcomes ought to set high standards in mathematics, science, history, geography, languages and other areas of knowledge. They must emphasize not only the "three R's," but also the problem-solving abilities that children will need to have in the 21st century.
When people actually read the proposed Common Core of Learning plan, and not someone else's description, I think that they will be pleased to see that it does demand higher levels of achievement than presently exist. When they see the actual standards, which should be in draft form later this year, they will be impressed with how high they are, and how much more we can expect from students and teachers.
In any event, these performance outcomes are only at the beginning point of development. The Board of Education intends to hold public meetings throughout the state before any final adoption. A vigorous public debate on these standards is not only appropriate but absolutely necessary. And if the consensus of Virginians is that outcomes are too vague, too loaded with education terms or too interdisciplinary in approach, all of these elements can and will be modified.
The essential point is that we need to hold our schools accountable for our children's education. I believe that most Virginians support that goal.
James P. Jones of Abingdon is president of the state Board of Education.
by CNB