Imagine a classroom where every student learns at their own pace, achieving mastery in skills and knowledge before moving forward. This episode discusses the transformative potential of Competency-Based Education (CBE) in our K-12 public schools, demonstrating how this approach caters to individual learning styles and paces. hi delve into CBE's historical roots, its resurgence in response to global competitiveness, and the urgent need for student-centered learning. CBE paves the way for all students to receive tailored support, thus ensuring their success.
The road to educational revolution isn't without its bumps. In this episode, I tackle the complexities of implementing CBE, from assessing intangible qualities like creativity to the danger of a 'just enough' mentality. Yet, amidst these challenges are shining examples of success. I also stress the importance of information literacy and parental involvement in the CBE movement, highlighting how these elements are crucial for fostering critical thinking and advocating for change within our educational system. Join me as I unravel how CBE can redefine the future of learning—one competency at a time.
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Thanks for listening! For more information about the show, episodes, and ways to support, check out these websites: https://k12educationuntangled.buzzsprout.com or https: //www.liberationthrougheducation.com
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You can also support me with ratings, kind words of encouragement, and by sharing this podcast with friends and family
Contact me with any specific questions you have at: kim@liberationthrougheducation.com
Imagine a classroom where every student learns at their own pace, achieving mastery in skills and knowledge before moving forward. This episode discusses the transformative potential of Competency-Based Education (CBE) in our K-12 public schools, demonstrating how this approach caters to individual learning styles and paces. hi delve into CBE's historical roots, its resurgence in response to global competitiveness, and the urgent need for student-centered learning. CBE paves the way for all students to receive tailored support, thus ensuring their success.
The road to educational revolution isn't without its bumps. In this episode, I tackle the complexities of implementing CBE, from assessing intangible qualities like creativity to the danger of a 'just enough' mentality. Yet, amidst these challenges are shining examples of success. I also stress the importance of information literacy and parental involvement in the CBE movement, highlighting how these elements are crucial for fostering critical thinking and advocating for change within our educational system. Join me as I unravel how CBE can redefine the future of learning—one competency at a time.
Listen to this episode on your Alexa-enabled device!
Thanks for listening! For more information about the show, episodes, and ways to support, check out these websites: https://k12educationuntangled.buzzsprout.com or https: //www.liberationthrougheducation.com
Subscribe on Buzzsprout to receive a shout out on an upcoming episode
You can also support me with ratings, kind words of encouragement, and by sharing this podcast with friends and family
Contact me with any specific questions you have at: kim@liberationthrougheducation.com
Speaker 1:
Welcome to another episode of K-12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the micro discriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system, I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening.
Speaker 1:
On today's episode, I'll be discussing competency-based education and its impact on student skill mastery. Competency-based education has been receiving increasing attention in recent years as an approach that may help ensure that students graduate from high school with the required knowledge and skills necessary for success in college and their careers. So what's so special about competency-based education that it gets the global attention that it has recently. I examine the goals and intentions of competency-based education and why it's relevant in today's public education system environment. Let's get started. In competency-based education, students have to demonstrate mastery of course content before being promoted to the next class or grade, instead of spending a certain number of seat days that are required to earn course credit. The goal of this approach is to help guarantee that students attain competency in course content and to allow students to take as much or as little time as they need to achieve such competency.
Speaker 1:
The resurgence of competency-based education is nothing new as far as educational theories go. Competency-based education, or CBE, is as old as education itself, having emerged in the 1960s, but with origins that date back to the 1910s and the concept of progressive education. It became particularly relevant in the 1960s in response to international issues related to competition, including the space race, after the successful launch of Sputnik. By the end of the 1960s, due to pressure from the public to make public schools more accountable, the US Department of Education formalized competency-based education as a direct measure of learning. Further, it began to emerge as a catalyst for school curriculum change in the mid-1990s. The focus was on identifying the key competencies for a student's successful life in preparation for purposeful work.
