Wvw, Hoban To Decide Wvc Championship

Adele Jancik 
Feb. 11, 1994 
Adele Jancik, Of Third Avenue, Kingston, Died Friday In Summit Health Care 
Center, Wilkes-barre.

By JENNIFER LEARN; Times Leader Hazleton Bureau
 Sunday, February 13, 1994 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 3A QUICK WORDS: SURVEY WILL GIVE
RESIDENTS SAY IN OBE 





HAZLETON -- In a few weeks, area residents can complete a survey that will
be used to help shape outcomes-based education (OBE) at Hazleton Area School
District this fall. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The district's OBE Strategic Planning Committee is drafting the survey and
hopes to get it approved by the school board and distributed next month, said
district curriculum/instruction director and OBE coordinator John Rabets. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; OBE, an educational reform movement passed by the state Independent
Regulatory Review Commission in May, concentrates on what students know and
learn instead of the hours they spend in school. To graduate, students under
the OBE principles, will have to show they mastered certain skills, or
outcomes. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 For example, students must demonstrate a prescribed level of knowledge of
mathematics before they can move on to new material. Those who learn more
quickly may move on to new material, while those who move more slowly will get
remedial work until they show the required skills. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Hazleton Area and Lake-Lehman school districts are among the one-third of
the state's 501 districts that must start implementing OBE this fall. The
other schools have deadlines of 1995 and 1996. Within five years of the
starting date, schools must have OBE fully implemented. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The Hazleton Area district is designing the survey and will eventually hold
"town meetings" because the state Department of Education mandates districts
consider community feedback when designing OBE, Rabets said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Surveys will be distributed to parents through their children and to all
district teachers and administrators, Rabets said. Any resident who wants to
participate in the survey may pick one up at locations yet to be announced. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Questions in the survey will assess the curriculum, textbooks, teaching and
other aspects of the instructional program, Rabets said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Rabets said he had no survey sample questions to release. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "The purpose is to get feedback from the community on the quality of
education at Hazleton Area School District. We really want to see what
peoples' perceptions are and improve what we're doing here," Rabets said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Students and teachers probably won't notice drastic changes when OBE
instruction begins this fall, Rabets said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I'll encourage to the board that we begin very conservatively, so I don't
think the students or teachers are going to see any abrupt changes," he said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Rabets predicts OBE will make both teachers and students more conscious of
how every course relates to another because everyone will be working to meet
the same general outcomes. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But Rabets wants to create different standards or outcomes for students of
varying abilities so that all students are challenged. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Parents have been concerned that OBE will lower standards, that we'll have
to lower the outcomes students will need to graduate so that students of all
levels can achieve them," Rabets said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The college-bound, for example, should be required to achieve outcomes in
calculus, but business students may need to fulfill outcomes in another area
of math before they graduate, Rabets said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Hazleton Area's strategic planning committee started designing OBE in July.
Thirty-five local residents, parents, students, teachers, school
administrators, civic leaders and businesses representatives comprise the
group. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Weatherly names OBE chief &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 This week the Weatherly Area School Board appointed English/remedial
reading teacher Barbara M. Sipler coordinator of outcomes-based education at
the district. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Weatherly Area has to begin implementing OBE in September 1995. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "This is an important position because together with the community, school
board, teachers, and students I will help shape the future of education at
Weatherly Area School District," Sipler said.

Survey Will Give Residents Say In Obe Local Schools Are Joining The Movement To Rate Students By What They Learn Rather Than Time Spent In Learning