Giving Compass' Take:

• Julia Freeland Fisher, writing for The 74, lists three ways that schools can develop competency-based education by focusing on and optimizing student relationships. 

• What are the benefits of competency-based learning? Why is it appealing for schools? 

• Learn more about the landscape of competency-based education. 

Competency-based education has seen its fair share of champions over the last decade, offering the promise of a new architecture of learning. As the competency bandwagon continues to get more crowded, however, there is a critical — and too-often ignored — through line between competencies and connections.

My recent book, Who You Know, focused on the transformative role that networks play in expanding opportunity. I argued that schools need to become far more intentional brokers of deep and diverse relationships for students. One of the best ways I identified to build a more networked school? Pursue a competency-based model. Put simply, competency-based approaches don’t just open up time, space and flexibility for learning; designed with the right intentions, they can also do the same for connecting. As a result, competency-based systems can yield not merely richer academic outcomes but more robust networks as well.

For the many systems nationwide making the pivot to competency-based pathways and assessments, here are three key opportunities to optimize for deeper and more diverse relationships in students’ lives:

  1. Get to know students by assessing broader competencies 
  2. Unlock flexible pathways to diversify connections
  3. Rethink credit to expand academic and social credentials

Read the full article about competency-based education by Julia Freeland Fisher at The 74.