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Outcome-based education (OBE) is an Education Reform model largely aimed Primary and Secondary Education ("K-12" in the United States and Australia) which is intended to objectively measure student performance. Measurement may be used to determine whether or not the education system is performing adequately, and in some cases whether or not students will be certified as educated by the system. It is also known as '''Standards-based education reform''', Mastery Education, systemic education restructuring, Performance Based Education, High Performance Learning, Total Quality Management, Transformational Education, Competency-Based Education, and Break-the-Mold Schools. Most local schools in the United States, state and federal education agencies are currently implementing a heavily modified form of outcomes- or standards-based education reform, though most citizens are unaware of the implications of this design compared to the education most parents received, and the small but persistent protest movement against implementation of this system since its inception in the late 1970s. HISTORY Outcomes-based education is based on concepts from the Total Quality Management movement in business. It is believed that by first deciding where they are and then where they want to be, academic goals can be reached for all students. OBE promotes concrete and specific expectations, and insists that students demonstrate their knowledge rather than simply proving they have sat in seats for 12 years. Opponents say many educational agencies have adopted outcomes which focus too much on attitudes (e.g., "Students will enjoy physical education class") rather than academic content. {Link without Title} "Consultant gets tough advice from Grayslake school parents" Daily Herald, April 25 2001 By C.L. WALLER Outcome-based methods have been adopted in significant ways in the United States , Australia , South Africa , Hong Kong , and other countries. WHAT IS OBE? OBE (now widely understood as standards-based education) is definition of education that shifts from the traditional focus on what students should be taught (content) and how much time they should be taught it for, to a focus on setting universal standards of what students are expected to demonstrate they "know and are able to do". "Standards" are the key to curriculum frameworks of nearly every state and school district in the United States as well as elsewhere in the world. Even opponents of certain specific reforms frequently advocate standards. Standards-based reforms emphasize setting clear standards for observable, measurable outcomes. Writing appropriate and measurable outcomes can be very difficult. Nothing about OBE demands the adoption of any specific outcome. For example, many countries write their OBE standards so that they focus strictly on mathematics, language, science, and history, without ever referring to attitudes, social skills, or moral values. The key features which may be used to judge if a system has implemented an outcomes-based education systems are:
GENERAL PHILOSOPHY The underlying belief that drives OBE is the conviction that all students can learn, regardless of ability, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender {Link without Title} . Furthermore, OBE recognizes that a complex organization is more likely to produce what it measures, and to downplay anything it considers unimportant. The adoption of measurable standards is seen as a means of ensuring that the content and skills covered by the standards will be a high priority in the education of students. The standards-based education movement rejects Social Promotion and the inevitability of inferior performance by disadvantaged groups. While recognizing that some students will learn certain material faster than others, the standards movement rejects the idea that only a few can succeed. All students are capable of continuous improvement. The opportunities that were previously afforded to those at the top of a Bell Curve are opened up to the diversity of all students, in a democratic vision, sometimes connected to social justice. "What does it mean to teach mathematics for social justice? Why should all students learn mathematics, anyway? http://www.msu.edu/~oslund/ (cached) The movement presents the following positions and viewpoints on OBE:
movement -- that all students should leave high school prepared for college, work, and citizenship -- is widely accepted"
and that ALL students will succeed. {Link without Title}
Critics however question whether such goals are realistic or attainable, or that success can only be framed in terms of high test scores and high incomes. It was progressives who first proposed broadening high school to include a place for those whose primary goal was not college preparation. The emphasis on higher standards and algebra and calculus for all would appear to devalue vocational training or the value of those who do not get high test scores. A promise that all will get world class diplomas becomes a promise that massive numbers will fail to get a diploma if they do not pass the new tests. Failure will be eradicated by rejecting the Bell Curve and rank ordering which is seen as a result of a defective curriculum simply by educating all to one high standard. In essence, OBE seeks to reject a rank-ordered definition of success by essentially promising that all students will perform as well as the students on the high end of the bell curve, and no students will perform at the low end by setting one "standard" that all students will be required to meet, an assumption that conflicts data on most tests that even Criterion-referenced