New wave may cast education adrift - outcome-based education - includes related article on Richmond Times-Dispatch journalist Robert G. Holland's critical articles on the outcome-based movement

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 18, 1993 | by Kenneth Smith

Such exchanges aren't likely to end soon. Business officials say it's hardly unreasonable to expect high school graduates to be able to hold a job. "As soon as a young person leaves high school and goes into the work force, they're evaluated from day one on the basis of what they can accomplished Ed Donley, a former chief executive officer of Air Products an Chemicals, based in Allentown, Pa., said in the Harrisburg Patriot-News. "They should be accustomed to being tested in schools by their accomplishments."

But some parent groups see outcome-based education distancing their children from the basics, more and more critical in this fast-paced, complex world. Says Eileen Hunt, leader of a predominantly black group of Richmond women organized to deal with inner-city problems, outcome-based education "will breed laziness. We have enough of that."

Federal officials appear ready to join the fray. The House of Representatives is scheduled to take up a Clinton administration measure to provide federal funds for outcome-based education. A substitute measure introduced by Rep. Dick Armey, a Texas Republican, would prohibit recipients of federal funds from using tests to measure so-called affective outcomes -- those that bear on values, beliefs and attitudes -- and also would require parental notification before students could participate in psychological testing or sex surveys.

Peg Luksik appears determined to fight on. "The rights you don't protect," she says, "are the rights you lose."