Speaker 1:
In competency-based education, which is an outcomes-focused approach, time is seen as a variable, whereas performance is seen as a constant. The goal of competency-based education is to improve overall quality of education and to eliminate or reduce the learning gaps that have accumulated over the years based on traditional education standards. So what's the difference between competency and standards? Basically, standards are what students learn and competencies are why they learn the application of existing knowledge and skills within certain contexts. Competency-based education is a paradigm shift compared to traditional education systems. It challenges many of the fundamental beliefs and assumptions that the traditional education system has emphasized over the years. In a traditional public school, instruction consists of 40 to 45-minute lessons, 180-day school calendar and a teacher-in-content-oriented education that's focused and provided to all students at the same time, regardless of their individual differences. With this one-size-fits-all approach, no wonder many students are falling through the cracks of not achieving mastery in basic skills. Cbe supports many different forms of instruction, including face-to-face, online and the combination of the two. It enables students to progress at their own pace through learning opportunities that are provided outside of school, rather than to prepare them at a standard pace and time within the formal classroom.
Speaker 1:
There are three descriptive features that summarize competency-based education One, instruction can take place anywhere the student is. Two, students demonstrate competence by applying their knowledge and skills and earning credit. And three, it takes into account that students learn in different ways. Therefore, competency-based education involves flexible pacing, a student-centered approach and mastery learning. The US Department of Education and other higher-rated institutions have started to demand the expectancy and implementation processes of competency-based education, especially in the area of medical education. Competency-based education is one of the policies used to personalize student learning. If the promise of public education is to prepare all learners to engage in, contribute to and to achieve purpose in the world as it is today, as well as how it will be in the future, then a significant overhaul to the traditional education system will need to be made. The shifts in school policies that are necessary for this transformation include student-centered systems that redesign learning.
Speaker 1:
Competency-based education is also known as mastery-based or proficiency-based learning, and it's based on student advancement, on mastery of skills and academic content, rather than age, seat time or hours on a task. It's built upon personalized learning experiences that are tailored to each student's strengths, needs and interests, and it requires student input and choice in what, how, when and where they learn. If a student doesn't demonstrate sufficient proficiency to advance, then he or she must be provided with the support and intervention necessary to help him or her fill the gaps in their knowledge and skills. Competency-based education should focus on equity, including strategies for all students that are embedded in the culture, structure and teaching methodologies of schools and education systems. In competency-based education, students get personalized pathways to demonstrate mastery, whether these pathways are available inside or outside the classroom. Competency-based education relies on empowering students' ownership of their goals and their learning, while ensuring that teachers identify student needs, pinpoint gaps, use data to validate their assessments and intervene immediately to address student needs. In competency-based education, students know exactly what they're learning and what proficiency looks like, because the rubrics are readily available and there are examples of student exemplary work that are available to guide them. Additionally, students should be able to tell you what they're working on, how they will be assessed and how they will get the extra support they need if they need it, as well as what they will learn next. A key thing to know about competency-based education is that failure is not an option in these systems, because students understand the learning targets they will need for the next level of study, and they are provided with frequent feedback and instructional support until they can demonstrate skills and knowledge required for each skill level. This approach basically ensures that no one's waiting around until the end of the semester to determine whether a student has been successful.
