OBE vs NCLB, some thoughts/links

[The Straight Story]

So I am wondering......

Back in 1994 there was an article about how the RW was suddenly up in arms over an idea the first bush had, Outcome Based Education - aka, OBE.

Clinton proposed something similar and the fundies were up in arms suddenly.

bush 2 gets into office, renames it and once more the rw is for it and dems against it...

Here is the 1994 article: (A VERY interesting read)
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_new_school_wars

Here is a rw screed against it:
http://www.usiap.org/Viewpoints/Society/Education/OutcomeBasedEducation.html

From wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outcome-based_education

Yes - The two have differences but are similar in general concept.

Both parties were for and against it - and not just talking specifics as can be seen in the links.

How is it that something both parties at some point has said was bad is now something that has been passed and is still there (the left didn't like nclb and could fix it, but have not yet talked about it even to my knowledge, I could be wrong on that of course).

Just seems...well, odd.

[donco6]

1. Yes, it's been inspired both by Satan and Jesus.

Depending on who is in power.

Part of it came as a backlash against standardized tests, which rank kids based on their performance as compared to all other kids taking that test. So Johnny scores a 80% on Iowa Basic. That means he's as good or better than 80% of his peers on that test. But what does Johnny really KNOW? Do all kids suck at quadratic equations? Other tests seemed to suggest that.

So they came up with standards, which really is just a state or national curriculum packaged in a different way. That's where it's all heading eventually - a national curriculum. Then will be the nationally-adopted textbooks that deliver the standards. Then all schools will have to realign their course offerings (no more Biology at Sophomore year, has to be Freshman; no more integrated math, it's Algebra I, Trig, II and PreCalc for all).

Then they devised the standards-based assessments. Under NCLB all states have to have one, but they don't all have to be high-stakes (Pass the Test or No Diploma). But they all will be soon. It's proven to increase dropouts, cheating and everything horrible about education, but that hasn't stopped them from implementing something yet.

Ultimately, we'll have a full-fledged tracking model, where kids are tested in 7th grade or so, and shuttled into Voc-Ed programs or the College Track programs - never to have the opportunity to change the course of their lives after that.

It's sad.

[The Straight Story]

2. Sad indeed

A friend of mine is going for her PHD in education and we talked about it sometime back. She has seen the affects firsthand and she just cannot grasp why such a system is in place - where all kids are seen as clones and learn at the same pace the same things.

It is now like - being different in some ways is 'wrong' or 'bad'.