Test s produce a bell curve distribution with some students scoring higher than others. In practice OBE often results in large increases in spending. Homework and project workloads also increase with unrealistically high academic expectations as elementary school students tackle mean, median and mode and high school students in Bellevue, Washington may soon be expected to pass AP college-level tests in some districts just to get a high school diploma. Rather than uniformly high grades and success, low grades become common with massive failure rates among students previously accustomed to getting Bs and As, although administrators will call such problems "a failure in communications", "to be expected", a "work in progress" and to "stay the course". One successful concerted attack on its implementation can be exemplified by Peg Luksik's campaign in Pennsylvania "that included hundreds of town meetings and a widely distributed videotape entitled Who Controls Our Children (McCarthy, 1995). The campaign was very successful at convincing a large number of people that OBE was part of a federal program that invaded their children's privacy, "stressing values over academic content, and holding students accountable for goals that are so vague and fuzzy they can't be assessed at all"(Olson, 1993, p. 25) (quote from MW Kirst, RL Bird, SA Raizen, 1997 - which can be found at {Link without Title} ). Like many comprehensive educational philosophies, Outcomes Based Education is controversial. It has been accused by some of "dumbing down" education, since it recognises achievement at different levels, and does away with the concept of 'passing' or 'failing', and so even those who would not achieve a passing grade in a more traditional approach are awarded a level of achievement. Conversely, even high achieving students can fail, as a study showed that nearly a quarter of students who were recommended to take college level courses in high school were found to fail the outcomes-based WASL high school graduation Standards-based Assessment , a level of failure which had been set as a goal for the '''general'' population. Even high achieving Asians, as well as low income Hispanic immigrant students can also be blocked from a college education if they fail the verbal section of a graudation exam. When "D" grade for mimimal effort is replaced a detailed 4 page "rubric", even a complete video book review on DVD with a chapter index with a complete plot can be given sufficiently low points to get an "F" {Link without Title} Run Silent, Run Deep Kirkland Jr. High School, Melson gave F to 8th grade 2005 project. It is also controversial amongst teachers, some of whom can find their marking workload more than doubled when changing to an outcomes based approach. DIFFERENCES WITH TRADITIONAL EDUCATION METHODS In a traditional education system and economy, students are given grades and rankings compared to each other. Curriculum standards and expectations of performance are based on what has been traditionally taught, and students are expected to perform at a wide range of abilities. The basic goal of Traditional Education was to present the knowledge and skills of the old generation to the new generation of students, and to provide students with an environment in which to learn, with little attention (beyond the classroom teacher) to whether or not any student ever learns the material."The Harmful Effects of Algorithms in Grades 1--4", by Constance Kamii & Ann Dominick in The Teaching and Learning of Algorithms in School Mathematics (NCTM Yearbook, 1998):"The teaching of algorithms is based on the erroneous assumption that mathematics is a cultural heritage that must be transmitted to the next generation." (p.132). Outcomes -- equal, high or otherwise -- were neither measured nor required. In the traditional system, the highest-performing students are given the highest grades and test scores, and the lowest performing students are given low, but passing grades. Norm-referenced tests typically use inexpensive, multiple choice computer-scored questions with single correct answers to quickly rank students on ability. These tests do not give criterion-based judgements as to whether students have met a single standard of what every student is expected to know and do; they merely rank the students in comparison with each other. In this system, grade-level expectations are defined as the performance of the median student, a level at which half the students score better and half the students score worse. By this definition, in a normal population, half of students are expected to perform above grade level and half the students below grade level, no matter how effective or ineffective the system is. OUTCOMES The emphasis in and OBE education system is on measured Outcomes rather than inputs of curriculum covered. Generally, outcomes are expected to be concretely measurable, that is, "Student can run 50 meters in less than one minute" instead of "Student enjoys physical education class." Outcomes may include a range of skills and knowledge. A complete outline of outcomes for an area normally includes everything from mere recitation of fact ("Students will name three tragedies written by Shakespeare ") to complex analysis and interpretation ("Student will analyze the social context of a Shakespearean tragedy in an essay"). Each educational agency is responsible for setting its own outcomes. Under the philosophy of OBE, they may specify any outcome (skills and knowledge), but not inputs (field trips, arrangement of the school day, teaching styles). Some standards widely used in the standards movement: CRITICISM OF OBE Opposition to testing Major