What’s New in K-12 Competency Education?

Upcoming Events

CompetencyWorks is hosting a Leadership webinar on advancing competency education in New England on Wednesday, January 11 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET. Learn more and register.

New York City’s Mastery Collaborative is hosting upcoming Living Lab online sessions. Register here.

• Wednesday, January 4, 4:00 p.m. ET: KAPPA International High School—Messaging Mastery with Language and Visuals
• Thursday, January 5, 4:00 p.m. ET: Harvest Collegiate High School—Building a School-Wide Philosophy of Mastery

Reports

• The National Center for Innovation in Education released a new report, Leadership for Learning: What is Leadership’s Role in Supporting Success for Every Student? iNACOL CEO Susan Patrick provided commentary on this report in this blog.
• The Center for American Progress released a new report, Innovation in Accountability: Designing Systems to Support School Quality and Student Success.
• The National Association of State Boards of Education released a new policy update, The Impact of the 2016 Elections on State Boards of Education.
• The National Center for Innovation in Education released a new report, Low-Stakes Completion-Based Funding: A New Approach to Financing Competency-Based Education. See iNACOL’s blog highlighting this report.

Podcasts

• This podcast by Cortney Belolan and Matt Shea discusses the “what” and “why” of competency education, and the “how” of implementation.
• Getting Smart released a podcast featuring students from the iNACOL Symposium’s student panel, sharing their thoughts on transforming K-12 education.

School Models

• This Hechinger Report op/ed by Kim Carter explores Making Community Connections Charter School’s (MC2) commitment to personalized learning.
• Waukesha STEM Academy principal James Murray discusses proficiency-based pathways, readiness, and grading in his school.
• Vermont’s Burlington High School is shifting away from letter grades and developing a proficiency-based diploma for current freshmen (expected to graduate in 2020).
• York High School is transitioning to a proficiency-based diploma by 2021, and this article shows how the school is rethinking teaching and learning, teacher evaluations, IEPs and more.
• The Bridger alternative program at Bozeman High School became one of Montana’s first charter school programs and is competency-based.
• Michigan’s Kenowa Hills Public Schools is advancing competency education and empowering student learning by embarking on a mission to be the most innovative, student-centered district in the state.

Policy Updates

• The Tennessee Department of Education created the Personalized Learning Task Force, and released a report including recommendations to use competency-based education as a strategy to tailor learning.
• KnowledgeWorks released a memo advising the new administration on scaling personalized learning.
• New Hampshire Governor-elect Chris Sununu will make key education appointments in his first months in office, which could impact the advancement of competency education within the state.
• Colorado’s Westminster Public Schools received a low performance rating from the Colorado Department of Education, despite a request for reconsideration from the schools, and could face sanctions under the state’s accountability system.

News

• In this EdSurge article, Sal Khan explores the intersection of competency-based learning, technology, teaching and learning.
• This letter to the editor is in response to proficiency-based implementation issues in Maine’s RSU24.

For more news and updates in K-12 competency education, sign up for our monthly newsletter on our homepage and follow us on Twitter: @CompetencyWorks.