A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

The central philosophy at Oakgrove Middle School, a suburban school with over 1,300 students--predominantly students of color--is Outcome-based Education (OBE). Gleaned from literature published by the High Success Network, the three main goals of OBE are to: 1) equip students with knowledge, competencies, and orientations needed for future success; 2) implement programs and conditions that maximize learning success for all students; and 3) do the above with a clarity of focus by holding high expectations for all students, giving students "expanded opportunities" to learn well, and using curriculum developed by designing down from exit outcomes.

A committee of administrators, teachers, parents, business representatives, and students from Oakgrove identified five basic outcomes for students in the district: students are to be effective communicators, inspired learners, productive workers, responsible citizens, and resourceful thinkers. This list of exit outcomes is posted in all of the teachers' classrooms, but the teachers vary in their use of the outcomes. Although the teachers have received much in-house and external training in OBE, many of the teachers remain uncertain as to what OBE really is.

For the seventh and eighth grade Language Arts/History teachers at Oakgrove, the question of "what OBE looks like" has received particular attention in the past year. As recipients of a three year, $35,000 grant from the state, the Language Arts/History teachers have embarked on the task of rewriting their History curriculum. This revision process has given the History/Language Arts department the opportunity to coordinate its 7th and 8th grade curriculum, to write curriculum which has solid content, and to design this curriculum with the intent of implementing OBE philosophies and giving students the opportunity to meet the district's exit outcomes.

This strong content/OBE link provides a powerful example of how a subject area focus and OBE philosophies can be woven together. Over the course of the year, the Oakgrove History department designed units on such topics as slavery, civil war, and reconstruction which rely heavily on strategies such as group work, demonstrations of student knowledge, rubrics for self-assessment, and "expanded opportunities," a chance for students to redo an assignment in order to more fully meet the rubric requirements and/or the exit outcomes. The curriculum calls for students to be both the directors and assessors of their work, with the teacher playing the role of the facilitator.

Shifting to a situation where students are directors and assessors and teachers are facilitators involves a major redefinition of the teachers' and students' roles. Some classrooms at Oakgrove have yet to make this shift and others vary between traditional and reformed roles, but one classroom in particular is run with a clear understanding of new roles by both the students and the teacher. In order to bring students to this understanding, the teacher of this classroom gave his students activities and assignments in the first month of school which were aimed exclusively at familiarizing students with OBE terms and philosophies such as exit outcomes, performances, rubrics, risk taking, expanded opportunities, essential learnings, and quality. These terms and philosophies were the tools the students used in approaching their academic work in the rest of the year.

The month of "training" in OBE seemed to give these students both a sense of understanding about their own learning process and a lens through which they could assess their individual schoolwork. Although only one teacher's students received this kind of focused training in OBE, the larger student population at Oakgrove engaged in significant self-assessments of their learning and schoolwork through the process of student-led conferences. During the student-led conferences, students discussed with their parents and teachers the progress of their work, their strengths and weaknesses in each class, and how they met the exit outcomes. The student-led conferences did much for all students' understanding of their learning and their work. The conferences also gave parents a personal look at OBE and what OBE means for their children.

There has been no community resistance to OBE at Oakgrove. In fact, there have been relatively few barriers to the implementation of the OBE philosophy at Oakgrove. This is not to say that the Oakgrove teachers and students have completely "arrived" at reform. Rather, Oakgrove has elements in place for the successful development of engaging, relevant curriculum and for the implementation of curriculum in a reformed manner, where students demonstrate their knowledge through life-role performances. It is this effective pairing of strong content with OBE strategies for teaching and learning that makes the Oakgrove example so powerful. Further training for both students and teachers in OBE and "what OBE looks like" in the classroom, training which perhaps could be led by Oakgrove teachers and students who are practiced in the philosophy, will greatly aid in the school's continuing progress toward reform.

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