criticisms include the fact that most existing state-wide tests do not adequately measure what students are supposed to be learning. The OBE philosophy insists that assessment models be carefully matched to the stated objectives. High-stakes Test s are ''not'' required in an OBE system; Norm-referenced Test s are prohibited. Portfolios, daily assessments, teacher opinions, and other methods of assessment are perfectly compatible with OBE models. Dislike of the specific outcomes Many people oppose OBE reforms solely because they dislike the proposed outcomes. They may think that the standards are too easy, too hard, or wrongly conceived. Most fear that the focus on achievement by all students will result in "dumbing down" the definition of excellence to a level which is achievable by even the weakest students. Families are unhappy with having all students meet a low standard, instead of most students meeting a higher standard. The appropriate use of individualization and work-at-your-own-pace programs, which are entirely compatible with OBE models, can alleviate these fears. The rule under OBE models is that the individual student cannot progress until the necessary standards are met; OBE models never demand that all students to be held back. Others object that the standards are too high. This charge is usually made when a family discovers that a student did not meet the standards and therefore was not promoted to the next level. For example, a student who does not add and subtract accurately may be required to attend summer school, or be forced to repeat second grade. OBE models do not approve of Social Promotion . This charge is also leveled against some "high" standards which are so high as to be developmentally inappropriate for all but the very brightest children. Finally, many complaints are directed against the nature of certain standards. For example, a politician might propose that standards be included for education about sex or Creationism . Controversial standards are opposed because of their content, not simply because they are standards. OBE models always leave the choice of the exact standards to the educational authority, so that families can influence the choice of standards according to their community's preferences. Dislike of something that is not OBE Many people oppose OBE reforms because the OBE reforms are packaged with other reforms. For example, a parent might consider a field trip to be a waste of time and money, and the proposed list of outcomes might include performing an activity which can't be done in the school building. Other educational reforms, including changes to the school calendar, the age of students which attend school in a certain building, they way tax revenues are divided, etc., may all be inappropriately called "OBE" reforms. Standards-based reform is often packaged as part of a comprehensive school reform model which promotes Constructivism , Inquiry Based Science , Reform Mathematics , Tax Reform , teacher training, and more. School To Work is also usually a component, which replaces the Comprehensive High School concept of career and academic tracks into requiring all students to spend school time in a work experience, much like the German concept, except that students on a university track are exempt from working for a company. Australia One of the problems of OBE for students wishing to attend university is that it does not lend itself well to forming a competitive Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER). The suggested model for mapping levels to a TER has been attacked because it results in a score with more Significant Digits than the measures from which it is derived and so is charged with being mathematically unsound. William Spady promoted the OBE method as a way of getting beyond 'meaningless' percentages and marks, aiming for education for life beyond school, giving children and young adults a broader and more transformative education. Arguably inelegant implementation makes the future of OBE unclear, and at odds with the Australian Government in Canberra. Criticism of OBE in Western Australia The current OBE controversy in Western Australia relates specifically to the introduction of OBE in upper school (year 11 and 12) classes. Many Western Australian schools have been using some form of OBE for K-10 students for several years. (OBE is only one part of the current changes to upper school education currently being implemented. Other aspects of the New Courses Of Study that form the upper school review have received little public attention.) As part of the debate over further introduction of OBE into the teaching practice of Western Australia, various groups of concerned citizens and those in the teaching profession formed various single-issue lobby and action groups to progress their viewpoints. One such group was ''People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes'' formed by Greg Williams. The core view of this group was their disagreement with the former Western Australian Minister for Education ( Ljiljanna Ravlich ) in respect to her commitment to implement OBE. Another such group was Parents Against Outcomes Education, who took the position that the implementation of OBE would pose significant problems and potentially lead to the decreased knowledge and performance of school students. In January 2007, the Western Australian Government abandoned most of its Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) system in response to massive opposition from teachers and parents in the previous. Though the government had refused to back down in 2006, the Education Minister would be allow year 11 and 12 students to be graded traditionally