Speaker 1:
Not much information or research studies have investigated how competency-based reforms are or are not leading to changes in student outcomes. A 2017 study sought to understand how students perceive and experience changes to school policies and instructional policies surrounding competency-based education. The study reported on student exposure to elements typically described as essential to competency-based education. These elements include mastery-based progression, personalization, taxable assessment and the development of specific skills and dispositions. Competency-based policies range from those that simply allow flexibility and awarding credit to policies that completely transform the educational system from a time-based system to a learning-based system. States also vary in how they implement competency-based grading policies and graduation requirements. In some states, school districts are required to make competency-based credits available, yet in other places, districts are allowed to decide whether these will be offered. Additionally, some states specify how students will demonstrate competency, using scores on statewide or national tests, portfolios, etc. While other states leave it up to the discretion of the district to determine how competencies are measured Further. Certain states allow credits to be awarded for demonstration of competency in any course, while other states only offer this demonstration in certain subjects. The results of this 2017 study indicated that student exposure to competency-based education may be useful feedback for schools who seeks to understand and refine instruction. When students in this study reported low exposure to particular dimensions of instructional practice associated with competency-based education, this could be useful feedback for teachers and schools as they work toward more consistent implementation of CBE practices. Student voices can provide guidance about where state and district policy changes need to be made. Although policy changes may be necessary, they alone are almost certainly insufficient to achieve successful implementation of competency-based education. There needs to be a sense of ownership for the proposed implementation from students, school administrators, district staff and parents in order for the implementation goals to be met.
Speaker 1:
Competency-based education focuses on in-point behavioral competence, assessing indications of attained competence through the educational experience. It examines the classroom documentations, simulations and work execution indicators that reflect progress to the next placement or performance level. Properly organized, competency-based education could provide a basis for flexible, authentic learning and assessment activities, while placing less emphasis on time-based and situation-based applications for learning. Yet, these goals are rarely achieved in practice because of debates about how to measure competence, how to identify competence and lack of institutional flexibility and accommodations. Competency-based education only measures observable results and doesn't consider the complex connections across thought, performance and context. It assumes that all competencies can be reduced to statements of observed performance and that there's just one single preferred pathway to competency attainment. For example, accountability, altruism, curiosity, empathy and innovation are not easily reduced to functional indicators that are required within competency-based educational environments. Another limitation's consideration with competency-based education is that most of the competencies are stated in terms of minimally acceptable performance, which promotes a good enough mindset that could be construed as a direct contradiction to expectations of excellence.
Speaker 1:
Assessment seems to be the weakest link in competency-based education programs, and getting the assessment right has often been neglected in program design and development. The design of assessments should consider the variability of the learners, teachers, successors and settings. Cbe implementation is significantly disruptive to most current education programs, educators, learners, assessors and administrators. It requires ongoing innovation, modification and fine-tuning of personalized learning, curriculum, competence requirements, courses and programs. There are challenges to implementing competency-based education. Some of these challenges include a failure to settle on common concepts, practices, lack of authentic and informative assessments, flexible pacing and students' progression at their own pace, as well as the lack of necessary educational technology. Another challenging piece to competency-based education is assessments. Yet another challenge with the competency-based education is that it may not fit into fixed academic timetables or schedules, because students might end up spending different amounts of time on achieving competency. Sometimes this may take longer than a fixed timetable schedule. The opposite is also true. Students could demonstrate competence or mastery earlier than other students at the same level. As far as the technological challenges are concerned, there may be a lack of courseware products that are necessary to monitor students' progress on competencies. The existing systems just don't seem to provide the necessary feedback about the students who need additional support according to the evaluation of their performance.
Speaker 1:
By way of example, westminster Public Schools in Colorado began transitioning to a competency-based education system in 2009. In this public school system, courses are organized according to performance level rather than according to traditional grade level. In other words, performance levels were analogous to grade levels in a traditional educational system, although students were typically placed in performance levels based on their current knowledge and skills rather than on the basis of their age or number of years. In school, performance levels were organized around a series of learning targets that were aligned to state standards and teachers had to make ongoing judgments about student proficiency by assigning scores on each learning target, students advanced to the next level by demonstrating proficiency in all learning targets for particular subject areas. While students were expected to complete one performance level at a time, they could progress through their performance levels at their own pace. In some cases, when appropriate, students could take more or less than one year to complete a performance level. The majority of students completed their courses in math and literacy in one academic year, although some students who were at a performance level below their traditional grade level also completed their courses in one academic year. 43% to 47% of students who were at a performance level below their traditional grade level completed their courses in three or fewer quarters, compared with students in a performance level at their traditional grade level. These results may indicate that competency-based education, in this case in the Westminster public schools in Colorado, provided students who were behind academically with an opportunity to complete performance levels in less time than in a traditional education system. The one weakness with these results is that teachers' judgments of student competency, when compared to standardized testing measures, may not have been good predictors of academic performance.
