Giving Compass' Take:

· Tom Vander Ark discusses the recent changes in education and provides a few reasons why schools should adopt competency-based education models. 

· What are some different ways education is changing? Why is competency-based education spreading?

· Read more about competency-based education.

“In the past, education was about teaching people something. Now it is about making sure that individuals develop a reliable compass and the navigation skills to find their own way through an increasingly uncertain, volatile and ambiguous world.” That’s the conclusion of a new OECD book.

In Schooling Redesigned, the OECD makes the case for transformed schools that feature tasks and projects that challenge young people in authentic ways to build design, collaboration, and communication skills that prepare young people for navigating new and complex situations.

The most promising but challenging part of the transformation will be from marking time to demonstrating mastery. For hundreds of years, schools have been organized around age cohorts and lockstep progress based on a compulsory school year and credit hours. The problem is this system doesn’t work for most learners–some students are bored and frustrated and others don’t get what they need and are pushed through the system with big academic gaps that prevent success at higher levels.

A new report outlines some of the reasons our system has been so resilient to change, starting with the fact that it’s hard to measure learning. Local, state, and federal policies that guide student progress, graduation, and college admissions are often based on seat time. And there are a couple hundred years of tradition to overcome.

Read the full article about competency-based education by Tom Vander Ark at Getting Smart.