It used to be that religious groups rallied around one school issue at a time. Devout Christians could be counted on to oppose sex education, or the witches in a children's book or science curriculums that don't teach creationism.
But during the past five years, conservative Christians have gone to school on the U.S. education system and taken on a broader range of subjects and the broader subject of education reform. It's an easy target, because the reform is usually fraught with education jargon that alienates parents and invites misinterpretation.
A trend called "outcomes-based education," with its ambitious goals and philosophy, mobilized Christians around the country the past three years. They are fighting it at the grass-roots level of parents against school board, at the state level with legislatures and governors, and at the ballot box, where many outcomes foes are running for the school board, such as in Carroll County this fall.
The anti-outcomes movement was born in Pennsylvania, where a conservative activist and former teacher named Peg Luksik evolved into the Phyllis Schlafly of education.
Ms. Luksik directs the Pennsylvania Parents Commission. In 1991, she and her organization shifted their focus to a set of 52 "exit outcomes" her state's Board of Education adopted. The group now helps other conservative parents throughout the nation, and a videotape of one of Ms. Luksik's lectures circulates through an informal network, the way it traveled through church groups in Carroll County last year.
Now, all over the country, conservative parents are taking a more active role, perusing curriculum guides and tests to see whether their school systems are misbehaving.
* In California, a conservative group briefly succeeded in getting the state to pull three short stories from an exam given to all 10th-graders in public schools. The state Legislature passed a bill last week that would require that parents be allowed to have their children excused from the test.
* In Virginia, then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder halted a controversial outcomes-based education plan last year. The new governor, Republican George Allen, agrees with the decision.
* The fate of Kentucky's 1990 school reform law allowing a new state exam similar to California's is the center of a pitched political battle.
* In Alabama, a court-ordered school finance system backed by education reformers is in jeopardy. Opponents are pushing a "back-to-basics" approach.
* And in Westchester County, N.Y., a coalition of liberal groups and some clergy held a news conference just before school board elections last spring to charge that the Christian Coalition was running "stealth candidates" whose right-wing views would
not be revealed until after the election.
Televangelist Pat Robertson founded the nonprofit Christian Coalition five years ago. The group has a mailing list of 1.3 million names, spokesman Mike Russell said, and is interested in any issue, including education, that affects families.
The Christian Coalition claims it neither recruits nor endorses candidates. The organization surveys people running for office and disseminates the results so that voters can hold politicians accountable later, Mr. Russell said. The surveys don't give room for explanations, just a simple "support" or "oppose" answer, even on a subject such as outcomes-based education, which can mean different things in different school systems.
Outcomes-based education is a broad term that means schools set clear, specific goals for what students should learn. The goals can range from the specific for a given day's geography lesson (the child will learn to find Peru on a map) to broad ones (the child will be an able communicator).
The broad goals usually are called "exit outcomes." In other words, they say what the outcome of education should be by the time a student graduates, or "exits" the school system. The student should be an able communicator in both language and numbers, says the first exit outcome in Carroll County Schools. The student should be a perceptive problem-solver, an involved citizen, an individual with a positive self-image.
The opposition started with concern over words that sprout in most of the reform manifestoes that educators are writing. The problem seems to be that the words mean one thing to educators and something else to conservative Christians.
For instance, multicultural education usually means to educators that schools will teach more than just the white, European view of the world. But Christians fear the gay lifestyle will find protection and advocacy.
Words such as "self-esteem" and "positive self-image" enter the touchy realm of "humanism," a word Christians use to describe anything that places humans above God.
"Global citizen" and "cooperative learning" connote socialism to some conservatives, such as William Bowen, a retired Baltimore teacher who now lives in Carroll and has been among the leaders in the anti-outcomes movement in the suburban counties.
"I personally am not ready to become a global citizen," Mr. Bowen said. He said that changing the society to a "globally compatible" one would lead to socialism and a shift from individual rights to government control.
Cheryl A. McFalls, former Carroll school board member, is one of the few vocal conservative Christians who supports outcomes-based education, at least the way it's done in her county.
But she said she struggles with the term "multicultural" in one of Carroll's outcomes, because of articles that indicate the term can include sexual preference.
"I would be more comfortable if our school system changed that word to 'multi-ethnic,' because that's what they mean anyway," she said.