Speaker 1:
Information skills seem to be a contributor in competency-based education. Information skills are important attributes for critical thinking, problem solving and scientific literacy. They are a rational structure for identifying, finding, understanding, evaluating and using information. Information skills comprise retrieving information efficiently and completely, as well as competently assessing critically information and information sources, integrating information with prior knowledge, using information to efficiently complete a specific task and understanding the ethical issues of the use of information, as well as the use of information media. Given that competency-based education is personalized and the learner progresses as he or she masters certain skills, information skills allow learners to use knowledge and skills garnered outside the formal classroom setting. Developing information skills can be helpful to attain competency standards more easily.
Speaker 1:
Developing competencies and or minimal skill mastery are important outcomes of competency-based education. Competencies prepare students to be lifelong learners. They are the specific knowledge skills and the application of these to the standard of performance that is expected in the workplace. Competencies that have been identified in the curriculum include communication and collaboration, critical thinking and creativity, problem solving, self-efficacy, digital learning and learning how to learn. Competencies are a complex combination of skills, knowledge, understanding, values, attributes and the desires that lead to particular experiences within certain domains as well as in the world. They include personality traits and the ability to perform activities based on acquired knowledge. These are some action steps that you can take regarding this topic. The main action that you can take regarding this topic is to be aware that competency-based education is an approach or policy that provides personalized learning for your children so that they meet minimum requirements and skills necessary to graduate from high school. It's important In fact, it's imperative that you are aware of this approach, stay engaged in your child's classroom, as well as the school, so that you can speak knowledgeably about competency-based education if it is to be implemented in your school by teachers and school leaders, and advocacy is a must. Here are this episode's takeaways According to a 2021 research study, competence-based education is quote the process in which learners progress according to their competencies, certified by formative process evaluation, rather than the time they spend at school.
Speaker 1:
They are supported in every stage of their education, from mastery learning and may gain the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for them to become lifelong learners. Competency-based education should emphasize one, student learning versus elapsed time. Two, the power of technology for teaching and learning. And three, defining the competencies and developing valid, reliable assessments. Competency-based education is intended to help students solve new problems in unfamiliar situations.
Speaker 1:
Competency-based education only measures observable results and doesn't consider the complex connections across thought, performance and context. It assumes that all competencies can be reduced to statements of observed performance and that there's just one single preferred pathway to competency attainment. In competency-based education, students know exactly what they are learning and what proficiency looks like, because the rubrics are readily available and there are examples of student exemplary work that are available to guide them. Additionally, students should be able to tell you what they're working on, how they will be assessed and how they will get the extra support they need if they need it, as well as what they will learn next. In CBE, students get personalized pathways to demonstrate mastery, whether these pathways are available inside or outside the classroom. Competency-based education relies on empowering students' ownership of their goals and their learning. In competency-based education, students understand the learning targets they will need for the next level of study and they are providing with frequent feedback and instructional support until they can demonstrate skills and knowledge required for each skill level. This approach basically ensures that no one is waiting around until the end of the semester to determine whether a student has been successful.
Speaker 1:
If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please follow my podcast on whatever service you are listening to this Also. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a rating or a review on Apple or PodChaser If you like this podcast. The best way to support me and help me grow it is by leaving a review. This helps my rankings and entices other people to listen to the show, and share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Be sure to stay tuned. On the next episode, I'll be reviewing another book that I think you'll find interesting. It's about developing a learning mindset in your children based on the whole brain child. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.