Competency-based education asks educators and the public to give up decades of habits and assumptions regarding the structures and methods of schooling. (Author/IRT)

Basic definitions, conceptual clarity, and analyses of the organizational and social implications of various competency-based education approaches are badly needed. (Author/EB)

Arguing that the term "competency based education" (CBE) has been erroneously applied to minimum competency programs, this booklet contends that the problems addressed by the minimum competency movement can be, but probably will not be, resolved by the implementation of true competency based education (CBE). The first section of the booklet…

Although state policy makers have been setting new standards for public school promotion and graduation under the rubric of Competency Based Education (CBE), they have used the concept of CBE in two different ways; one involves focusing school activities and graduation requirements on various competencies, whereas the other specifies how education…

Outcome-based education (OBE) means clearly focusing and organizing everything in an educational system around what is essential for all students to be able to do successfully at the end of their learning experiences. This book examines the issues critical to understanding and implementing OBE. Chapter 1 addresses a range of issues related to the…

Failure in the areas of student social responsibility, social integration, and personal development has led schools to focus on various forms of outcome based education. In this article, three outcome based models are discussed in relation to the current surge of competency based educational programs. (GC)

It is the thesis of this discussion that outcome-based instructional systems (such as mastery learning, individually guided education, and competency-based education) represent a workable alternative to traditional approaches to instruction and are particularly suited to children in Head Start and Follow Through programs. This thesis is expanded…

The demand for competency based education reflects a desire for more public, consistent, and objective standards of student assessment. This demand implies a change in the definition and interrelations among four operational functions of the school: instruction, acculturation, supervision, and certification. The institution of externally…

The high school diploma is attacked as providing inadequate evidence of student development, socialization, and achievement. Discussed are major potential consequences of the movement towards "competency-based education" affecting college admissions, curricula, graduation requirements, and student learning. (AF)

This paper presents ideas relating to curriculum organization from the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development publication, "Excellence in Our Schools: Making It Happen," which attempted to synthesize nine reports written in response to the National Commission on Excellence in Education report, "A Nation at…

The instructional delivery system of traditional school practice consists of fixed time, single opportunities for learning a vague-referenced, variable, and private curriculum. While a minimum competency testing program ensures that academic standards are criterion-referenced, fixed, and public, the time allotted for learning may still be fixed.…