What’s New in K-12 Competency Education?

On April 20, CompetencyWorks is hosting an introductory webinar on competency education. Register here to attend the webinar and learn how we define competency education, explore how schools are implementing competency education, and discuss why educators and communities want to convert to a competency-based structure.

Employment Opportunity: The Innovation School (Salem, MA), a Horace Mann charter modeled after Boston Day and Evening Academy, is searching for a principal. Click here and look for the job posting in Salem.

Event: The First World Summit on Competency-Based Education will be held on August 27-28, 2016 in Barcelona, Spain, as a pre-conference activity. For more information about competency education systems around the world, check out An International Study in Competency Education: Postcards from Abroad.

Thought Leadership

• School leaders and experts predict ESSA and school demands for personalized learning will dramatically alter K-12 education in the years to come.
• Todd Rose, a high school drop-out turned faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, discusses his latest book, The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World that Values Sameness, with NPR.
• Jim Dillon, an educator for over 35 years, reflects on student agency and how to spark empowerment in the classroom.

Movement in the States

• The Idaho State Department of Education is now accepting applicants for the Mastery Education Network. Access the application here.
• Utah Senator Stephenson proposed Competency-Based Learning Amendments to S.B. 143.
• Montana’s first charter school is going to be competency-based.

Resources

• Here are examples of different planning tools and processes that are becoming available: Great Schools Partnership rubric on implementation and reDesign road map.
• Achieve released Creating Innovation Zones to Advance the Promise of Competency-Based Pathways.
• The American Youth Policy Forum released a report calling for more collaboration between after-school programs and competency education to better prepare students for college and career.
• Transcend, a national nonprofit dedicated to accelerating innovation in the core design of school, launched a website with ideas to push thinking and provoke imagination.
• KnowledgeWorks published The Education Playbook for the Next President of the United States.
• The Christensen Institute created a Blended Learning Directory—a searchable catalog of K-12 blended learning programs worldwide. If you know of schools or organizations that should be part of this directory, please invite them to sign up here.

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