Students believe benefits of educational philosophy are many

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STUDENTS BELIEVE BENEFITS OF EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY ARE MANY

Three Decatur Central sophomores explain how OBE works.

December 19, 1994

To better understand Outcome-Based Education, Children's Express interviewed three students from Decatur Central High School.

The 10th-graders - Sarah McHone, Michelle Mills and Amber Bollman - had experienced OBE in their school system for several years.

Before our interviews, many of us figured that the only thing unique about OBE was getting to take tests over again. These students better defined to us what OBE really means to them as students.

PERSONAL BACKGROUND

SARAH McHONE, 15: I'm in swimming and cheerleading. I'm in the GT humanities class - it's like gifted and talented humanities.

MICHELLE MILLS, 16: I'm on the cross-country and track team and I'm a chairman of the student council.

AMBER BOLLMAN, 15: I'm in the GT humanities and math classes and write for Children's Express.

WHAT IS OBE?

SARAH: It's Outcome- Based Education. If you take a test the first time and if you don't pass it or (get) a very good grade on it, then you can retake it. . . .

You have to get a 40 or 50 percent before (you can retake a test), so it shows at least you studied. You didn't just (say), "Well, I'm going to flunk the first one so I can take the second one when I feel like it."

AMBER: The focus of OBE is just that kids learn it. It's not how fast they learn it or when they learn it, because I mean, it's more important that when you leave high school you know these things. It doesn't really matter how many times it took you to understand.

MICHELLE: I think Outcome-Based Education is probably based on learning the lowest type of knowledge, the base knowledge. And then in your other classes, like my advanced classes, mastery learning is really what OBE is.

It's not about morals and values or anything like that. I think (OBE) is definitely based on academics.

AMBER: I think the school likes to build up your self- esteem, but they like to do that through making you successful. They don't just sit there and say, "Oh, you are a wonderful person," "Oh, you can succeed." They do things that put us in a position to do well, and then that sort of builds our self-esteem.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OBE AND OTHER STYLES

SARAH: I don't think it's very different except for that you can retake tests. I think that's about the only difference.

If you were in a regular class and you didn't understand it and you took the test, then you just keep going on. And like OBE, you get to retake it until you get a chance to know it better.

MICHELLE: They first started OBE when I went from sixth to seventh grade. I don't know if it has more to do with just the grade change or the system change, but my grades in some classes got higher, like in my gifted and talented classes. . . . Now, they're really good.

AMBER: I think the difference is that OBE focuses more on students learning rather than how fast they learn. It focuses more on the output.

The school believes that it's not the amount of time spent in class but ensuring that you leave school with a certain amount of knowledge.

CHANGES IN TESTING

AMBER: A lot of kids at school, they don't study at all for the first test because they know they are going to get a second chance, but I think the teachers are doing a little bit to try to limit that. A lot of times, if you don't get a 50 percent or above, you can't retake it.

SARAH: If you flunk the first test, you can take it one more time - usually just one more. (The second test) has about the same material but it usually has a little bit different questions. They change it around some.

Sometimes (teachers) give you the second test grade, and other times they average it into the first, or they'll take the better of the two. It depends on the teachers.

MICHELLE: If an entire class does badly, they'll have study sheets and relearning and things like that. . . . Otherwise, it's the students' responsibility to come in to "success period," which is a time before school starts, to help you learn. And they're supposed to get help individually.

TEACHERS' ATTITUDES

SARAH: My mom's a first-grade teacher at our school system, and she believes in it. Most of my teachers think that it's a good idea. At Decatur, you don't have to teach OBE, but most teachers do because they like the style.

MICHELLE: I think that the general teacher attitude toward OBE is probably that it's a good idea, but it's not working out well because a lot of teachers feel that they are being pushed too hard. They've expressed that they are pushed to work faster, you know, do certain things.

I think it's a lot harder on teachers than it is on the student. Really, all the students have to do is study and if they don't do it right the first time, all they have to do is spend 15 to 20 minutes to come in and retake whatever it is they didn't do right the first time.

AMBER: If the teachers don't want to teach like that, then they aren't (teaching it) as it should be done. I had a teacher who didn't like OBE and he just let kids take a test like six times, just so they would hurry up and pass it.

GOOD THINGS ABOUT OBE

SARAH: I think (OBE) is good because in regular classes, you don't always get a chance to understand. . . . OBE, if you didn't quite understand it all the first time, then you can have a second chance to talk to your teacher more and go in and do correctives that will help you get it into your brain.

AMBER: This year I had physics, and it was just really a killer. I studied for all of the tests, but sometimes I don't do as well as I would like to. I got a 78 on the last test, and I went back and I corrected the test and went through some review things, and then I came back and the next test I got, like, a 98.

It really allows you a second chance to learn something that you might not have gotten the first time, not because you didn't study or didn't try, but because some things aren't quite as easy to grasp the first time.

MICHELLE: I think that it is definitely a very good program for people who learn slowly, who can't keep up with the general pace and need to work basically at their own pace.

BAD THINGS ABOUT OBE

MICHELLE: I don't like the fact that someone can get an A the first time with a lot of teachers, and then someone can take the test over or whatever . . . and still get the same grade.

Teachers, though, have made (it so) that the second time around, the highest grade you can get is a B+. So I think that's a lot fairer.

SARAH: Some people just look over enough (material) so that they can pass (a test) . . . so they can slack off and study later when they feel like it.

That will be a little tough in college . . . because you're not used to always having to study the first time, having to know everything the first time.

AMBER: I think that with OBE sometimes there are kids who just don't study at all because they know they can take the test again. . . . That really doesn't encourage a kid to try his or her best.

MICHELLE: I think another disadvantage is for kids in advanced classes, maybe they want a little faster pace and maybe they need a little faster pace to keep interested in their work. OBE is based on the lowest mastery level so that every person in the school can do it.

I think that OBE should probably have different stages and possibly maybe different levels so that you can have the right pace.

WHAT YOU WOULD SAY TO CRITICS?

MICHELLE: Last year in my English class, we had a discussion on some articles that were written in the paper (about OBE) and what we thought of them.

We don't have any computers hooked up to Russia or anything that, like some of the articles said. . . . I think those are basically uneducated views. Most of the people that write those letters have never been in OBE classrooms in their life.

AMBER: A lot of times the newspapers and the TV news stations, they judge OBE by what they've seen in other states and the rumors, and they don't really give it a fair chance.

SARAH: I think that some people that don't use OBE in their class sometimes think it's just for people that want to slack off. But normally, I don't have to retake tests, but when you do, you usually know it all and you have to do correctives and you usually have harder tests. And so it pays off if you study for the first time, because the second test is harder.

EDITED BY: Eric Hauser, 14 ASSISTANT EDITOR: Stacy Quintin, 17

(ZZCPYRT)

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