than using outcomes-based levels and bands, even as the United States continues to change over to a somewhat similar standards-based system. WA scraps most of controversial education system United States In the early 1990s, several standards-based reform measures were passed in various states, creating the Texas Assessment Of Academic Skills (1991), Washington Assessment Of Student Learning (1993), the CLAS in California (1993), and the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (1993). In 1994, Congress passed the Goals 2000 act. The best known and most far-reaching standards-based education law in the U.S. is the No Child Left Behind Act , which mandated certain measurements for all states that receive federal education funds. (All states receive federal education money; as of 2006, only the state of Utah has been threatened with termination due to non-compliance with NCLB.) States are free to set their own standards, but the federal law mandates measurement of certain demographic subgroups (including racial minorities, low-income students, and special education students) in math and reading. Various consequences for schools that do not make "adequate yearly progress" and relating to School Choice (not necessarily including private schools) are included in the law. In most US states, the OBE process was designed by the blueprint "America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages" of the NCEE which is headed by Marc Tucker . OBE is said to be patterned after many of the idea of TQM . If a school is like a factory, then producing high quality students should be like quality control. If outcomes are specified and measured, then processes of continual improvement should make it as easy to produce defect-free students as chocolate chip cookies. All we have to do is start with a test with a high failure rate, and then gradually increase pass rate. A state would produce outcomes, or "standards" to be covered at grades 4, 7, and 10, and a Performance Based Assessment aligned to the curriculum standards would be produced. At present, over half of US high school students will be required by law to pass a High Stakes Test to get a High School Diploma , though in some states fewer than half of students and one-quarter of ethnic minorities have met these standards.Washington State OSPI WASL 2006 results Different approaches to grading and reporting An important by-product of this approach is that students should be assessed against external, absolute objectives, instead of reporting the students' relative achievements. Grading on a curve is never accepted in OBE or standards-based education. Teachers can use any objective grading system they choose, including letter grades. However, for the purposes of graduation, advancement, and retention, a fully developed OBE system generally tracks and reports not just a grade or "level" for a subject, but also give progress and/or status indicators for several more specific outcomes within that subject. For example, rather than just getting a passing grade for mathematics, a student might receive level 4 for number sense, level 5 for algebraic concepts, level 3 for measurement skills, etc. This approach is valuable to administrators, teachers and parents by specifically identifying a student's strengths and weaknesses. In one alternate grading approach, a student is awarded "levels" instead of grades. From kindergarten to year 12, the student will receive either a Foundational level (which is pre-institutional) or be evidenced at levels 1 through to 8. A student technically cannot 'fail': he or she will just simply not achieve in the level many of her or his peers are achieving and therefore need to repeat previous material until it is mastered. This acknowledges differential growth at different stages, and focuses the teacher on the needs of the students. In this approach, students and their parents are better able to track progress from year to year, since the levels are based on criteria that remain constant for a student's whole time at school. However, this is seen by some as a flaw in the system as it is normal for some students to stay on the same level for some outcomes for several years, especially in primary school. Standards can be set too high One problem is that committees typically set very high standards without regard to how many students achieve that level. For example, the North Carolina Writing Project gives out grades from 1 to 4. Most students receive a 2 or 3, but less than 1 percent of students got a "4" in any year in any age level. The goal of Washington State is to have 80 percent of students pass the WASL test, however in its first year 1997, not even the highest scoring elementary schools were at this level. Even among students who applied to take Running Start college level courses in high school, it was found that fewer than 80 percent had passed all of their WASL tests. Some items on the 1997 WASL mathematics test that had been chosen by the benchmarking committee were later found to greatly exceed developmental standards for fourth graders, sometimes even confounding college engineering majors. RECOGNITION OF INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT One of the implications of OBE is that teachers are prompted to think about the individual needs of each student and give opportunities for each student to achieve at a variety of levels. Thus, in theory, weaker students are given work within their grasp and exceptionally strong students are extended. In practice, a teacher may choose to hold advanced students down to level of the lower students because of the complexities of managing independent study programs for thirty