Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 26, 1993 TAG: 9308260167
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But, they say, innovative and increasingly popular outcome-based education proposals are not the answer because such programs use difficult-to-measure standards and advocate values that are better taught by families.
"I'm very much against it," said Ellen McLean, a member of the Christian Coalition. "I think we're moving away from academics. I think we're doing all kinds of harm."
Tuesday night, about 50 coalition members met in Blacksburg to discuss their concerns.
The state Department of Education still is developing the broad outlines of a plan to move public schools to outcome-based education over the next 10 years.
The plan calls for changing the focus from what teachers teach to what children learn, equipping them for a global economy. Schools would be held accountable for students' success or failure.
John Ledoux, a Virginia Tech engineering faculty member, said: "When a Tech student in engineering asks me how many feet there are in a yard, we're all in deep trouble, and that happened last semester." Ledoux is chairman of the Montgomery County chapter of the coalition.
Outcome-based education focuses on "knowledge, competencies and orientations," which amounts to brainwashing, said Wayne Brackenrich, a doctor from Giles County and outspoken critic of outcome-based education.
"If we can control what children know, we can control what they do, and if we can control what they do, we can control what they will be like," said Brackenrich, who used an overhead projector and chalkboard in his talk Tuesday night. "Faith won't fit in here. You've got to have these kinds of thinking skills," he said.
"It's a politically correct philosophy," said McLean, a student teacher at Radford University and mother who said outcome-based education already influences the way student teachers are taught.
"It's socialization," said George Alder, chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party.
Coalition members said they are uncertain about what outcome-based education means and whether it is in place in local schools.
"Very few people know anything about it," said Arnold Saari, a former Montgomery County school superintendent. "Let's really dig into this thing and see what it's all about."
Robert McCracken, superintendent of Giles County schools, a system singled out by Brackenrich, said schools there are not using outcome-based education. But they are developing a partnership with businesses that will certify that students have the math and language skills that the businesses need.
Giles County schools started the program in response to business complaints that students don't have adequate skills.
Because of a similarity in terms between outcome-based education programs and the county's business certification program, there's confusion about them, McCracken said.
Outcome-based education has a bad reputation because "many people see it as an attempt" to instill values, a task that many think should belong to parents, said Jim Sellars, instructional services superintendent for Montgomery County schools.
Teachers already work toward goals or outcomes, Sellars said.
"We don't see it as something negative. It's only when people put a negative slant on it that we get concerned," Sellars said.
State efforts toward an outcome-based educational system are ongoing and have not been implemented in Montgomery County, said Herman Bartlett, county school superintendent.
"Nothing has really been approved. It's still in the testing program," Bartlett said.
"I don't understand what I'm being told," said Paula Tilley, a Pulaski County substitute elementary school teacher. "It's nebulous. I can't define it."
Brackenrich criticized outcome-based education in part because of its lack of emphasis on structured deadlines.
"Whether a child learns is more important than when they learn it," Brackenrich said, meaning a child "might never learn. In this system you have all the time in the world to learn."
Moreover, Brackenrich said, he does not know what standards schools will use and how they will measure student progress. He also was concerned that schools will place children on unchangeable career tracks at an early age.
Outcome-based education programs have been started all over the country, and "it's failed everywhere it's been tried," said Brackenrich, a father of six children, five of whom are still in school.
"These are my precious little children, and you keep your hands off of them. I don't think it's right for you to be experimenting on my children in order for you to be on the cutting edge," he said.
by CNB