{"id":54,"date":"2019-07-11T23:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T23:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/?page_id=54"},"modified":"2023-03-13T00:17:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T04:17:01","slug":"faqs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/our-work\/faqs\/","title":{"rendered":"FAQs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Competency-Based Learning<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_toggle title=”What is competency-based education?” el_id=”1455715962963-1838dde9-f467″]The field of K-12 competency-based education is expanding, and knowledge is growing. From 2017 to 2019, CompetencyWorks engaged in a multi-stage, participatory process to update the 2011 working definition.<\/p>\n

The revised 2019 definition of competency-based education is:<\/p>\n

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  1. Students are empowered daily to make important decisions about their learning experiences, how they will create and apply knowledge, and how they will demonstrate their learning.<\/li>\n
  2. Assessment is a meaningful, positive, and empowering learning experience for students that yields timely, relevant, and actionable evidence.<\/li>\n
  3. Students receive timely, differentiated support based on their individual learning needs.<\/li>\n
  4. Students progress based on evidence of mastery, not seat time.<\/li>\n
  5. Students learn actively using different pathways and varied pacing.<\/li>\n
  6. Strategies to ensure equity for all students are embedded in the culture, structure, and pedagogy of schools and education systems.<\/li>\n
  7. Rigorous, common expectations for learning (knowledge, skills, and dispositions) are explicit, transparent, measurable, and transferable.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A competency-based school or district should implement all seven elements of the definition. Strong implementation also requires policies, pedagogy, structures, and culture that support every student in developing essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions.[\/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What is personalized learning?”]Personalized learning tailors learning to each student\u2019s strengths, needs, and interests. Students have \u201cvoice and choice\u201d in determining what, how, when and where the learning occurs to provide flexibility and supports to ensure mastery of the highest standards possible.<\/span>[\/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What is the connection between personalized learning and competency-based education?”]Competency-based education systems provide structures that increase the effectiveness of personalized learning, such as validation of proficiency based on student work, careful monitoring of pace and progress, and an intentional focus on equity to ensure all students reach the same high standards. These competency-based structures form the foundation of equity for all students, with an expectation for demonstrating mastery through evidence. They also ensure that personalization does not reinforce traditional, inequitable structures such as tracking.[\/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Why does K-12 education need to change?”]The traditional one-size-fits-all approach to education began more than 100 years ago and hasn\u2019t changed much since. There are 10 critical areas that we focus on as indicative of the need for redesign. Traditional K-12 approaches have systemic structural flaws:<\/p>\n

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    1. Focus on a narrow set of academic outcomes and fails to recognize that student success is dependent on a full range of foundational skills, including social-emotional skills, and the application of skills.<\/li>\n
    2. Are time-based. Schools batch students by age and move them through the same content and courses at the same pace. Students advance to the next grade level after a year of schooling regardless of what they actually learned.<\/li>\n
    3. Use grading practices that send misleading signals about what students know by reflecting a mix of factors, such as behavior, assignment completion and passing tests.<\/li>\n
    4. Rely on a bureaucratic, hierarchical system that perpetuates traditional roles, cultural norms, and inequitable dynamics.<\/li>\n
    5. Are built on a fixed mindset, the notion that people\u2019s abilities are carved in stone.<\/li>\n
    6. Depend on extrinsic motivation.<\/li>\n
    7. Emphasize covering the curriculum but fail to reflect the learning sciences about how children learn, grow, and develop.<\/li>\n
    8. Are organized to efficiently deliver curriculum and assess students\u2019 proficiency at low levels, such as memorization and comprehension of content knowledge, rather than applied learning and mastery.<\/li>\n
    9. Have high variability in how teachers determine proficiency.<\/li>\n
    10. Rank and sort students, creating winners and losers and perpetuating inequality in our society.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      [\/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What are the distinguishing characteristics of competency-based education?”]Competency-based education systems are designed for mastery. Success is the only option. Failure may be part of a student\u2019s learning curve, but it is not an outcome. Here are key distinguishing characteristics of competency-based systems compared to traditional one-size-fits-all systems. In competency-based education systems:<\/p>\n

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      1. Student success outcomes are designed around preparation for college, career, and lifelong learning.<\/li>\n
      2. Districts and schools make a commitment to be responsible for all students mastering learning expectations.<\/li>\n
      3. Districts and schools nurture empowering, inclusive cultures of learning.<\/li>\n
      4. Students receive timely and differentiated instruction and support.<\/li>\n
      5. Research-informed pedagogical principles emphasize meeting students where they are and building intrinsic motivation.<\/li>\n
      6. Assessments are embedded in the personalized learning cycle and aligned to outcomes including the transfer of knowledge and skills.<\/li>\n
      7. Mechanisms are in place to ensure consistency in expectations of what it means to master knowledge and skills.<\/li>\n
      8. Schools and districts value transparency with clear and explicit expectations of what is to be learned, the level of performance for mastery and how students are progressing.<\/li>\n
      9. Strategies for communicating progress support the learning process and student success.<\/li>\n
      10. Learners advance based on attainment of learning expectations (mastery) through personalized learning pathways.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        [\/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What will students experience in a competency-based school?” el_id=”1467229827670-95785abb-a182″]Below are examples of experiences that every student should have in a well-developed personalized, competency-based system.<\/p>\n

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        1. I will be fully supported in developing academic knowledge and skills, the ability to apply what I have learned to solve real-world problems, and the capacities I need to become an independent and lifelong learner.<\/li>\n
        2. I feel safe and am willing to put forward my best effort to take on challenging knowledge and skills because I have a deep sense of belonging, feel that my culture, the culture of my community and my voice is valued, and see on a daily basis that everyone in the school is committed to my learning.<\/li>\n
        3. I will have opportunities and support to learn the skills that allow me to take responsibility for my learning and exercise independence.<\/li>\n
        4. I have access to and full comprehension of learning targets and expectations of what proficiency means.<\/li>\n
        5. I have opportunities to learn anytime, anyplace, with flexibility to take more time when I need it to fully master or go deeper, and to pursue ways of learning and demonstrating my learning in ways that are relevant to my interests and future.<\/li>\n
        6. I am able to own my education by learning about things that matter to me in ways that are effective for me with the support that allows me to be successful.<\/li>\n
        7. I will receive timely feedback, instruction, and support based on where I am on the learner continuum and my social emotional development to make necessary progress on my personalized pathway to graduation.<\/li>\n
        8. My learning will be measured by progress on learning targets rather than level of participation, effort or time in the classroom.<\/li>\n
        9. Grades or scoring provide feedback to help me know what I need to do to improve my learning process and reach my learning goals.<\/li>\n
        10. I can advance to the next level or go deeper into topics that interest me as soon as I submit evidence of learning that demonstrates my proficiency.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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          Policy<\/h3>\n

          [\/vc_column_text][vc_toggle title=”How can policymakers support a vision of transformation to personalized, competency-based education to help all students succeed?”]Policymakers can tackle several critical issues to create a long-range vision for the transformation of education systems. They can:<\/p>\n