Outcome Based Education
                 "Five Years of Organized Chaos"

Position Paper 1                          By Rev. Wayne C. Sedlak

FOREWARNING

The subject of this report, OBE (Outcome Based Education), is a
many-faceted, federal "octopus" which carries deadly potential for
an already declining educational system.  It is yet another classic
case of the "cure" being worse than the disease itself.  Whereas
future reports will focus upon such topics as the enormous costs of
implementing OBE, the documented failures of such programs around
the country, and the "shadowy" as well as dangerous origins of this
new federal power grab, this paper will deal with two glaring
errors:  (1) destroying any objective performance standards
(measurable results), (2) opening wide the door to the outright
"brainwashing" of America's children.
     In the fall of 1989, the Governors Conference on Education was
held in Wichita, Kansas.  The title of the Conference was "Schools,
Goals and the 1990's".  One would be tempted to think that such a
conference would hold out the promise of "better things ahead" or,
at least, an attempt to ward off a greater crisis than what the
government schools have already brought upon themselves. Not so. 
Not only were the governors told that there is a crisis in the
public sector, but the proposed "solution", once adopted, would
usher in five years of chaos. 
     What was the proposed "solution"? OBE...which stands for
Outcome Based Education.  As you study the following position
paper, bear in mind the expected result of this proposal, announced
by Dr. Shirley McCune, Senior Director of Mid Continental Regional
Educational Laboratory, who stated that  by implementing such a
policy  "the next five years will be the most chaotic of our
lives."  I agree... but for different reasons.  Unlike her, I am
not endorsing this program.  Here's why.

WHAT IS 'OBE'?

     Outcome Based Education has been proposed across the length
and breadth of this country as a means of solving the problem of
children "at risk".  It has been proposed as the answer in solving
the problem of skills deficiencies in our school children.  It is
the proposed solution for meeting the challenge of U.S. competition
in  world markets.  It is the proposed solution to meeting the
needs of labor.  In a nutshell, it is "The proposed solution".  
Lest one be tempted to think this a bit  overstated, OBE is also
the proposed solution to yet another problem: the student who fails
in school.  In other words, OBE promises to produce 100% student
outcomes success.  Imagine, no student failures!  Of course, there
will be no grading scale in this system either.  "No failures" is
not simply one of the results of  OBE.  This is the stated
objective.  In the words of Dr. William Spady, one of this
country's major proponents of OBE, children fail in school
"...because we make it (failure) available".  OBE, we are told by
educators, is designed to eliminate failure.  It is this point
which "sells" the program to educators.  Of course, the attraction
has been necessitated by the universal cry to do almost anything in
order to solve the crisis which has engulfed the government school
system for three decades.  However, it should be clearly understood
that the public sector is not the only one targeted for OBE
educational "restructuring".  OBE, as part of the "AMERICA 2000"
program, is being initiated for private schools, home schools, and
private Christian schools through initial testing procedures.  This
is national reform for all children!
     One is tempted to ask, "what is OBE"?  OBE is a national
educational reform movement which has established criteria for
graduation with its overwhelming emphasis upon each student's
social, ethical, and emotional development.  Yes, you did read this
correctly.  Cognitive (i.e. "three R"s") skills are subordinated
areas of educational attention. Traditional skills are to be de-
emphasized by the OBE and, in its place, attention is to be devoted
to attitudes, self-esteem, and other affective ("affective": acting
on the feelings or the emotions") learning behaviors.  Thus, all
children will be required to demonstrate correct attitudes to a
wide variety of issues and "politically correct" positions
involving environmentalism, global citizenship, collectivism and
multi-culturism, which are determined by the federal  government 
through its Department of Education.   Refusal to adopt the state's
views could  result in a denied diploma.  In addition, it is being
seriously proposed that mandated inquiries to schools by
prospective employers of such students should impinge upon future
job opportunities for them.
     It might be wise to reflect upon the idea of "chaos" again. 
OBE advocates insist that there is currently too much emphasis
placed upon traditional skills ("three R's") learning.  Reducing
such an emphasis by 40%-50% and replacing it with the enforced OBE 
program is on the agenda.  So, we will "solve" the current skills
crisis in educational illiteracy by reducing its time and
emphasis... and that on a national scale!

