OBPE

OBPE stands for outcome-based planning and evaluation. When I first began reading this book, I thought, “Backwards planning!” One of the ways I design curricular units and lesson plans in my 8^th grade English classroom is by backwards planning. I start with a goal I have for my students. That would be the outcome. All my planning, then, is structured to lead to that goal or outcome. Along the way, I evaluate whether I am meeting my needs, my students’ needs, and whether the path I’m on will truly accomplish the goal. For example, perhaps, based on some formative assessment strategy, I find that students are struggling with a certain aspect of the topic. I cannot just continue on that path; I need to rethink and restructure the activities in which I have them engage.

The authors of Dynamic Youth Services through Outcome-Based Planning and Evaluation (Dresang, Gross, & Edmonds Holt, 2006) emphasize how planning and evaluation are inseparable functions. I agree. We cannot plan for future outcomes without evaluating what is occurring currently. On page 117, they describe formative evaluation: “Instant evaluation is one kind of formative evaluation. It can shape and form the planning process even when it is still under way…so evaluation is embedded throughout the process and can modify any part of the process as it occurs.” Again, this is exactly what I would do with what teachers call “formative assessment.” When we gather data through formative assessment, we can modify or adjust what is being taught and how it is being taught in order to achieve the goal. It is a way of ensuring that students’ needs are being met without waiting until it is too late.

On the other hand, summative evaluations occur at the end of something. It is important for comparing data to that gathered at the beginning of the process and it provides data about the extent to which the desired outcomes have been reached (118). In my classroom case, we gather summative data in the form of benchmark exams. The results of this assessment provide our departments with how well the students have learned the material.

In the past, there was a lot of time devoted to analyzing the data of the benchmarks. The thought was we would go back and review or reteach the material with which the students struggled. As you can imagine, this didn’t always work. In fact, it rarely worked. Recently, while we still administer the benchmarks, less emphasis has been placed on the actual data and more emphasis has been placed on identifying the needs for future situations as well as developing lessons and activities that might help lessen the gap.

Therefore, it is important to engage in both formative and summative evaluations. Their purposes are slightly different, but they provide data important to stakeholders and affect change.