Kentucky Summit on Competency Education

Earlier this week, people across the state of Kentucky convened for a Summit on Competency Education sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Education and the National Governors association.  I thought it was worth pulling out how they defined competency education as it both succinct and reinforces the relationship with student-centered and personalized learning:

Competency-based education is a method that focuses on mastering specific skills or standards rather than completing course work over a specific period of time. It offers opportunities for all students and is student-centered. This type of education features personalized learning, which takes different learning styles into account by providing different avenues to learn the same content.

Competency-based education can motivate passive students who do not learn well in traditional classrooms because they do not see the curriculum as relevant to their needs. Students can earn college credit while still in high school, and they learn how to learn, a skill they need throughout life.

Topics at the Summit included the role of expanded learning opportunities, the role of career pathways to accelerate student learning towards college and career readiness and higher education. Scheduled speakers included:

• Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson
• State Senator Jimmy Higdon
• Rose Colby, author of Off the Clock
• Paul Leather, New Hampshire Deputy Commissioner of Education
• Tom Shelton, superintendent of the Fayette County school district
• Lu Young, superintendent of the Jessamine County school district
• Jay K. Box, chancellor of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System
• Robert L. King, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
• Elizabeth Grant, chief of staff in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education
• Michael Cohen, president of Achieve

We’d love to hear more about the Summit and next steps for Kentucky! Or if you want to get a sense you can read the twitter feed.