{"id":4506,"date":"2017-06-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/charting-the-course-for-equity-in-competency-education\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T13:02:14","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T18:02:14","slug":"charting-the-course-for-equity-in-competency-education","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/charting-the-course-for-equity-in-competency-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Charting the Course for Equity in Competency Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-15909 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Compass-300x245-300x245.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"245\" \/>This is the fifth blog in a series leading up to the <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/resources\/national-summit-on-k-12-competency-based-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Summit on K-12 Competency-Based Education<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. We are focusing on four key areas: equity, quality, meeting students where they are, and policy. (Learn more about the Summit <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/resources\/national-summit-on-k-12-competency-based-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">here<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.) We released a series of draft papers in early June to begin addressing these issues. This article is adapted from <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/CompetencyWorks-InPursuitOfEquality-AFrameworkForEquityStrategiesInCompetencyBasedEducation.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">In Pursuit of Equality: A Framework for Equity Strategies in Competency-Based Education.<\/a><\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0It is important to remember that all of these ideas can be further developed, revised, or combined \u2013 the papers are only a starting point for introducing these key issues and driving discussions at the Summit. We would love to hear your comments on which ideas are strong, which are wrong, and how we might be able to advance the field. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the end of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/resources\/national-summit-on-k-12-competency-based-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Summit on K-12 Competency-Based Education<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, we hope to be able to provide guidance and\/or recommendations for how we can ensure that equality is not just rhetorically at the heart of competency education, but actually producing greater achievement for historically underserved students and greater equity in terms of overall outcomes. Below are a few examples of actionable steps that are needed. It\u2019s just a starting point \u2013 we know this needs to be strengthened.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We encourage you to share your reactions to the ideas below. What other steps can be taken? What is needed to turn them from ideas into action? Please leave your suggestions in the comments section below. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Design for Equity<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><b>Strengthen Equity Strategies in Models and Implementation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/em>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">School designers and technical assistance providers should be explicit about how their approach and model takes into consideration equity strategies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Professional learning should provide an overview for designing personalized, competency-based structures that highlight embedding equity strategies into design. This can include school design, pedagogy, operations (scheduling and calendars), grading practices, and disciplinary policies.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Consistency and Reliability in Determining Proficiency<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><b>Calibration<\/b><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>:<\/em> Districts and schools should co-create mechanisms to calibrate proficiency on core academic skills and higher order skills.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Processes and Metrics<\/b><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><b>Information Management Systems<\/b><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>:<\/em> Information management systems need functionality around student-centered continuums of learning that capture student growth over time, depth of learning, student evidence with portfolios, and the ability to create sets of desired management reports to support short-term response to students and longer-term continuous improvement. (See<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.inacol.org\/resource\/student-centered-learning-functional-requirements-for-integrated-systems-to-optimize-learning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Student-Centered Learning: Functional Requirements for Integrated Systems to Optimize Learning<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><b>Process Indicators<\/b><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>:<\/em> Continuous improvement often seeks to examine processes to determine effectiveness. Districts and schools should identify processes and decision-points around student learning and examine their impact on proficiency, pace, and progress. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><b>Metrics<\/b><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>:<\/em> Measuring academic grade-level proficiency and the number of students below and above is essentially an on-track indicator that students are learning at a rate that will prepare them for college\/career readiness by the end of twelfth grade. A project should be developed to clarify the metrics that are needed to monitor proficiency\/mastery, progress, and pace. Another project is needed to clarify measurements other than academics to monitor development of lifelong learning skills. Finally, a project should be developed to examine other ways other than the GPA to predict and monitor success in college.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><b>Performance-Based Assessments<\/b><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>:<\/em> The field should assess the status of the capacity for assessment literacy, including formative and performance-based assessments. Assessment literacy including the selection, development, and design for performance assessments as well as professional judgment on scoring evidence of student work with comparability, reliability, and validity are important capacities to build and strategies to develop and expand into every district and school.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><b>District Capacity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span> <\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Districts and educators need to be supported in building their capacity for data analytics (technology, analytic skills, managerial approaches, and communication including data visualization) to support evidence-based interventions, continuous improvement, and cost-effectiveness. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Leadership<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leadership is not simply by position, it is the ability to create and sustain conditions for operationalizing a school&#8217;s core values and goals. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><b>Demonstrate Respect, Build Trust, Empower Others<\/b><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>:<\/em> Create opportunities for leadership to build and receive feedback on adaptive leadership strategies. When district and school leaders used a shared vision and clear guiding principles to drive decision-making, they also open the door to empowering others to make decisions. Creating opportunity for educators and students to have input demonstrates respect for their perspectives and builds trust.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><b>Hiring<\/b><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>:<\/em> School board hiring processes should include interviewing superintendents on demonstrations of addressing inequity, knowledge of equity strategies, and of improving equality within systems. Similarly, superintendents should consider the same in hiring principals. Equality starts with school boards and their commitment to hiring superintendents who have the skill and courage to identify and challenge inequity and inequitable practices. Diversity of staff should reflect that of the student population.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><b>Personal Accountability for Overcoming Bias<\/b><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>:<\/em> One of the first steps leaders need to take is to become accountable for challenging their own bias. This can include undergoing race\/racism awareness training, looking at problems of practice around bias and race as a team, accessing tools to challenge implicit bias, examining their own networks to ensure they reflect diversity, and performing a self-assessment on their knowledge as it relates to historically underserved students. Educators at all levels of the system should take responsibility for identifying and managing their own bias through learning, dialogue, and formal feedback. Professional learning communities can play a powerful role in helping to identify and address personal bias through data on student learning, reviewing and enriching units, and scoring student work.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Follow this blog series:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"title\">Post #1 \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/?p=15852\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">CompetencyWorks Releases New Reports on Key Issues in Competency Education<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"title\">Post #2 \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/?p=15855\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">Introducing an Equity Framework for Competency Education<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"title\">Post #3 \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/?p=15861\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">Potential Pitfalls for Ensuring Equity in Competency-Based Systems<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"title\">Post #4 &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/?p=15865\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">Building a Comprehensive Set of Equity Strategies<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Learn more:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Learn about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/resources\/national-summit-on-k-12-competency-based-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Summit on K-12 Competency-Based Education<\/a>, and share what you\u2019re learning using #CBESummit17.<\/li>\n<li>For more resources and recommended reading, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/\">CompetencyWorks<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/competencyworks.pbworks.com\/w\/page\/110572186\/Beyond%20the%20Tipping%20Point%3A%20Insights%20in%20Advancing%20Competency%20Education%20in%20New%20England\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Competency<\/i>Works wiki<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Follow <i>Competency<\/i>Works and iNACOL on Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CompetencyWorks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@CompetencyWorks<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nacol\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@nacol<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/resources\/national-summit-on-k-12-competency-based-education-recommended-reading\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Summit on K-12 Competency-Based Education Recommended Reading<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","mapsvg_location":""},"legacy_category":[],"issue":[368,402],"location":[],"class_list":["post-4506","cw_post","type-cw_post","status-publish","hentry","issue-issues-in-practice","issue-commit-to-equity"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - 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