Giving Compass' Take:

• Tom Vander Ark and Mary Ryerse discuss the need for equity-focused competency-based education and offer strategies for implementation at scale. 

• How can funders determine which strategies are the most appropriate in their local context? 

• Read about trends for seeding competency-based education growth. 

But, as XQ highlights in the foreword to our report, “despite recent progress, significant challenges continue to impede widespread adoption of competency-based approaches and models.” Barriers include inadequate support for teachers and students, a lack of sufficient tools and resources, and the need for more descriptive transcripts to be accepted by postsecondary institutions.

Perhaps the most pervasive barrier is that, in many schools and districts, the system remains stuck in conventional routines and definitions that have changed little in decades. Schools are also stuck with tools and resources designed for a more static system, and with college admissions requirements and state accountability systems that reinforce old expectations and make change feel risky to teachers, parents, high schools, and students themselves–one recent illustrative example of the challenges that currently face efforts to transition to CBE is Maine’s statewide mandate for a proficiency-based diploma, where a lack of grassroots understanding and support, and a primary strategy of pushing competency-based structures onto otherwise traditional schools and classrooms, led them to repeal the mandate.

Read the full article about equity-focused strategies by Tom Vander Ark and Mary Ryerse at Getting Smart.