A Reaction to Ozar

There is really nothing that I disagree with in Ozar's first four chapters about learning outcomes, as it all seems very familiar. I don't know how widespread the use of learning outcomes is in the curriculum of U.S. schools, but learning outcomes have been an integral part of curricula for many years in all the schools in Australia. The learning outcomes for each subject and level are mandated by a central education and assessment authority in each state within the context of a national curriculum framework. Each school sector (public, Catholic and independent) provides representatives for the curriculum committees for each subject and level, and the curricula are circulated for comments and revision before being implemented for five-year periods before they have to be evaluated and revised. If you are interested, clicking here will give you some idea of how each state organises their curriculum for K-10 (note 'Grades' in the USA are called 'Years' in Australia). Years K-10 have a core curriculum with the exception of Years 9 and 10 where some electives are introduced. Each state has a different way of assessing Years 11 and 12, but each subject has an external assessment (usually a state-wide exam or external assessment of technics and art-related subjects) and some internal assessment. An example from the state of Victoria can be found by clicking here if you are interested. Curriculum development in Australia is largely driven by forces outside the school, particularly the state curriculum authority with some input from national educational authorities. Schools are free to choose their own texts and teaching resources, and publishers ensure that there is a variety of texts and resources available.

Australian teachers spend time at subject teachers meetings discussing possible ways to achieve the learning outcomes. It should be noted that the state curriculum documents also suggest possible methods and provide examples how the curriculum can be implemented. There are some things relating to curriculum that are big issues in Australia that are not mentioned in the opening chapters of Ozar and a scan of the contents page suggests that these issues are not covered later or given cursory mention.

• The first issue in implementing outcomes is how much time to allocate in a program so that all the outcomes are addressed, and how and when the teacher should move on when individuals have not achieved a particular outcome.
• A second issue is reporting the outcomes to parents. I haven't seen any recent US school reports to know what the comparison is like, but reporting outcomes has been a source of debate in recent years in Australia. This has meant that there has been a change in terminology (and thinking) from outcomes-based assessment to standards-based assessment. You can see some sample report documents by clicking here.
• A third issue in Years (Grades) 9-12 is that each individual school has to decide which elective subjects will be offered. This is quite a challenge given the number of potential subjects that are available, especially at Years 11 and 12. Facilitities, teacher availability and interest, financial resources, student and parent interest and demand are all factors that are taken into account when these curriculum decisions are made.
• A fourth issue is deciding which texts and resources to purchase and use. There is a wide variety of texts and resources available because the same syllabus is used throughout the state.

I think that it is vital to consider not only "what shall students learn?" and "how will I know how students have learned it?", but "how shall I communicate what students have learned?" . Is it sufficient to have a single letter grade to reflect the multiple learning outcomes of students, and what is the meaning of the grade that is given? Hopefully food for thought!