What’s New in K-12 Competency-Based Education?

Competency-Based Education (CBE) Resources

• Competency-Based Learning School-Design Rubric – Jonathan Vander Els and Brian Stack have updated their design rubric to reflect the expanded definition of CBE. It allows districts, schools, and teachers to engage in guided self-reflection, goal setting, and developing multi-year implementation plans to launch or deepen their CBE work. The authors wrote about the rubric recently in a CompetencyWorks blog post.
• Video Examples of Educator Competencies – To support the implementation of the Educator Competencies for Personalized, Learner-Centered Learning, KnowledgeWorks has assembled video resources showing the prioritized competencies – those that have the most leverage in transforming classroom practice – in action. The footage includes teachers demonstrating key strategies, experts discussing practices, and students reflecting on their experiences.
• Crosswalking EdTech and CBE – The Shelby County Public Schools website provides a compact list of more than 20 EdTech tools and which elements of CBE the tool can help to facilitate or amplify. They also link to a summary of what the tool is, more about how it can amplify CBE principles, a brief overview video, online resources, and “special tips.”
• Graphic Overview of the CBE Definition – Tracy Huelsman at the Shelby County Public Schools has mapped the seven elements of the CBE definition onto the district’s core design principles. The graphic also assigns a brief name to each CBE element: agency, performance assessment, feedback cycle, anytime/anywhere, move when ready, equity, and clarity of mastery.
• Tools for Proficiency-Based Summative Assessment – The Great Schools Partnership’s latest toolkit includes design guides, tuning protocols, examples of scoring criteria, and more. These tools are intended for educators to use as they design, critique, and refine summative assessments and the scoring criteria used to evaluate student performance aligned to a proficiency-based (aka competency-based) learning system.
• Evolving Education: Shifting to a Learner-Centered Paradigm – This new book from Katie Martin, Chief Impact Officer at the Learner-Centered Collorative advocates for redefining success and a shift to education that is personalized, competency-based, authentic, and purposeful. Martin offers valuable practices to harness findings from the learning sciences and new technologies to develop pedagogy that centers learners and creates powerful learning experiences.
• Wall Street Journal Features Competency-Based Education – In a recent favorable article, WSJ discussed essential CBE principles, practices, and policies and featured many organizations doing excellent CBE work, including the Northern Cass and Westminster School Districts, Building 21, Knowledgeworks, the New Hampshire Learning Initiative, the Aurora Institute, and the Office of Personalized and Competency-Based Learning at the South Carolina Department of Education.

Professional Learning

• Aurora Institute Symposium – Join the field’s largest gathering of education innovators implementing personalized, competency-based learning. The Aurora Institute Symposium will be held on October 25-27, 2021. Session strands will include shifting to competency-based education, transforming education systems, modernizing professional learning, and more. Aurora Institute members can attend free of charge. Symposium registration is now open.
• The Learning Lab Orientation – Education Reimagined is offering a seven-session course to come into community with others who share your passion for transforming learning. You will develop insight into the learner-centered worldview and language, explore strategies for providing an equitable learner-centered education for all children, and see new opportunities to make learner-centered education more available in your community and beyond.

Eliot Levine is the Aurora Institute’s Research Director and leads CompetencyWorks.

Follow @Eliot_Levine