Giving Compass Take:

• Although many states have embraced the numerous new innovations in education, The Hechinger Report explains why Maine is struggling to adopt "competency-based" methods: Residents want letter grades to return. 

• This is a good example of why community engagement is so important when enacting education reforms. Would things go smoother in Maine if students and teachers had more of a say in the transition?

• Read and learn more about competency-based education and teaching tools. 

The already converted policymakers, school leaders and teachers ready to transform traditional schooling came to this annual conference last week from around the world to share a common refrain: Out with the old.

New ways of teaching and learning are needed to make sure students prove they’ve mastered topics before earning a diploma, they say. No more simply “sitting on your butt in class,” as one educator put it.

“Why are we so stuck in an age-based, grade-based era? We have to engage in a movement,” Susan Patrick, CEO of the nonprofit advocacy group known as iNACOL (International Association for K-12 Online Learning), told the cheering crowd of 3,000 true believers.

Well, there is something of a movement, despite an array of challenges. Dozens of states, according to iNACOL research, are in different stages of promoting new so-called “competency-based education” models that replace traditional “seat time,” spent in classrooms with “student centered” learning,” aimed at having students prove that they’ve mastered skills before simply moving on from grade to grade.

Read the full article about pushback to changes in education by Liz Willen at The Hechinger Report.