IMPLEMENTING "CHAOS"

     The system will be implemented through a thorough 
assessment (testing) program.  The student will be given "pre-
tests" to determine information on his/her current attitudes on a
wide variety of subjects (which would very often reflect the
opinions of their parents, especially when dealing with
elementary testing).  Afterwards, "learning nuggets" will be
served up to them to instruct them as to the correct responses to
the issues presented.   Then the assessment tests will test to
see if they understand the correct  responses.  So far, this
procedure still falls within the parameters of past methodology
(waiving for a moment considerations of the nature of the
material itself).  However, what happens next is a virtual
"revolution" in educational approach.
     If the student fails to give the appropriate responses to
the questions, he is then REMEDIATED.   That simply means that he
will be given further "learning nuggets" on the same type of
issue and re-tested until he learns to give the correct response. 
 He will be refused graduation to the next learning level until
he gives the correct response through remediation testing (called
"reassessment").  In short, he must give the state mandated
"correct" answer, which  answer  may often involve a problem of
conscience or conflict with positions espoused in the home and
church.
     One example is illustrative of the questions which have
shown up in testing programs already implemented by CFAT
(Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching), a major
endorsement authority of OBE.  Note the wording of the following
question:

     There is a secret club at school called the Midnight
     Artists.  They go out late at night and paint funny sayings
     and pictures on buildings.  A student is asked to join the
     club.  In this situation, I would join the club when I knew:

     (a) my best friend asked me to join

     (b) the most popular students were in the club

     (c) my parents would ground me if they found out I joined

The one assumption which must be noted is that the child would
join the club, not considering rejection of the club to be a
legitimate choice.  What makes matters worse is that each of the
responses has a pre-determined correct answer to which the
student must agree.  For choices (a) and (b), the State-desired
correct answer is "yes".  For choice (c), the State-desired
correct answer is "no".  If a student does not answer correctly,
he cannot advance.  He must be  "remediated", i.e., he goes
through the "learning-testing" loop again and again until he
"gets it".  That is how the promoters of this program expect to
gain 100% "learning success" (sic).   In any other context this
would simply be called what it really is..."brainwashing".  Isn't
it comforting to be assured by US Secretary of Education Lamar
Alexander that on a national scale "...one way or another we will
have the first phase tests by 1993-94"?
     Along with such a danger, there is yet another built-in
problem which, quite literally, could generate real chaos for our
society in the area of criminal behavior.  This letter to the
editor  appeared in U. S. News and World Report, April 15, 1985,
being written by a boy who had murdered his mother.  He writes:

          I am the boy who killed his mother.  I need to write
     for two reasons: One, as part of this "culture" I feel I can
     relate; and, two, to set the record straight about my case. 
          I disagree with people who say that parents are to
     blame.  It was not my mom's fault that I was the way I was,
     and it  certainly wasn't her fault that I murdered her.  The
     article says that my mother "ignored me until the pressure
     blew me up."  This was the impression I gave to people
     involved in my case.  It is not true.  I received no unfair
     treatment, nor did I have to go through anything  that other
     kids don't go through as part of growing up...
          The real problem was how I chose to deal with what did
     happen.  I am not saying that things don't happen to cause
     kids to do things.  In my situation, I am the only one to be
     blamed for what I did and for the immense pain I caused
     people.  I really need to make that clear.  I lied in the
     beginning due to my own selfishness.  I lied so that I would
     not have to honestly look at who I was and what I had done.

