Revenge of the blob - outcome-based education

National Review, Sept 12, 1994 by Ramesh Ponnuru

Mr. Finn worries that the backlash against OBE could endanger worthwhile reforms. In particular, he fears that OBE'S "dippy outcomes" could discredit the idea of raising educational standards, in which case "we will find ourselves back in an era where education is evaluated by its spending levels and its class size and its inputs and its intentions rather than by what kids learn." As a practical matter, however, the ease with which the education establishment has hijacked the movement for higher standards may suggest that would-be reformers should push for decentralizing reforms, enlisting market forces rather than state bureaucracies to raise standards.

A more troubling feature of the resistance to OBE is that it partly reflects the fact that many parents (50 per cent of suburbanites, according to a 1993 Gallup poll) are satisfied with their kids' schools and do not want a shake-up--which makes any sweeping changes, including those conservatives favor, a hard sell. Yet this consideration underscores the importance of resisting OBE: it would deprive conservative reformers of the statistics they need to end that complacency. For the same reason full-blown OBE would make radical education reform more difficult to achieve, however, it would also make it more imperative. For years, the education establishment has said no to vouchers, arguing that public education should be improved instead. Now it is supporting efforts to deny parents and taxpayers the knowledge to do so.

The resistance to OBE surprised the education establishment, which is accustomed to dismissing grass-roots pressure. It has responded with more terminological evasion. Just as "mastery learning" became "outcome-based education," OBE has assumed a variety of new names, including "performance-based assessments." Writing in the May 1994 issue of Science Teacher magazine, John Kudlas advises his fellow OBE supporters to "refrain from calling your innovation |OBE.' Use results, objectives, goals, expectations, or something similar. Using the term |OBE' can attract unwanted criticism."