THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 5, 1994 TAG: 9407030002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
William Bosher, superintendent of education in Governor Allen's administration, set forth five goals for public schools in a speech to secondary-school principals last week. As important as what made his list - safety, rigorous academic standards, planning, community involvement, incorporating technology - is what didn't: self-esteem.
Thank goodness.
The word has become an overused, abused cliche for talking endlessly about but expecting little academic achievement from disadvantaged or ``at-risk'' students. It became a buzzword for Outcomes-Based Education, a policy pushed by Bosher's predecessor, Joseph A. Spagnolo Jr. and based on a philosophy of preparing students for life in large part by coaxing them to esteem themselves and others.
Spagnolo's policy sold poorly in the real world, where self-esteem doesn't pay bills and parents' greatest fear is students disadvantaged by lack of basic academic skills and at risk of a lifetime of menial labor, if that.
Bosher and his boss, Governor Allen, agree with the parents. ``We don't want to teach kids to feel good about living in the projects,'' Bosher said. ``We want to teach kids so they can get out of the projects.'' Allen followed up Bosher's remarks by declaring Outcomes-Based Education ``graveyard dead.''
Remnants, however, survive. One example: accelerated schools. These are predicated on the notion that schools should produce citizens imbued with a sense of responsibility for themselves and others - even to the point of putting others' self-esteem ahead of their own achievement.
Conceived at Stanford University in 1986, accelerated schools have taken root at, among other places, several schools in Virginia Beach. According to the literature, these schools are supposed to emphasize the strengths of at-risk students, de-emphasize their weaknesses and create for all students ``an upbeat and encouraging atmosphere . . . quite a different climate from deficiencies and remediation!''
Accelerated schools produce ``tremendous gains'' in students' self-esteem and achievement, but not because they ``target or stress test scores.'' These gains come instead as a ``natural byproduct'' of ``involving everyone in the school's `can-do' effort.''
No controlled study supports these claims or allays these doubts: When does emphasizing empathy with others become a call to sacrifice one's own academic future? Does this approach benefit the middling student as well as the at-risk? Does it challenge the gifted student as well as the disadvantaged?
Challenging students to achieve beyond what they thought possible is the goal of education, not having them concentrate on what they know best and disregarding what they don't know. Bosher is on the right track. But he has a way to go in rooting out policies that travel under the passport of Outcomes-Based Education. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MR. BOSHER
by CNB