OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION QUESTIONED   BY ED HUBER:

   from the Westside Sun  April, 1993

 OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION QUESTIONED

 by Ed Huber, News Editor

 One of Katy ISD’s goals is to improve student outcomes.

 But some parents are concerned that this means the district is about to adopt an Outcome Based Education (OBE) program that would promote hidden agendas or belief systems such as the so-called “New Age” movement or “New World Order,” says Ann Loutfi, a member of the Coalition for Family Information.

 By the same token, Artis Hinds, Katy’s director of guidance and counseling, denies that the goal for improved student outcomes has anything to do with OBE--even if it did, Hinds says she has seen positive aspects in the program.

 Hinds, a 33-year educator, studied at Texas Tech eight years ago under Jack Chaplin, a recognized authority on OBE.

 “He helped me to approach students who were failing differently,” Hinds says.  “For 25 years I set a deadline and if a student didn’t meet it, I put a penalty on the grade.”

 In addition, in cases where students were forced to retake a failed test, if the student received 50 per cent on the first and 100 per cent on the second, she would average the grades.

 But after studying under Chaplin, Hinds did away with deadlines and reevaluated her grading system.

 “My first year was terrific and the achievement gains for the children were great,” she says.

 In OBE, or Mastery Leaning, students are allowed to learn at their own pace with emphasis placed on whether (not when) they achieve their goals, Hinds says.  “When all students have mastered the current outcomes, then the class starts the next set of outcomes.”

 But those who oppose OBE complain that Mastery Learning is a Robin Hood approach to education because it benefits low achievers while holding back the high achievers from progressing to higher levels.

 Hinds, however, says the brighter students are used as teachers for slow learners, thus reinforcing the learning that took place during the mastery process.

 “You can learn through teaching,” she says.

 But the fact that OBE is based on outcomes, or performance goals, and the fact it restructures the traditional framework of semesters, subjects, departments, grades and class rank into a framework without grades, without schedules, and without objective measurement of progress has some parents concerned, Loutfi says.

 “The program encourages procrastination instead of meeting deadlines, and most of the outcomes are affective with the outcome as the primary concern,” Loutfi says. “In other words, get the student ‘there’ any way you can get him ‘there.’”

 In addition, because the outcomes are affective, they reflect values, beliefs and attitudes that may determine political correctness, she says. 

 “Who will determine those values, attitudes and beliefs?” Loutfi asks.  “And how will such vague objectives as ‘good citizenship’ be measured?  And, what corrective action will be taken if a student doesn’t conform?”

 In essence, she says, OBE has parents concerned that the program will be used as social engineering to install a system of supervision and control that restrains behavior of kids and fosters social compliance.

 Loutfi and  Hinds say that OBE has been implemented in several states with varying degrees of success.  In Texas, Lamar Consolidated and several other schools have implemented programs while others have rejected it.

 Whether OBE is on its way to Katy remains to be seen.  One thing is certain though:  the debate rages on.  Some parents have already expressed displeasure at the use of the word “outcomes” in a district goal statement.

Art Hinds was the Director of Guidance and Counseling when I was a member of the Katy ISD Board of Trustees.  She was not even aware of what she was telling us when she did this interview!