{"id":4084,"date":"2016-08-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/el-paso-here-we-come-competency-ed-at-the-inacol-symposium\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T12:59:17","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T17:59:17","slug":"el-paso-here-we-come-competency-ed-at-the-inacol-symposium","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/el-paso-here-we-come-competency-ed-at-the-inacol-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio Here We Come: Competency Ed at the iNACOL Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve just been looking at the schedule for the competency education strand at the iNACOL Symposium<\/a>\u00a0on October 25-28. It is definitely the best set of sessions yet, with a much stronger focus on equity than ever before. For anyone new to competency education trying to understand or to think about how to move forward, I definitely recommend starting with the full-day workshop with the Charleston County School District<\/a> team. (Check out the series on CCSD<\/a>.) If you stay around to the very end, Susan Patrick and I are facilitating a \u201cmeet the expert\u201d discussion. And we\u2019ll be posting information about where to find us for the CompetencyWorks meet-up at the President\u2019s Reception the evening of October 25.<\/p>\n Here is an overview of the strand:<\/p>\n Equity and Competency-Based Education<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Proficiency as a Pathway to Equity<\/strong><\/p>\n Tony Lamair Burks II and Angela Hardy, Great Schools Partnership will focus on the rationale for, the critical elements of, and the policies that support a proficiency-based learning system as a means to achieve equity for all students.<\/p>\n How Competency-Based Education Drives Equity and Cultural Responsiveness<\/strong><\/p>\n Joy Nolan, Jeremy Kraushar, and Julianna Charles Brown, Mastery Collaborative<\/a>: an initiative of Model Redesign team, NYC DOE Office of Postsecondary Readiness will discuss the major shifts that happen when schools become competency-based and how this increased cultural responsiveness.<\/p>\n Redefining Equity in Competency-Based Systems of Learning<\/strong><\/p>\n David Cook, Kentucky Department of Innovation and Dr. Carmen Coleman, Center for Innovation in Education will begin to develop a new definition of equity that makes sense in a personalized, competency-based environment.<\/p>\n Culture, Practices, Rituals and Routines<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Competency-Based Education and Self-Directed Learning Practices in the Classroom<\/strong><\/p>\n Doug Finn and Rebecca Mestaz from Reinventing Schools Division of Marzano Research will lead a discussion on how to have students gain more ownership and responsibility of their learning. By engaging them in creating the classroom expectations, students become a part of the learning process and develop skills that will enhance their learning experience independent of content. In this session, the focus will be on learning tools and strategies to engage and teach students the necessary behaviors and processes to be successful in a competency-based system.<\/p>\n Leveling the Playing Field: Asynchronous Learning in High-Poverty, Competency-Based Urban High Schools<\/strong><\/p>\n Dixie Bacallao and Sydney Schaef, reDesign, and Neil Geyette, The U School will explore the learner independence model and techniques used by the U School. Using provided tools and guides, we will design and prototype a staged process applying the learner independence flexible grouping strategy in your own contexts.<\/p>\n Understanding the Importance of Classroom Assessment and Student Recording in a Competency-Based System<\/strong><\/p>\n Pamela Swanson, Oliver Grenham, Jeni Gotto, Westminster Public Schools (formerly Adams County School District 50) and Marc Brodersen, Marzano Research will engage participants in identifying the influences of assessment and student recording practices on instructional and student progression decision-making. This session will describe the Westminster Public Schools’ competency-based system, a study examining student progression and classroom assessment, and implications for the implementation of competency-based educational practices.<\/p>\n Integrating 21st Century Skills and Dispositions into Classroom Practices<\/strong><\/p>\n Jonathan Vander Els, Sanborn Regional School District, State of New Hampshire DOE, Paul Leather, State of New Hampshire Department of Education; Sarah Lench, Center for Innovation in Educaiton and Ali Brown, 2Revolutions will describe their efforts to unpack the four Work Study Practices (Skills and Dispositions) of Communication, Collaboration, Creativity and Self-Direction and translating them into curriculum, instruction and assessment. The presenters will share the process undertaken, as well as examples of the tremendous impact this work had in the classrooms in which it was integrated.<\/p>\n Destination Rigor: Aligning and Designing Curriculum Supports, Instruction, Assessments and Grading in a Competency Based Personalized Learning System<\/strong><\/p>\n Kristen Brittingham, Shannon Feit, Sherry Kirkland, Charleston County School District, and students from Charleston County School District in a hands-on session will introduce practices used in their personalized, competency-based model.<\/p>\n District and School Conversion<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Elementary Schools Redefine Success through Competency-Based Education<\/strong><\/p>\n Marie Watson, Lauren Vann, John Paul Sellars, Red Bank Elementary School;<\/p>\n Amy Allen, Parker Varney Elementary, Manchester, NH; Jonathan Vanderels, Memorial Elementary School, NH; and Debora Bamforth, Bakie Elementary School will provide a look at how four elementary schools have made the choice to transform education with a competency-based model of learning. Hear from administrators and classroom practitioners.<\/p>\n From Pockets of Excellence to a System of Excellence – Scaling and Sustaining Personalized, Competency Transformation<\/strong><\/p>\n Join Oliver Grenham and Jeni Gotto, Westminster Public Schools (Formerly Adams 50); Kristen Brittingham, Charleston County School District; Tom Rooney, Lindsay Unified School District; and John Caesar and Scott Bacon, Empower Learning for a discussion on transformation of school district. Discussion will include problems and solutions in the change process, traditional versus next gen professional development, and innovations to scale and sustain best practices, the monitoring of adult capacity and system continuous improvement.<\/p>\n Henry County Schools Shares Its Journey from Traditional to Competency-Based Education through Personalized Learning<\/strong><\/p>\n Karen Perry and Aaryn Schmuhl from Henry County Schools and Mary Hastings and<\/p>\n David Ruff, Great Schools Partnership will describe the transition of a large suburban district of 42,000 students and 50 schools to personalized, competency-based learning. (See series on Henry County<\/a>.)<\/p>\n From Resistance to Engagement: Guiding Stakeholders to Competency-Based, Student-Centered Education<\/strong><\/p>\n Gary Chapin and Joshua Littenberg-Tobias, Center for Collaborative Education will explore case studies about how schools and districts throughout the country have done the hard, heavy-thinking work of successfully engaging stakeholders and community members.<\/p>\n New Models<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n An Open-Source, Competency-Based Model Version 2.0<\/strong><\/p>\n Thomas Gaffey, Sydney Schaef, and Sandra Moumoutjis from Building 21will introduce their Learning What Matters model developed in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Its an interactive session – you will be immersed in this model by playing the role of a teacher and student while using each of the open-source tools. (Article on B21<\/a>.)<\/p>\n StorySLAM: Doing School Differently<\/strong><\/p>\n Join Elina Alayeva, Springpoint and students, teachers and principals of new, competency-based high schools share stories of success, failure and growth in an interactive StorySLAM format used in The Moth storytelling show. Stories will focus on the theme of \u201cDoing School Differently.\u201d<\/p>\n Who’s Leading the Way? The Most Promising Competency-Based School Models in the Field and Strategies for Building On Their Success (…Not Reinventing the Wheel)<\/strong><\/p>\n Sydney Schaef and Antonia Rudenstine, reDesign will discuss featured school models and artifact categories: competencies, grading policies, schedules, data and assessment. Working in groups you will have the chance to deep dive by category. Teams will use protocol to review and critique a set of school artifacts while charting new insights into competency-based education.<\/p>\n