{"id":19528,"date":"2024-12-05T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/?post_type=cw_post&p=19528"},"modified":"2024-12-05T20:46:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T01:46:38","slug":"2-the-field-of-cbe-is-in-motion","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/2-the-field-of-cbe-is-in-motion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Field of Competency-Based Education Is In Motion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Competency-Based Education: Looking Back and Looking Forward<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Check out the animated version of the Competency-Based Education: Looking Back, Looking Forward<\/a> session graphic notes drawn by a local New Orleans artist. This post is part of our\u00a0<\/i>Aurora Institute Symposium 2024<\/a><\/i>\u00a0series sharing ideas from #Aurora24 sessions.<\/i><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

What a thrill it was to touch down in NOLA for the Aurora Institute Symposium 2024! One big takeaway? Our field has made incredible strides \u2013 and we\u2019re standing on the edge of even bigger leaps. Someone even said that we were moving beyond the tipping point! (This raises a big point: If we are moving past the initial stage of focusing on innovators, perhaps we should be rethinking how our field works together.) Hats off to everyone who has poured their creativity, dedication, and collaboration into making real change. You\u2019re truly moving the needle!<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday, Laurie Gagnon and I led a session called <\/span>Competency-Based Education: Looking Back, Looking Forward<\/span><\/i> to reflect on our achievements and explore new horizons. Here are three big changes from the past 5-10 years that stood out in our conversation and throughout the conference. What would you add to this list?\u00a0 (See Part 2 Looking Forward tomorrow)<\/span><\/p>\n

State Policy: So Much in Motion!<\/span><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s a whirlwind of action in state policy right now! Every year, more states are investing in efforts to introduce and expand <\/span>competency-based education (CBE)<\/span><\/a>. Some are still focused on innovation grants, while others are doing groundbreaking work aligning the state policy framework with personalized, competency-based education \u2013 or as I like to think about it, aligning with the research about how we learn.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Symposium, states like <\/span>North Dakota<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>South Carolina<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Washington<\/span><\/a> took the spotlight for their progress. Vermont is steadfastly advancing its <\/span>proficiency-based framework<\/span><\/a>, a vision it first embraced over two decades ago. Meanwhile, Utah\u2019s developed a unique <\/span>distributive leadership model<\/span><\/a>, fostering partnerships with districts and schools. Big news is that the <\/span>New York\u2019s Regents<\/span><\/a> are finally shaking things up by updating their test-based graduation policies to offer new paths, like capstone projects, community service, and work-based learning. Keep an eye on Montana and <\/span>Wyoming<\/span><\/a> as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the federal level, the government is currently supporting innovative state assessment strategies through the <\/span>Competitive Grants for State Assessments<\/span><\/a> (CGSA) program. While it\u2019s hard to predict what the next four years might bring in federal policy, states are where the action is. The landscape is changing fast \u2013 and there\u2019s no slowing down!<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaping over Obstacles with AI-Solutions<\/span><\/h2>\n

AI is one of the biggest questions facing education. To better understand it, I\u2019ve been using it to help me with research for a book. I\u2019m grateful when it hands me beautifully packaged summaries but also aware that I didn\u2019t do much in the way of\u00a0 learning (and contributed to the demand for more nuclear energy). Very little went into long term memory. Very little connection was made to my schema of knowledge. I can imagine it as a new method for schools to cover more and more content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Innovators in our field are already leveraging AI to solve two of teachers\u2019 biggest resource challenges: time and creativity. The Symposium highlighted several AI tools, including: providing rapid feedback on student essays and managing revisions; helping students organize projects to showcase their learning; supporting teachers in Universal Design for Learning (UDL)\u2019s backward design process; and accelerating the design of high-quality project-based learning. This topic deserves its own article, so look for <\/span>Overcoming Barriers with AI<\/span><\/i> in the coming weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Going Deeper: From Working Definition to Shared Understanding\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s an exciting shift as more people rally around a shared understanding of competency-based education. We\u2019ve been depending heavily on the working definition (created in 2011 and updated in 2019<\/a>) to describe CBE. However, I was delighted to hear people talk about CBE in their own terms and with a richness that demonstrated their deep understanding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a glimpse of the conversation in our session:<\/span><\/p>\n