childrens. Of course, adjusting to students' ability is something that good teachers have always done; OBE simply makes the approach explicit and reflects the approach in marking and reporting. OBE Diplomas ''see main article Certificate Of Initial Mastery '' A student who passed the 10th grade test would get a Certificate Of Initial Mastery . Some critics argue that the assessment does not measure knowledge as their parents would understand it, but instead measure the degree that controversial new teaching methods and values have been implemented. The student would then be allowed to continue 2 more years of career based training. A national standards board would be created which would create similar tests for all 8 career fields which would bar the employment of those who were not officially trained or certificated. The CIM has been abandoned by almost every state, but in its place, states effectively replaced the diploma with CIM by requiring passing the same 10th High School Graduation Examination . Oregon had proposed a CAM for "advanced mastery" at the 12th grade. The CIM concept was patterned after nations like Germany where most students end their formal education after grade 10, and this is why states require a 10 grade test to exit grade 12. These tests were deliberately calibrated to fail as many as 70 percent of students in the first year of testing. California's CLAS was later revealed to not have allowed ANY high scores the first year in math, and it was common for states to tell their graders to give very low grades the first year. But they always rise at a rate of 5 or more points per year as teachers include test problems in their lessons, the difficulty level of the test, and passing scores are adjusted, even though standardized tests and the NAEP typically show little or no improvement. Massachusetts is given as an example of the success of OBE because of a high test passing rate. However, critics say that this because many students have been forced out by "standards", and the failure rate of minority groups continues to be several times the majority rate. Positives of OBE Proponents view OBE as a valuable replacement of the traditional model of relative ranking by ability and getting credit for mere seat time. Liberal politicians often support OBE because of its vision of high standards for all groups. Conservatives like the idea of measuring outputs rather than inputs (such as money spent or number of hours of lecture given) and insisting that student demonstrate learning rather than just showing up. An example of unreasonably high standards Instead of a paradise where every one succeeded regardless of ability, the bar of "what every child must know and be able to do" has often been raised so that even high performing students get low grades. At Skyline High School in Issaquah , Washington, there were TV news stories of how their campuses felt like academic labor camps, and parents questioned why their high school students were asked to do college level work. The problem with the mantra "all will succeed" tends to be implemented as "all students must perform as well as the successful top 10 or 20 percent", and success is defined strictly as getting a high test score and taking the highest math and English classes. It might be argued that the most successful character on Gilligan's Island is Gilligan who has the best character, but in all probability the lowest test score skills of anyone in his community. Passing standard changes from a D grade to tasks far more complex than simply getting a 90% pass rate on a multiple choice test of facts that were taught, which was once the requirement for an A grade. Instead of the promise of making it easier for "D" students to get an "A", many "A" students will receive grades from C to F (see projects below). Washington State's superintendent Terry Bergeson pledged that all students would receive a World Class Standards diploma. Yet half of all students and three-quarters of minority students in 2006 were on track to be denied diplomas because of Bergeson's decision to help struggling students by requiring all students to pass the controversial WASL Standards Based Assessment . The reality is that new standards are much more difficult rather than making it easier for struggling students to succeed. In the world of educational triage, there are many students who are denied the help they need because they are deemed beyond help, regardless of their actual abibities and desire to learn. Massive Failure in Littleton Colorado The paper "Government Nannies: The cradle-to-grave agenda of Goals 2000 & Outcome Based Education" by Cathy Duffy (1995) notes losses of students and staff due to outcome-based education. In one school, there were 36 demonstrations required for graduation, but "high-school classes and grades carried no weight". Only 145 of 533 students enrolled completed algebra. Demonstrating knowledge of algebra was not a graduation requirement. It is a universal belief that merely by setting standards that "all will succeed". In a standards based system, this means all students of all demographic groups will pass all Standards Based Assessment s. However, no OBE demonstration in a diverse high school has ever produced a 100 percent graduation rate will every student of every ethnic, economic, and special education status being qualified for every job and every college. Research into the Achievement Gap show that every demographic group has achieved different scores on every set of published test results, whether traditional multiple choice or the most advance standards based assessments, so the optimistic belief in universal success does not appear to be based