{"id":5192,"date":"2018-12-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/competency-based-education-quality-principle-10-seek-intentionality-and-alignment\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T13:06:54","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T18:06:54","slug":"competency-based-education-quality-principle-10-seek-intentionality-and-alignment","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/competency-based-education-quality-principle-10-seek-intentionality-and-alignment\/","title":{"rendered":"Competency-Based Education Quality Principle #10: Seek Intentionality and Alignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This is the eleventh article in a series based on the book\u00a0<\/em>Quality Principles for Competency-Based Education<\/a><\/em>. You can find the section on Principle #10 Seek Intentionality and Alignment on page 71.\u00a0<\/em>The links to the other articles can be found at the bottom of this page and will be updated as they are posted.<\/em><\/p>\n

We spent a lot of time trying to figure out the order of the structural quality principles in the book\u00a0Quality Principles for Competency-Based Education<\/a><\/em>.<\/em> Of course the quality principles are not applied in sequential order. It is the accumulation of all of them that will lead to the final capacity of advancing students upon demonstrated mastery.<\/p>\n

However, we have realized over the past seven years of learning from districts moving forward toward competency-based education that structural changes without the pedagogical and cultural changes are unlikely to create sustainable models. I think it is safe to say that many of the districts in Maine that were unsuccessful in creating an effective model, and created enough of a backlash that led to Maine taking a step back<\/a> from making the diploma meaningful, tried to make a few technical changes such as creating standards-driven classrooms or introducing new grading policies without putting any of the core cultural and pedagogical changes into place. The problem is that when schools say they are competency-based but they really aren\u2019t because they aren\u2019t aligning with the science on learning, it doesn\u2019t help students learn and it weakens the overall movement.<\/p>\n

We wanted to guard against schools jumping too quickly to technical or operational changes without putting key features in place first. Thus, we led with culture and pedagogy in constructing the 16 Quality Principles. And we put intentionality and alignment as the first structural principle because it positions us to be design-oriented, systemic, and reflective.<\/p>\n

Design-Oriented<\/strong>: Intentionality is a mindset needed for being design-oriented. It creates a consciousness that every routine, ritual, process, and practice has implications that either contribute to learning \u2013 of individuals and as an organization \u2013 or some other values, perhaps that are not explicit.<\/p>\n

Intentional and aligned means that educators are thinking through how to organize districts, schools, and classrooms around the shared purpose of what you want your students to know and be able to do when they make the transition from your school to their next set of challenges. Thus, if districts have engaged communities in what they want for their children, it is likely to be some mix of being lifelong learners, strong character and well-being, transferrable skills, and academic knowledge and skills.<\/p>\n

What do a school and the learning experiences need to look like to fulfill that vision? A few of the core elements are:<\/p>\n