It is clear that the boy once successfully used behavioral,
"needs"-oriented "lingo" to work  emotive appeal on his own
behalf in order to justify criminal behavior of a violent type. 
He had learned to use it to attempt to fool society so as to
avoid condemnation.  He had learned to blame his parents for his
sins knowing that to be the current rage in our society.  Self-
justification, parental blame-shifting and "needs"-orientation
all worked hand-in-hand to obviate blame.   Interestingly enough,
OBE education emphasizes self-justifying affective teaching goals
in order to meet the needs of "children at-risk". With this in
mind, it might be well to remember the results of  the
Yochelson/Samenow report which studied the attitudes of over 200
criminals for a 15-year period.  According to Yochelson-

     "...the criminals made fools of us...They... exploited us
     for their own purposes... They became criminals with insight
     into their past, but criminals nonetheless...insight gave
     then more material to excuse their behavior."

The study demonstrated that criminals, like the boy who murdered
his mother, have no problem using affective behavioral arguments. 
In addition, those who did so, used them successfully enough to
justify their behavior and attitudes AND fool professional
psychological researchers. The question which  must now be asked
is whether greater doses of self-esteem, and other affective
curriculum at all grade levels will produce self-justifying
children, who will see nothing wrong with certain behaviorism
which THEY will choose, and who will have learned the behavioral
"lingo" well enough to fool professionals such as teachers,
police, judges, and lawyers ...not to mention their parents. 
     In addition, OBE shows little tolerance for parental input
and values, while programming children through test questions to
shift away from apparently ill-equipped parental authority. 
Instead, they are encouraged toward collective authorities such
as public opinion, peer groups, etc.  In fact, Lamar Alexander
has praised  schools for "breaking the mold " of business-as-
usual. Many of these schools have organized students in
classrooms into "families", stressing team planning.  The school
is frequently referenced as the new "family" of each student.  Do
note: OBE planners, such as Lamar Alexander, are pushing to have
your child in their "school" from birth to graduation, 12 hours
per day (6 A.M.-6 P.M.), 5 days per week, 12 months per year. 
That's a lot of "chaos".

OBE CHAOS: PAST AND FUTURE

     The OBE approach has been tried elsewhere.   After a decade
of trying to make it work, the Oregon Education Association
convinced the legislature to end the program. Schools were
overwhelmed by the enormous record-keeping and testing. 
Instruction was almost lost entirely.  The system was complicated
with staff trying to implement "hundreds and hundreds of these
individual competencies", said Bob Stalick, superintendent of
public schools in Albany, Oregon.  In early childhood education,
one set of the learner outcomes stressed competency concerning
"diversity of family situations" including "same-sex" and
"communal" groupings. Fortunately, such a program was deemed no
longer necessary and abandoned as a failure.  Ten years of
failure.
     The term "overwhelming" does not just apply to the
complexity of program implementation, record-keeping and use. 
Chicago, one of the first districts in the nation to embrace OBE,
ended its program after it cost the city an additional $7.5
million dollars in just five years!  Many critics of OBE point to
such costs.  These costs could double or triple property tax
assessments to finance just OBE.  Chicago paid the price for its
program in dollars...and student performance.  Authorities and
parents were alarmed at the number of  students who were found to
be falling behind on standardized tests.  Chicago paid top dollar
to implement a system which caused student performance to drop!
     OBE and its kindred predecessors have been rejected in
Oregon, Montana, Tennessee, Michigan, and New Mexico.  Parental
outrage is currently being expressed all across the country. 
Challenges to the program are underway in Missouri, Colorado, and
California.  Parents who had successfully kept Pennsylvania from
adopting the program in the past just lost a desperate battle to
keep it out.  So, the battle rages across the length and breadth
of this land.

CONCLUSION:

     American education needs OBE as much as individuals need
strychnine!  Parents, once fully informed, will oppose this
attempt to "mold" their children's values contrary to their own. 
Taxpayers will bemoan the enormous tax increases. The business
sector will decry the scarcity of skilled labor.  "Stay tuned" as
we shine the searchlight on the origins, promoters, funding
sources and failures of this new, federal, NATIONAL REFORM.


If you would like more position papers on OBE, please write to:

CRC-PIN
BOX 733
ELM GROVE WI. 53122


Reprinted with permission from the Parents Information Network