on any research results, but extrapolation of increasing test scores. Advocates of standards maintain that is due to ineffective implementation and incomplete communications with the community rather than any inherent problems with the vision of OBE. In "Assessment of Student Performance: Studies of Education Reform" by the U.S. Department of Education, it is noted that "Littleton, Colorado, had to rescind its reforms due to community opposition. The community was not kept well informed, and the reforms were enacted too swiftly. In the end, community members felt that vague, nonacademic outcomes were replacing content, and that technically unsound assessments would be used to determine something as important as high school graduation". ACCOUNTABILITY: OBE FOR COLLEGE One ironic effect of high school exit examinations is that it may become more difficult to graduate from high school than enter college. There is no set passing level for college entry tests like the SAT, and such tests are often not required by the lowest-rated colleges. In the United States, enrollment at a Commmunity College s is typically open to any adult, with or without a high school diploma or its equivalent. Thus a student who never finishes high school may still be able to attend a college. This may change as colleges are considering adopting similar standards-based assessments which would require critereion-based standards either for admission to or graduation from public universities. The movement for excellence and accountability, and alignment with K-12 is moving colleges into the standards movement {Link without Title} Perry's higher education plan praised A senior federal official calls governor's plan for more aid, incentives and accountability 'a bold step.' By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF February 18, 2007 Texas governor Rick Perry has proposed to increase funding by 8 percent, or $712 million, and require exit exams, holding colleges and universities accountable for students' performance. He has been supported by Sara Martinez Tucker, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Education. The Hispanic Scholarship Fund, issued a report last year recommending some of the same initiatives that Perry is proposing, somewhat ironic in view of the effect that the standards movement has in the high rates of failure of minorities on standards based examinations. PERFORMANCE BASED ECONOMY Outcome-based methods are also being used outside of education. For whole companies, standards-based evaluations are the basis of stock exchange prices: Companies which produce higher profit growth trade for higher prices than companies which perform poorly. A similar movement for performance-based systems is used for evaluating employees and setting salaries by many employers. Standards-based methods have been in ''de facto'' use for decades among commission-based sales staff: They are paid more for selling more, and low performers do not earn enough to make keeping the job worthwhile. OBE methods can provide a level of standardization in employee evaluations, which can reduce fears of favoritism and make the employer's expectations clear. For example, an employer might set a minimum standard of 12,000 keystrokes per hour in a simple data-entry job, and reassign or replace employees who cannot perform at that level. Employees would be secure in knowing that their performance was evaluated objectively according to the standard of their work instead of the whims of a supervisor, or against an ever-climbing average of their group. Standards have been proposed by the National Skill Standards Board in the United States, similar to labor certifications in other nations. Marc Tucker of the NCEE, who founded the skills board, proposed that all job applicants would have to pass a performance-based test. Many private employers do this for necessary job skills (such as typing speed), and nearly all U.S. government employees have to take and pass a civil service examination. Furthermore, nearly all licensed professionals, from nurses to truck drivers to beauticians, already take such tests as a condition of entering their professions. Often these "objective" tests have disproportionate failure rates for disadvantaged subgroups. Performance-based systems for rating physicians or job performance have met some opposition as they are being adopted by corporations and governments. Frequently, the opposition is motivated by fear of the unknown, and it subsides after the new system is in place and seen to operate transparently. In other cases, opposition is motivated by specific ill-conceived standards, such as one which makes employees work too fast to remain safe, or a system which does not take all factors properly into account. When intelligently implemented, standards of care have reduced hospital-acquired infections, medical mistakes and inappropriate treatment, to use the healthcare industry as an example. When implemented carelessly, standards have been a source of significant stress and low morale, no matter what the industry is. In other cases, opposition is motivated by a dislike of the consequences. For example, a company may have had a compensation system which paid employees strictly according to their seniority. They may change to a system which pays sales staff according to how much they sell. Low-performing senior employees would doubtless object to having their income cut to match their performance level, while a high-performing new employee might prefer the new arrangement. NOTES SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS Background Pro OBE Links
Anti OBE Links
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