January Issue Brief: Competency-based Learning

It sounds simple—award credit based on student learning. But as more schools and districts begin to develop competency-based pathways, questions have arisen about the best way to go about implementing these models. Complexities related to student grouping, curriculum design, scheduling, assessment, and grading abound. In this month’s issue brief, we explore various resources, research reports, and ideas related to successful implementation of competency-based learning, both in K-12 and higher education.

How can educators best implement competency-based learning? Does this approach work at all levels, from elementary school through graduate school? What do teachers need to know and be able to do to be successful with competency-based learning? Please respond to our call for commentary. We'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for all you do to support and inspire great educators and engaging education.
Kim Fleming
President, Core Education LLC

Making Learning Personal for All: The Growing Diversity in Today’s Classroom

This report explores learner diversity and learning variability across a variety of factors impacting student performance. A growing body of evidence stresses the need for the research community, educators, and education technology developers to work together to implement new learner models to better differentiate instruction and support students based on their unique learning needs.

Expanding the Research Base for Competency-based Education
AEI has released a new series on Competency-Based Higher Education (CBE), titled Innovate and Evaluate: Expanding the Research Base for Competency-based Education.
The authors, Andrew P. Kelly and Rooney Columbus, analyze 380 studies of postsecondary CBE and prior-learning assessment listed in the Department of Education’s Education Resources Information Center database.

Facebook Helps Develop Software that puts Students in Charge of their Lesson Plans

Recently, Natasha Singer and Mike Isaac reported for The New York Times on Facebook’s new personalized learning platform. The software gives students a full view of their academic responsibilities for the year in each class and breaks them down into customizable lesson modules they can tackle at their own pace.

Competency-Based Teacher Preparation
In a recent article in Real Clear Education, Patrick Riccard reflects on the potential for teacher preparation programs to implement a competency-based approach. This approach to teacher education can strengthen the prospective teacher pipeline, improve teacher education in general, and improve our collective ability to retain successful teachers.

Continued Progress: Promising Evidence on Personalized Learning
The Gates Foundation and Rand Corporation have partnered to create a report focused on personalized learning approaches to education. This report, Continued Progress: Promising Evidence on Personalized Learning, examines achievement in 62 public charter and district schools that are pursuing a variety of personalized learning practices, and examines implementation details in 32 of those schools.

The Student Experience: How Competency-based Education Providers serve Students
Rachel B. Baker at AEI Education has a new report out about Competency Based Education (CBE) programs at the college level that explores how students actually experience education in a CBE model. The report examines the day-to-day process of learning, assessment, and progression and offers some preliminary conclusions about how CBE works for students.

Call for Commentary

How can educators best implement competency-based learning?
Does this approach work at all levels, from elementary school through graduate school?
What do teachers need to know and be able to do to be successful with competency-based learning?

Send your responses to these questions to kfleming@coreeducationllc.com
We thrive on the discussion!

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