What’s New in K-12 Competency-Based Education?

Research

• The 74 reviews two recent studies on personalized learning and explains the challenges in researching the effectiveness of personalized learning.
• Growth Mindset – A recent MRI study gives some of the first biological evidence that presenting math in a way that encourages a growth mindset changes not just students’ motivation to learn, but the the way their brains tackle problems.

Resources

• iNACOL recently conducted an Introduction to K-12 Competency-Based Education webinar that answered the most frequently asked questions about this system of education designed to equitably ensure that all students develop the skills they will need for college, career, and life. The webinar recording and slide deck are available here.
• Global Online Academy has launched the Competency-Based Learning Toolkit, a design tool that helps teams of educators shift to activities that are skills-driven, performance-based, and co-designed with students.

Equity

• Digital Promise describes how technology can help contribute to equity in schools. They present strategies such as professional development and data-informed decision-making, not using “edtech to replace worksheets or run ‘drill and kill’ exercises.”

Professional Learning – Some upcoming opportunities include:

• The New Hampshire Learning Initiative is offering its annual Powerful Learning Conference, July 9-11 in Bow, NH, to celebrate innovative projects from across the state on topics such as competency instruction, learning progressions, and embedded work study practices.
• The Personalized Learning Summit will take place in Chanhassen, Minnesota on August 5-6, 2019. It is an opportunity to learn about culturally responsive teaching, explore feedback and assessment, and gain tools and resources to more fully realize student-centered learning.
• The Competency-Based Education Summit will take place October 9-11 in Westminster, Colorado. Westminster Public Schools is a large district implementing a competency-based system. The summit will support educators in learning how to do the same.

Teaching and Learning

• The Learning Accelerator has launched a new series to strengthen the connection between instructional practice and learning science. The first three cover the myth of learning styles, how not all feedback is created equal, and the benefits of mixed-ability groups.
• Designing Rich (Math) Projects That Inspire – Robert Barnett, math teacher and founder of the Modern Classrooms Project, provides great ideas for making math personalized and engaging, along with a TedX talk and model project on population growth.
• Greater Good Magazine shares several strategies that teachers use to integrate social-emotional skills in the classroom at Lakewood Elementary, an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse school in California.
• Nine Tips for Writing Effective Rubrics – Envision Learning Partners shares quality criteria for solid rubric design to permit evaluation of complex student performances.

Eliot Levine is the Aurora Institute’s Research Director and leads CompetencyWorks.

Follow @eliot_levine