iNACOL Symposium Request for Presentation Proposals for Competency-Based Education

This year, the iNACOL Symposium will be held on October 21-24, 2018 in Nashville, TN. This year’s theme is “Driving the Transformation of Learning.”

As we prepare for the upcoming Symposium, Chris Sturgis and I are discussing the “must have” workshops and sessions at the iNACOL Symposium for the track focused on competency-based education (CBE) to help advance the field in strategic ways. We’ve asked the CompetencyWorks Advisory Board for the must-have topics for the competency-based education track at the iNACOL Symposium event in October. (Note: please add your “must have” sessions in the comments section, below).

I wanted to share a few “must have” topics generated by the CompetencyWorks Advisory Board and ask if you are an expert on these topics to please submit a proposal to speak:

• What is CBE?: Introductory sessions that draw from multiple districts and schools to highlight variations in how elements of CBE can be designed and implemented.
• Higher Ed & CBE: The intersection between higher education and K-12 education has many interesting areas for partnership and alignment. This might include performance-based assessment, moderating performance levels, redefining student success through the Profile of a Graduate work, addressing the needs of college admissions and transcripts and other documentation of student learning.
• CBE Models & Designs for Equity: Generate conversations to challenge and disrupt patterns of inequity and design innovative competency-based models for equity.
• Leading Practitioners Using CBE Quality & Equity Frameworks: Drawing on the frameworks outlined in Quality and Equity by Design (forthcoming reports on each in April – June) from the National Summit on K-12 Competency-Based Education, discuss the ways these frameworks are actionable, use the frameworks to build shared understanding of CBE and highlight more granular aspects of design and implementation.
• Communicating to Your Community about Competency Education: Developing authentic and ongoing conversations with the entire community is important. What are the most effective communication strategies and messages that resonate with different audiences?
• Innovations: There are many innovations developing in districts across the country. The best way to share your innovations is to do so with colleagues from other schools so that Symposium participants can get a richer sense of what is possible.
• Knowledge Building: Is there something you are interested in building more knowledge about? Create a session where participants can share experience, ideas and question. Build up knowledge and share it on the CompetencyWorks blog.

Tips for submitting proposals for presentations for the iNACOL Symposium:

• In submitting proposals for presentations, it is helpful for districts and/or schools to consider submitting joint proposals so that attendees see a variety of case studies of ways to handle or implement the focus of the session, instead of seeing only one district or school example.
• We are seeking highly interactive sessions that generate meaningful collaboration, foster engagement and networking, and share knowledge.
• Proposals should illustrate how they will plan to promote attendee interactivity.
• We strive to have a balance of great sessions for those who are just getting started and are new to competency-based education, as well as advanced sessions for those ready to go deeper into specific topics to advance the field through its next phase of innovation.

We would also love to hear from you about what the most meaningful topics for workshops and sessions would be as you continue your work. Leave your guidance and feedback in the comments section below, or feel free to email Ashley Jones, CompetencyWorks Program Manager, directly: [email protected].

Details on iNACOL Symposium RFP + Deadline

iNACOL opened the Request for Presentation Proposals (RFP) in February. The deadline for submitting presentation proposals is Friday, March 16, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. ET. (To ensure you’re notified when the RFP opens, sign up to receive email updates here.)

We hope you join us in Nashville and consider working with your colleagues to submit a proposal to present. iNACOL will offer a dedicated strand of sessions dedicated to competency-based education, and we are seeking proposals for workshops and sessions that promote the advancement of the field.

For tips on submitting your presentation proposal, we are hosting a Special Edition Webinar on Thursday, February 22, 2018 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. ET. The webinar will explain the RFP process and timeline for proposal selection, and highlight ways to design interactive sessions that generate meaningful collaboration and foster engagement. Register for the webinar here. If you can’t attend the webinar due to timing issues, you can still register and we’ll send you the archived webinar to view.

In addition to the Competency Education track, there are 23 other tracks in which you can submit presentation proposals. Attendee registration will open in spring. For further information, visit the iNACOL Symposium website.

We hope you consider submitting a presentation proposal for #iNACOL18.