How to Participate in the “Professional Learning and Development for Competency-Based Education” Technical Advisory Group (TAG)

CompetencyWorks is dedicated to advancing cutting edge knowledge and informing the field in order to support the expansion of high quality competency-based education. There are thousands of leaders and educators across the country with deep expertise in competency-based education. We believe these practitioners can make valuable contributions to the field and that they should lead national conversations on critical issues. Thus, CompetencyWorks regularly invites practitioners to contribute to the advancement of new knowledge and key issues as volunteer members of Technical Advisory Groups (TAG). TAGs are participatory and transparent opportunities for practitioners to provide input and feedback that inform the development of our research and reporting.

This summer CompetencyWorks will host a Technical Advisory Group to inform an upcoming report on Professional Learning and Development for Competency-Based Education. This TAG is an open opportunity for talented and committed practitioners to share expertise and inform the field.

About the Topic: Professional Learning and Development for Competency-Based Education

Competency-based education is a systematic approach to ensuring all students demonstrate mastery and graduate with the knowledge, skills, and lifelong learning attributes that they will need to succeed. Competency-based education is more than a piecemeal approach or technical solution; it is a comprehensive cultural, pedagogical, and structural approach to achieving educational equity.

Competency-based education demands new ways of thinking about teaching: new competencies and mindsets, new pathways for training and advancement, new roles and responsibilities, and new professional support structures. To this end, CompetencyWorks  will publish a report on professional learning and development for competency-based education in fall 2018. The purpose of this report is to help practitioners:

• Understand critical differences between educator competencies in traditional and competency-based education systems;
• Visualize key elements of a possible future state for professional learning and development in a high-quality competency-based education system;
• Identify best practices in professional learning and development for competency-based education;
• Anticipate and understand the professional shifts needed to transition to and eventually sustain competency-based education; and
• Identify possible entry points and strategies at multiple levels of practice.

How to Participate

How the TAG Works

The TAG operates as a virtual conversation between participants and the author using an open Google doc. Participants can visit the Google document at any point during the one week TAG window to leave suggestions and comments. We will do our best to respond to ideas and feedback in real time. Within one week of the TAG’s closing we will contact all participants to summarize key feedback and input. The final paper is scheduled for release in October 2018.

TAG Dates

The TAG will run from July 16-20. For those who prefer to work on the weekends, the Google doc will be open starting on Friday, July 13. We will hold a phone call on July 16 at 12:00 p.m. ET to provide an overview of the TAG process and introduce the key ideas in the draft framing paper.

How to Register

We invite you to join this Technical Advisory Group by signing up here. Please consider sharing this opportunity with your peers and networks.

Please consider taking advantage of the TAG to engage your organization, professional learning community, and networks in exploring what professional learning in K-12 competency-based education looks like. You can use the ideas in the TAG paper to catalyze conversation and bring your collective ideas to the TAG. Here’s a sample tweet in case you’d like to share this opportunity on Twitter:

• @CompetencyWorks is hosting a Technical Advisory Group on #ProfessionalLearning & #K12 #CompetencyEd. ISO experts. Learn more, sign up, & share: http://ow.ly/RK4630kFNDh 

We ask that all TAG participants have at least one year of experience in competency education. If you are new to competency-based education but interested in the topic, the TAG may not be the right opportunity for you. Instead, we suggest that you get started by reading our case studies of districts and schools, and continue to follow CompetencyWorks as we share our learning.

More Details

Here’s a more detailed look at the process.

1. Prior to July 16, we will share a google document link with TAG participants to provide a draft of the issue paper.
2. There will be a phone call at 12:00 p.m. ET on July 16 to launch the TAG and explain this process.
3. During July 16-20, TAG participants will provide insights on the draft document throughout this assigned one-week virtual session in google docs.
4. CompetencyWorks and partners will be making real-time changes to the papers based on the shared insights and feedback, so we hope TAG participants can check in multiple times throughout the week as ideas develop.
5. After the one-week virtual session, CompetencyWorks and partners will incorporate feedback into revised papers that will be published.

Thank you – we look forward to seeing you in the TAG.