What’s New in K-12 Competency Education?

JOB OPENING: Henry County Schools is currently accepting applications for an open Assistant Superintendent position. Learn more about the job opening and read our recent case study on Henry County Schools.

Thought Leadership

• iNACOL and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology partnered to write a thought leadership piece on creating the conditions for an equitable education system by providing transformative personalized learning opportunities to students.
• What does it mean for students to own their learning? Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey developed a continuum of ownership grounded on compliance, understanding, investment and autonomy.
• Tom Vander Ark notes 7 traits of a learner-centered teacher, including acting as facilitators and providing anytime, anywhere, on-demand support.
• Engaging the community is vital when transitioning to competency education. Life Legeros shares 4 lessons learned in facilitating community conversations about education.

School and Program Updates

• A recent trend emerged around student-led parent-teacher conferences. Explore how New Hampshire’s Pittsfield Middle High School is implementing this new strategy.
• High-quality, immersive arts education based on mastery plays an integral role in positive youth development and gives every student a chance to learn and grow through the arts. Learn more from the Cleveland Foundation.
• Henry County’s Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) program is about making students think more and learn more through doing. Learn more about their competency-based CTAE program.
• Idaho’s Kuna Middle School is implementing mastery-based learning, focusing on learning, reaching students where they are, and providing transparency to students on what they’re expected to know and be able to do.

Update from New England

• Maine’s Kittery School District is progressing with curriculum changes, with the current sophomore class to receive the district’s first proficiency-based diplomas in 2018.
• Mount Anthony Union High School’s (MAUHS) School-to-Work program is a strong place-based, proficiency-based program. Explore other ways MAUHS is redesigning education for its students to meet 21^st century needs.

Education Policy Resources

• Robert Rothman and Scott F. Marion released The next generation of state assessment and accountability, an important piece to help states and districts seize opportunities made available under ESSA.
• As part of iNACOL’s Promising Policies blog series, Dale Frost wrote about moving from seat-time to competency-based credits in state policy to ensure all students develop mastery.
• The Learning Policy Institute and SCOPE co-released Pathways to New Accountability Through the Every Student Succeeds Act, which provides critical information about the requirements and opportunities under the new federal K-12 education law. Drawing on cities, states and other countries, the authors offer alternative approaches to developing, presenting and using a multiple-measure accountability system.

Other News & Resources

• The Nellie Mae Education Foundation released Student-Centered Learning Opportunities for Adolescent English Learners in Flipped Classrooms, which examines how flipped learning can be utilized to improve language and content acquisition in adolescent English language learners.
• Nellie Mae also released A Qualitative Study of Student-Centered Learning Practices in New England High Schools, a comprehensive analysis of student-centered approaches in 12 schools across the region.
• College & Career Readiness & Success Center at AIR released State Policies to Support Competency-Based Education for Overage, Under-Credited Students, which discusses how CBE can support OA/UC students and provide recommendations for how other states can develop and implement CBE policies.
• When teachers feel that their job responsibilities are increasing to unmanageable levels, we wonder whether the self-directed learning practices and personalized classroom management practices have been put into place so that students are taking more responsibility for their learning?

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