Quality Principles for Competency-Based Education

This book, developed with input involving practitioners as part of the National Summit on K-12 Competency-Based Education, offers 16 Quality Design Principles to guide the development of competency-based learning with the goal of creating a system in which every student succeeds. While producing high-quality schools certainly requires attention to the structure, policy and operations, it also requires replacing the underlying beliefs and culture of the traditional system with an inclusive culture of learning. As states, districts and schools re-design education systems, the 16 Quality Design Principles provide a cohesive framework that offers a set of guideposts for schools and districts. While all principles are essential, districts and schools are using different entry points to begin transforming their systems and make different design choices. No matter the entry point, the depth of implementation or the model, the Quality Design Principles are composed to spark discussion that will accelerate the shift from the paradigm of the traditional system to one that seeks to have every student succeed.