CONCERN SPREADS

What a wild summer this has been. Seeking refuge on the Outer Banks this week, I fully expect to encounter Outcome-Based Fishing off the Avalon Pier. OBF, you know: that's where they send down divers to hook a catch of exactly equal weight for each fisherperson so that self-esteem is enhanced to the max.

And what rich possibilities Outcome-Based Baseball presents for the pennant races. Those obstreperous Philadelphia Phillies, who have done no small damage to thepsyches of my St. Louis Cardinals, should be convened in a big hand-holding group to reflect on the ills of competitive society. And in the spirit of OBB, overachievers John Kruk and Lenny Dykstra should just sit there until the Cards and all other weak sisters have caught up with them. Under OBB, you see, all divisional races must end in a tie. There must be only winners.

To say that Outcome-Based Education -- with its whole attitudinal and anti[competition load -- has kindled the ire of many parents and teachers this summer would be an understatement.

Recently I fled the steamy city for a few days only to return and find on my Voice Mail calls from : Alabama, Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Washiington, and Wisconsin -- all from citizens aggrieved by OBE, folks who had received copies of my Op/Ed columns in samizdat fashion. I consider the calls less a compliment to me than a reflection of the strange relutance of politically correct, USA-Today-ized news organizations to report on certain touchy topics in depth.

But there are honorable exceptions -- notably, Charlotte Allen's article (excerpted on today's Op/Ed Page) in the August 15 Outlook section of The Washington Post wherein she chronicles the decidedly unpromising start to "thematic learning," or OBE, in Washington's schools. A suggestion for Virginia's powers-that-be: Instead of throwing hundreds of millions of tax dollars into the OBE abyss, why not let D. C. be our social laboratory? If it works there, then consider it here.

All across Virginia this hot and crazy summer, parent-organized OBE town meetings have brought out large crowds. Another major session is scheduled at Richmond's Huguenot High School from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. next Tuesday. Organizers have gotten commitments from such OBE opponents as parent/educators Sylvia Kraemer of Alexandria and Cheri Yecke of Stafford County, and a conditional acceptance from State Board of Education memer Alan Wurtzel, who doubles as president of the business-backed Virginians for World-Class Education. The Department of Education also has been invited to dip into its 50-member pro-OBE speakers bureau. And a newcomer to the debate will be Eileen Hunt, leader of a group of African-American women who have made fighting OBE a priority.

To say that Virginia's education establishment has een, um, linguistically impaired in responding to the groundswell of opposition, also would be an understatement.

Last October, the Department of Education proudlly proclaimed its allegiance to "transformational" OBE, which indeed was the brand (thick with life-adjustment mush) peddled by its chief consultant, sociologist William Spady of Colorado. But by June, Secretary of Education James Dyke was denying on Channel 8's "This wWeek in Richmond" that Virginia's reform was OBE at all. Then Wurtzel equated OBE for Virginia schools with industry's Total Quality Management. Finally, State Board of Education president James Jones told ciritics at a board meeting last week that it wasn't "transformational" OBE but traditional.

It is. It isn't. It is. It isn't. So at what public meetings were those supposed course corrections made? (In truth, some jargon may have been expunged, but the Spady influence remains in the oleaginous "outcomes" that are to be Virginia's new graduation requirements."

Now, DOE (like a frightened doe?) is backing off its recent pledge to "accdept all invitations" to speak at public meetings. The new policy, which caused Wurtzel to hedge on his Huguenot appearnace, is that no dcandidate for political office may be on the program. Does that mean DOE will not appear with Democratic officholders who seek to extend their political careers? DOE public affairs director Margaret Roberts couldn't say for sure.

What it means in practical terms is that DOE doesn't want parents' advocate Mike Farris, the GOp candidate for Lieutenant Governor, anywhere around to challenge official orthodoxy. Farris has stated forcefully his opposition to OBE. ("it's 180 degrees in the wrong direction") and the bureaucratization of education it epitomizes.

By contrast, his opponent, Democratic incumbent Don Beyer, said the following on the Blanquita Cullum show on WLEE-Radio last week: "Outcome-Based Education is one of many things being debated now nationally and in Virginia. And I'll have an opinion when the debate is finished."

Amazing! When will we know the debate is over? Will a time-keeper sound a buzzer for Dandy Don's benefit?

Over breakfast with me last week, Wurtzel and Dyke pulled out a set of acaddemic standards the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, schools are considering for their "World Class" system. They suggested that this might be an alternat model when DOE considers the standards for implementing the three dozen "outcomes" in its Common Core of Learning. to the extent Charlotte's program apppears to call for rigor in traditional academic disciplines, that's encouraging.

Ah, but there's a catch. Virginia won't consider those standards until after the November 2 election, possibly in December -- and public hearing won't be held until after that. Wurtzel spoke at breakfast of a desire to keep the issue out of partisan politics. Later, after consulting DOE officials, he called to say the standards can't be completed before December anyway.

the proponents' "no politics" cry rings hollow. Led by such politiacl stalwarts as Jeannie Baliles and Cyke, Virginians for World-Class Education has begun a well-funded political-style campaign to sell OBE. (Dyke has resigned as Education Secretary but he is considered a liekly Democratic contender for Lieutenant Governor in 1997 --- on a ticket with Beyer, perhaps?) It is hardly fair to demand that ordinary citizens who lack such means should hold their fire until after the November elections and thereby probably forfeit their best chance to derail OBE.