What’s New in K-12 Competency Education?

Summit Public Schools published The Science of Summit, which describes the research and design choices made in Summit Public Schools. Chris Sturgis considers this a must-read. Someday every school will have a paper on the science of their school that describes the research, beliefs and values that are the foundation of their school design and instruction.

Social Emotional Learning

• CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, is leading an effort to improve measurement of social emotional learning.
• Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development is releasing its first case study today, Putting It All Together, which discusses showing how schools and school districts across the country are enhancing learning when they teach a curriculum that simultaneously build students’ social, emotional, and academic skills.

Thought Leadership

• Jennifer Poon, Fellow at Center for Innovation in Education, wrote an article on how to fund personalized, competency-based learning.
• Rick Hess calls for reinventing our education system in this Education Week article.
• Sajan George published The Greatest Challenge to Scaling Competency-Based Learning.

Personalized Learning

• In the blog “Let’s Put Personalized Learning in its Proper Place,” Andy Calkins explores personalized learning as part of a larger whole.
• This article shows how personalized, competency-based education allows for deeper learning and gives students the freedom to follow their passions.
• Atlanta educators reflect on lessons from their personalized learning initiative.

Grading

• George Couros wrote an article advocating for a greater focus on mastery over grades, holding the same high standards for all students.
• Kristy Louden, a teacher, wrote this blog on ways to get students to read and reflect on feedback through delayed grading.
• A Parents website article says mastery-based learning could become the new standard, and that A-F grading could be eliminated.

Diplomas

• Tom Vander Ark outlines a proposal for an Innovation Diploma in this Education Week article.
• Learn about the Mastery Transcript Consortium, which is 54 independent schools that have banned together to rethink the high school transcript and change the college admissions process.

Professional Develop and Teacher-Student Relationships

• Professional development for competency education is shifting toward mastery, as this system requires teachers to demonstrate mastery of new skills.
• This Op/Ed article explores what teacher-student relationships look like in competency-based systems and how teaching and learning is being redefined.

Blended Learning

• Jenny White of the Christensen Institute wrote an article on infusing blended learning with voice and choice.
• This EdSurge article tells Iowa’s story of implementing a blended learning initiative, which is one vehicle to implement competency-based education and personalize student learning.

Videos

Mastery Collaborative released new videos highlighting what mastery-based learning looks like in New York City:

• Why We Do This Work
• How can mastery learning be more culturally responsive?

Other videos include:

• Up For Learning shared stories, including resources and videos, on proficiency-based education.
• Vermont schools and districts shared videos as they implement Education Quality Standards across the state.

New Resources

• NESSC has released a new Leadership in Action brief on performance-based assessment. Check out all 17 of the briefs including grading, personal learning plans, and portfolios.
• The Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment published Why Multiple Measures?
• The National Center for Learning Disabilities released a new resource hub: Personalized Learning and Students with Disabilities, containing 13 new publications including case studies and recommendations for implementation—all with an eye on the needs and success of students with disabilities—tailored for parents, educators,  administrators and policymakers, wherever and however they may be approaching personalized learning.

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