CompetencyWorks | October 2020

October 29, 2020

 

CompetencyWorks - An Initiative of the Aurora Institute

This monthly newsletter shares the latest CompetencyWorks blog posts and Aurora Institute publications—providing thought leadership and practical lessons learned from the field to support transformation toward personalized, competency-based K-12 schools and systems.
CompetencyWorks Releases Report on Professional Learning Strategies to Strengthen Local Assessment Systems for Proficiency-Based Education

CompetencyWorks Releases Report on Professional Learning Strategies to Strengthen Local Assessment Systems for Proficiency-Based Education

The report, written by Pat Fitzsimmons of the Vermont Agency of Education, describes a series of professional convenings in Vermont to support schools and districts seeking to create high-quality local systems of assessments. It can serve as a resource for schools, districts, and states to improve their own assessment systems, including formative, summative, and student-designed performance assessments.
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A Promise for Equitable Futures: Enabling Systems Change to Scale Educational and Economic Mobility Pathways

This Aurora Institute book authored by Katherine Casey, Founder and Principal of imaginEDU, and Susan Patrick, CEO and President of the Aurora Institute, issues a call to action for states to create aligned pathways for K-12 education, higher education, CTE and the workforce leading to equitable futures for all youth. It asks states to enact 14 policy recommendations that guarantee learners have universal access to pursue certified pathways leading into meaningful, chosen careers. It calls for the creation of modernized, dynamic and responsive lifelong learning ecosystems locally, regionally and statewide.
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A Promise for Equitable Futures: Enabling Systems Change to Scale Educational and Economic Mobility Pathways
What’s New in K-12 Competency-Based Education?

What’s New in K-12 Competency-Based Education?

CompetencyWorks provides brief reviews of new resources, research, and Aurora Institute news and publications.
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Competency-Based Education Sessions at the 2020 Aurora Institute Symposium

As you return to the Aurora Institute website to review videos and slide decks from the 2020 Symposium, this summary of breakout sessions that were most closely focused on competency-based education can you help you navigate to targeted opportunities for learning and inspiration.
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Competency-Based Education Sessions at the 2020 Aurora Institute Symposium
How Standards-Based Grading Led Us to Empower, Part 1: The Tyranny of 82%
How Standards-Based Grading Led Us to Empower, Part 1: The Tyranny of 82%
Originally published on the Edtech Elixirs blog, Adam Watson of the Shelby County schools begins with a parable that illuminates the unfairness and absurdity of traditional grading. He proceeds to explain how standards-based grading is a more consistent, accurate, meaningful, and supportive approach, and the importance of learning management systems in helping teachers implement standards-based grading.
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How Standards-Based Grading Led Us to Empower, Part 2: The Power of Evidence
Continuing from Part 1 (see above), Adam Watson gives an overview of the grading features of Empower and how it integrates with Shelby County’s standards-based learning philosophy. Increased interest in student-centered learning management systems that support equitable assessment and student self-direction as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic further amplify the value of this excellent two-part series.
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How Standards-Based Grading Led Us to Empower, Part 2: The Power of Evidence
PowerMyLearning: Tools for Culturally Responsive Partnering with Families During Hybrid/Remote Learning and Beyond
PowerMyLearning: Tools for Culturally Responsive Partnering with Families During Hybrid/Remote Learning and Beyond
PowerMyLearning’s CEO and Co-founder Elisabeth Stock explains how the organization’s resources support teachers in authentically partnering with families. Their “family playlists” enable students, families, and teachers to work together using a powerful phone app and offline activities for remote and in-person learning, building agency by having students teach their family members
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Competency-Based Education Webinars
  • Building Educator Capacity for Equity: Competency-Based Approaches to Professional Learning for Teachers and Administrators
  • Choice in Learning: Examination of Students’ Use of Flex Time in High School
  • Competency-Based Education Systems: Performance Assessment Using Proficiency Scales
  • Deeper Competency-Based Learning: Making Equitable, Student-Centered, Sustainable Shifts
  • Designing Engaging, Purposeful, Rigorous Tasks for Remote and In-Person Learning
  • Developing Equity, Efficacy, and Effectiveness in a Competency-Based System
  • High School Internships in the Time of COVID-19: Mentorship, Connections, and More in Virtual Work-Based Learning
  • Impact of Personalized Learning Through Interest-Based Internships
  • Implementing Student-Centered Learning: Lessons Learned from Leaders in the Arena
  • Improving the Equity in Personalized Learning through a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) Approach
  • Lessons from COVID-19: How Competency-Based Education Provided for Continuity of Learning in Three North Carolina Schools and Is Shaping the Path Forward
  • Supporting the Learner Throughout Their Competency-Based Journey: Examining Tech Standards
Wishing good health to you and your families, schools, and communities.

Eliot Levine and Susan Patrick
Aurora Institute CompetencyWorks

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: Eliot Levine
[email protected]

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