What’s New in K-12 Competency Education?

Upcoming Event: 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.

Competency Education News

• The Assessment for Learning project (ALP), a unique partnership led by the Center for Innovation in Education (CIE) and EDUCAUSE’s Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), awarded $2 million in grants to 12 innovators planning to catalyze and scale innovations in assessment. Grantees were chosen from several criteria, including boldness of their ideas and the quality of their learning plan.
• In New Hampshire, students add to their educational experiences by leaving the confines of the school building and engaging in extended learning opportunities.
• Spotlighting iNACOL President and CEO Susan Patrick, this Youth Today article describes how competency education works and explores the intersection of after school programs and competency education.
• Valdosta State University is answering the call to develop educator capacity in competency education through its online CBE pilot initiative.

Ed Policy Advancing CBE

• Florida is expanding educational opportunities for students, including a proposal to boost competency education. (More here from iNACOL.)
• The DC State Board of Education approved regulations to allow students to receive high school credits through innovative and rigorous competency-based courses, giving LEAs flexibility to alter the ways students use their time and advance between courses.
• Kentucky is holding community discussions around developing a new accountability system that approaches children’s development more holistically.
• A Utah Bill, signed by Governor Gary Herbert, creates the Competency-Based Education Grants Program, which allows LEAs to apply for grants to allow students to advance through coursework based on demonstrated mastery. (More here from iNACOL.)
• A Maine legislative committee voted to phase in new graduation standards to replace current graduation standards, as the requirements in the 2012 law requiring all students to demonstrate mastery across all 8 domains was ruled to be too stringent for students and schools.

Thought Leadership

• This is a great podcast on proficiency-based grading by Michael Martin, Director of Curriculum and Technology at Montpelier Public Schools (VT).
• Experts say educators must confront personal biases before they can promote growth mindsets.
• States are using four main strategies for incorporating performance assessments into state systems of assessments to create meaningful, authentic assessments.
• iNACOL put together a reading list for ed leaders making the shift toward competency education.

Resources

CAPSS released a report identifying the steps to enable school districts to transform Connecticut public education around personalized learning. It identifies policy barriers, provides suggestions on removing those barriers, and provides incentives to encourage districts to implement personalized learning. CAPSS Executive Director Joseph J. Cirasuolo describes why we should be teaching according to the ways students learn in this article.

American Institutes for Research released its most recent publication in a series of reports on deeper learning. Findings in the series include that students in “deeper learning” schools:

• Reported higher levels of academic engagement, motivation to learn, collaboration skills, and self-efficacy
• Attained higher scores on both the state achievement exams and PISA.
• Had higher rates of on-time graduation from high school, exceeding the comparison students by 9 percentage points
• Were more likely to enroll in four-year postsecondary institutions and selective institutions

However, the new report finds that among the nine school pairs that provided information about eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL), the effect of attending a network high school on on-time graduation was weaker for students who were eligible for FRPL than for students who were not eligible for FRPL.

Follow us on twitter (@CompetencyWorks) and sign up for our monthly newsletter for more information and updates in K-12 competency education.