Because the word "outcomes" raises red flags, some educators are finding other words, such as "performance-based" education. After watching the eruptions in Carroll County and across the border in Pennsylvania, even the Maryland Department of Education has avoided the word "outcomes," although the Maryland School Performance and Assessment Program is based on the same principles.
U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley said he wants those "who have come to view education reform with suspicion" to join an effort to raise academic standards.
"We need to get beyond the idea that everything in America is the politics of special interests," Mr. Riley said in a speech to the National PTA in Las Vegas in June. "Our schools should not become the next ideological battlefield of contending political forces. If you divide a community, children's learning inevitably suffers."
Though he did not use the words "religious right," the Education Department press office said it was parents who are part of that group to whom Mr. Riley was referring.
Some of the most right-wing opponents say liberal groups such as teachers unions and career-climbing administrators are forcing their agenda on American children. Some fear the trend will lead to socialism and a Godless, new world order. But the heavy emphasis some activists placed on religious concerns has given way to a strategy that attacks the educational merit of the reform.
"Parents want children to learn the basics: read, write, add and know facts about American history," said Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum. "They don't want schools to engage in psychological manipulation. They don't want schools to ask questions about feelings. It's none of their business."
Mike Russell of the Christian Coalition said Christians oppose outcomes-based education for the same reasons secular foes do.
"We have a school system now that is graduating functional illiterates," Mr. Russell said. "Outcomes-based education is a hot issue now, yes. It has surfaced as the latest trendy solution to falling SAT scores. We don't view it as anything but a prescription for disaster."
Mr. Russell said the Christian Coalition is leaving the issue primarily to local chapters -- the level where school boards make decisions.
In Maryland, the fights over outcomes and values erupted in Carroll County first, but are likely to appear elsewhere. Parents from Carroll are in touch with their counterparts, and Mr. Bowen has spoken to groups in Frederick and Howard counties.
The mix in Carroll was just right: a large conservative Christian contingency and school administrators who pride themselves on innovation. The administrators recognized that outcomes-based education was very close to what a community panel was independently drafting for Carroll schools and began holding public meetings to introduce the concept to parents and business leaders. But Pennsylvania, with its controversy over outcomes, was just across the border.
A group called Carroll County Citizens for Excellence in Education was formed a year ago, spurred somewhat by the videotape of Ms. Luksik's lecture. The organization's name and mission were broad, focusing on giving parents more information and empowerment in schools, but its members have been most active fighting outcomes-based education.
The Citizens for Excellence group spawned at least two school board candidates for next week's primary, Laura E. Albers and Gary W. Bauer. While both were among the most vocal opponents of outcomes-based education as parent activists, they now say the outcomes trend is too broad nationally to fight. But they say they want such education to stick to academics and stay away from values.
The teachers union in Carroll County raised a ruckus last month when it asked some school board candidates seeking its endorsement whether they belonged to a particular church that is known for its political activism, or were affiliated with Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson. The teachers agreed in retrospect that staying with the issues would have been wiser.
"I think we have in the past asked candidates questions dealing with censorship and issues like that," said Jim Torretti, a high school math teacher who chairs the union's government committee. "But in the past, I don't think we had as much concern about the radical right getting involved in [school] politics."
Mr. Riley's wish for people to take the politics out of education might work on the local level if parents and educators sit face to face and find that they might want the same thing after all -- high standards and success for students. But nationally, the political fights over outcomes are likely to continue.
"As far as everybody coming together, I can't see that happening in the foreseeable future," said Joseph D. Mish, a Carroll school board member who is a born-again Christian and on many of the mailing lists of conservative groups. But he is less fearful of outcomes than the people sending him mail.
"It's almost like two cultures and two different ways of thinking," Mr. Mish said. "That doesn't mean we can't be decent in talking with each other and discussing the issues."
At the National School Boards Association's annual convention in New Orleans in April, Mr. Mish gave a talk, which he called a "plea for moderation," about the Christian opposition to outcomes.
"If I have a criticism of it," he said of the Christian Coalition's stand on outcomes, "it's all so negative. Fear is the motivating factor. I don't find that in Scripture. The Scripture says perfect love casts out fear."
Both liberals and conservatives, he said, are guilty of sweeping generalizations and hyperbole.
"Christians can't expect the public schools to be Christian schools," he said. "On the other hand, progressive educators have to be aware that Christian parents have rights, too."
Anne Haddad is an education reporter in the Carroll County bureau of The Sun.