Competency-based education has been getting attention in the mainstream media. First the Wall Street Journal did an indepth look at the growing interest in CBE and spoke with several leading schools/districts in How Schools Are Rewriting the Rules on Class Time for Students—and Even Ditching Grade Levels. The Washington Post also covered the topic in Emerging from the pandemic,….. Read More
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“You t hink we are smart?” blurted one of the 6th graders. Two other heads swiveled around to listen. “I’m not!” declared one. “Why do you think we are smart?” asked the other.
Seeing my chance I enthusiastically declared, “Oh yeah! You are definitely all smart. I’ve only known you for a month and I can see that each of you are really smart and each of you have curiosity about different things” I had learned by now that at most I would have five precious moments of their attention…… Read More
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What will students experience in a competency-based school?
Below are a set of examples of experiences that every student should have in a well-developed personalized, competency-based system that was developed through a collaborative experience at CompetencyWorks in 2018.
1. I will be fully supported in developing academic knowledge and skills,….. Read More
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A colleague scoffed the other day when I mentioned science of learning. It was the word ‘science” that drew the reaction as science had been used to harm people of color or justify their oppression. It’s been used against women as well. That’s why I have started to use the phrase ‘research on learning’….. Read More
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In the first part of this series, I call for us to be strategic in how we communicate the concepts related to student agency to the general public while also building a more precise understanding of what it means and how to help students develop the mindsets,….. Read More
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Student agency is a phrase that is nearly impossible to use in everyday language and is certainly not a phrase that parents use to describe their children. “Look at the agency my darling Marla has climbing that tree.” “My Martin is doing so well, he is demonstrating such agency these days.”….. Read More
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Has Covid19 lifted the window of opportunity for a massive transformation of the education system? During several presentations on rethinking schools and the future of education, many of the speakers and chatting participants have claimed that the closure of schools in response to the pandemic has created the conditions for radical transformation…… Read More
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Do you see graduate aims as roughly the same thing as competencies? Is it a nomenclature issue or a conceptual difference?
What a good question! The answer is it depends.
Graduate aims are the set of knowledge and skills that describe what we want students to know and be able to do upon graduation…… Read More
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I receive questions along the way from different colleagues, clients and people trying to find their way through personalized, competency-based education. Last week I had a chance to speak with students from Michael Golden’s class at UPenn. Here are some short responses to each of the follow-up questions I received:
1…… Read More
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Do students pass from one grade to another based on their mastery level? Does that mean every child would have a different learning journey that would not be based on a fixed time interval? In such a case, do you think that CBE could lead to even more inequity than the current traditional system?….. Read More
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All the photos of students actively engaged in learning are courtesy of Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action.
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