CompetencyWorks | January 2023

January 31, 2023

The first month of 2023 flew by here at the Aurora Institute. CompetencyWorks welcomed two interns: Alyssa Weaver, a master’s candidate at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, and Khamiah Alderman, a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We invite you to explore the latest stories on the CompetencyWorks blog.

Personalized Learning Plans at Bellows Free Academy in Fairfax, Vermont
In the second installment of Jensen Welch’s blog series, explore how Bellows Free Academy is applying Vermont’s requirement for personalized learning plans to create programs that fit the needs of their students. Learn how the school addressed three major challenges of PLPs surfaced through participatory action research: clarity, personalization, and future planning.

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Building a Competency-Based Teacher Education Program: The High Meadows Experience, Part 2
In post two about the High Meadows teacher-education experience, author Peter Laipson shares the program’s solutions to three complex challenges. Laipson explains how teacher candidates engaged with competency-based portfolios, intentional collaboration within personalized pacing, and flexibility in remote teaching and learning.

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Diving into a Deep Blue (grass) Sea of Innovation

Part One: How Educational Cooperatives and Deeper Learning Teams are Poised to Help Transform Kentucky Education
Learn about how one of Kentucky’s new Deeper Learning Teams is helping make Kentucky’s “Three Big Ideas” – capturing what stakeholders across the state want in education – a reality. As a Deeper Learning Design Specialist, author Adam Watson’s job is to support deeper learning transformation in Kentucky.Part Two: Early Lessons Learned When Implementing Multi-District Deeper Learning in Kentucky
Explore three reflections and school examples from one of Kentucky’s new Deeper Learning Teams at the midpoint of the Team’s first year. In part two of Adam Watson’s exploration of deeper learning, read about how specific schools in Kentucky are mitigating barriers to change and innovative practice.

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CBE Starter Pack 6: Equity Strategies Drive Culture, Structures, and Pedagogy
This post is part of the “CBE Starter Pack Series” and focuses on the essential purpose of transforming educational systems and practices in pursuit of equity. In this installment, discover why competency-based education is rooted in equity and understand how culture, structures, and pedagogy form the foundation of equity in education.

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Check out the recording from our recent Introduction to K-12 Competency-Based Education webinar with leaders and students from Harrisburg, SD, and Bronx, NY.

Mark your calendar for the Aurora Symposium 2023 in Palm Springs, CA on October 15-17, 2023! Stay tuned for more details and registration!

For more news and updates in K-12 competency-based education, sign up for our monthly newsletters and follow the Aurora Institute on Twitter: @Aurora_Inst

About CompetencyWorks

CompetencyWorks is an initiative that provides information and knowledge about competency-based education in the K-12 education system. Drawing on lessons learned by innovators and early adopters, CompetencyWorks is an online resource for sharing knowledge, original research and policy advances, and a variety of field perspectives. CompetencyWorks provides an informative blog with practitioner knowledge on key topics and papers on emerging issues, with resources curated from across the field of K-12 competency-based education.

Contact: Laurie Gagnon
[email protected]

CompetencyWorks | Aurora Institute