Giving Compass' Take:

• The authors discuss how competency-based education can benefit schools, teachers, and students but need the right support systems to thrive at each of those levels. 

• Why are educators excited to utilize competency-based education models? How will they help keep students engaged?

• Read about the five trends for seeding competency-based educational growth. 

Competency-based education (CBE) is currently seen as both an innovative approach to focusing on student mastery, and as a compelling shift to a definition of learning wherein milestones are learning-based rather than time-based.

Below, we will share a brief selection of our findings regarding the supports needed for schools, educators the students as they make the transition to CBE, highlighting a specific impact opportunity at each respective level. Our full findings will be released in mid-October.

  • Schools: enhance and scale competency-based networks of schools,
  • Teachers: promote competency-based education teacher preparation and professional learning, and
  • Students: promote an integrated approach to academic, social and emotional development of students.

At the school level, there is a need and an opportunity to enhance and scale competency-based school networks. There are a few ways in which this impact opportunity can be put into action, but we believe it would be most beneficial to specifically focus efforts on learning model updates to and scaling of existing networks.

As we hone in on opportunities at the individual educator level, we believe a major change factor lies in the way in which teachers are prepared initially and on an ongoing basis.

Read the full article about competency-based education by Erik Day and Michelle Berkeley at Getting Smart.