{"id":4918,"date":"2018-05-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/competency-frameworks\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T13:05:28","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T18:05:28","slug":"competency-frameworks","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/competency-frameworks\/","title":{"rendered":"Competency Frameworks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-18052\" src=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blank-Slate-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At one point in my journey of understanding about competency-based education, I questioned whether we really needed competencies. Wasn\u2019t it okay just to have standards? Paul Leather helped me understand the value of competencies by asking <em>What would the system look like if we had a blank slate? Would we really want standards to be the defining way to think about expectations for students?<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Of course we would want something more meaningful to students and their families than the lists and lists of standards.<\/li>\n<li>Of course we would want something more high level that could be used to organize standards in meaningful ways.<\/li>\n<li>Of course we want to talk about competencies beyond academic domains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thus, it became clear to me that we definitely do want to use competencies as a high level organizing structure that can be used to determine if students really are building the skills they need for life. It pushes us to include competencies beyond academic domains that we know are important for transferring knowledge and for lifelong learning. It also pushes us toward deeper learning.<\/p>\n<p>However, it does still seem absolutely fine for districts and schools to start the transition to competency-based education using standards (as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/case-study\/designing-performance-based-learning-at-d51\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">District 51<\/a> has done) with the assumption that over time folks will want to take a step back and think about the competencies they want to include in their graduate profile.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve started to collect some different examples of competencies (based on who has made them available on the web). They vary in terms of how much attention there is to academic domains as well as the cross-curricular competencies that are related to transferable skills and lifelong learning. They vary in how much they focus on competencies or making meaning out of the standards. And they vary in how much they approach students wholistically.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>New Hampshire has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.education.nh.gov\/innovations\/hs_redesign\/competencies.htm\">academic competencies<\/a> (8 math, 9 ELA, and 8 cross-cutting science) and 4 work study competencies. <a href=\"Link%20to%20first%20of%20the%20sanborn%20series%20and%20make%20sure%20it%20has%20all%20the%20parts\">Sanborn Regional School District<\/a> has made their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sanbornregionalsd.nh.schools.bz\/userfiles\/-4\/my%20files\/july2016competencycurriculum%20(1).pdf?id=113\">competencies and standards<\/a> available.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/case-study\/the-young-womens-leadership-school-of-astoria\/?x=0&amp;y=0&amp;_sf_s=astoria\">Young Women\u2019s Leadership School<\/a> in Astoria has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tywls-astoria.org\/outcome-targets\">10 outcome targets<\/a> such as discern, argue, and be precise. The content is used for student learning but doesn\u2019t drive the learning. This is amazing, as they are based in NY with the archaic Regent exams that expect every student to know <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfponline.org\/Uploads\/91\/Global_Regents_Review_Packet_6BYZANTINEempire.pdf\">Byzantine history<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Bronx Arena has <a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/antoniarudenstine\/docs\/bronx_arena_high_school_monograph_a\">5 clusters of competencies<\/a>: thinking, literacy, numeracy, expression, self &amp; community. (See page 9.)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/case-study\/creating-a-learner-driven-system-in-waukesha-part-1\/?x=0&amp;y=0&amp;_sf_s=waukesha\">Waukesha STEM Academy<\/a>, a middle school, has organized a <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1rW7-7EeQB5DFjNKxIaPNSHS3PGK7sL5u0XI0zkhIcnQ\/edit\">learner continuum<\/a> that range from level 4- 12&#8230;because that is how much their student skill levels range. It\u2019s worth watching the <a href=\"http:\/\/stemsaratoga.weebly.com\/vistor-resources.html\">video on their learner continuum on this page<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/case-study\/epic-schools-putting-young-men-of-color-in-the-center-of-the-design-part-1\/\">EPIC Schools<\/a> were designed as a model that had African-American young men at the center. They have a very wholistic model that takes into account youth development and academics with <a href=\"http:\/\/epicschoolsnyc.org\/epic-playbook\/\">19 competencies and 66 attainments<\/a>. (See page 36.)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/case-study\/school-models\/breaking-out-of-the-boxes-at-building-21\/?x=0&amp;y=0&amp;_sf_s=building+21\">Building 21<\/a> is a school designed to support students no matter what their previous educational experience. They too have a strong youth development approach. They describe <a href=\"http:\/\/building21.org\/competencies\/\">competencies and performance levels<\/a>:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 50px;\"><em>A competency (1) is structured as a grouping of related skills (2) that cumulatively serve as a measure of a learner\u2019s level of\u00a0competence. Performance level descriptors (3) along a continuum help describe how each skill becomes more sophisticated as it develops\u00a0toward mastery (4). Based on our\u00a0most recent analysis,\u00a0Level 10 represents \u201ccollege ready\u201d work and \u201cLevel 12\u201d on our continuum represents \u201ccollege-level\u201d work.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 50px;\">I love this distinction of college-ready and college-level work. I definitely think that the last two years of high school need to include making sure students can actually do college level work. This idea of graduating and then taking remediation has just got to go.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatschoolspartnership.org\/\">Great Schools Partnership<\/a> has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatschoolspartnership.org\/proficiency-based-learning\/state-local-standards\/\">exemplars of how to organize standards with grade level performance indicators<\/a>. They understand that schools are in general operating with grade level standards. There does seem to be an interest in multi-age bands which will likely trigger schools to start thinking about performance levels (based on what students know and can do) more than grade levels (based on age).<\/li>\n<li>Marzano Research Labs has pulled together the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marzanoresearch.com\/the-critical-concepts\">Critical Concepts<\/a> (but it\u2019s not available freely on the web), as we all know we have too many standards if we really want our students to have a chance to go deep, explore, and discover.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.redesignu.org\/\">Redesign<\/a> has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redesignu.org\/sites\/default\/files\/uploads\/MMA%20-%20Competency%20Adoption%20Guide%20150723.pdf\">Competency Adoption Guide<\/a> that can help you make sense of the process. Rose Colby\u2019s book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Competency-Based-Education-Architecture-K-12-Schooling\/dp\/1682531007\">Competency-Based Education: A New Architecture for K-12 Schooling<\/a> has a chapter that walks you through a process as well.<\/p>\n<p>Do you have a set of competencies that you would like to share? Please send them to me at chris (at) metisnet (dot) net. We\u2019d love to make a range of examples accessible so that districts and schools can get a sense of the landscape before designing their own.<\/p>\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":[368,371],"location":[],"class_list":["post-4918","cw_post","type-cw_post","status-publish","hentry","issue-issues-in-practice","issue-learn-lessons-from-the-field"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Competency Frameworks - Aurora Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/competency-frameworks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Competency Frameworks - Aurora Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At one point in my journey of understanding about competency-based education, I questioned whether we really needed...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/competency-frameworks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aurora Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuroraInst\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-05T18:05:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blank-Slate-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Aurora_Inst\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"Chris Sturgis\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/competency-frameworks\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/competency-frameworks\/\",\"name\":\"Competency Frameworks - 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