Are we ready to change the way the system works?
Our present education system is based more on seat time than the ability to demonstrate what we know. Competency-based education is a welcome shift from the current batch processing mindset to an individualized, personalized system of demonstrated mastery. At its core is a child-led, child-centric education environment that builds necessary skills required for college, careers, and life. Students in competency-based system progress when they show what they know. It goes beyond standards in a learning continuum in our mainstream school systems.
Competency Education is a system of education (also referred to as proficiency based, mastery-based or performance-based) in which students advance upon mastery. Competencies include explicit, measurable, transferable learning objectives that empower students. Assessment is meaningful and serves as a positive learning experience for students. Students receive timely, differentiated support based on their individual learning needs. Learning outcomes include the application and creation of knowledge, along with the development of important skills and dispositions.
Competency based education isn’t just a modification or enhancement of the time-based system. It is a complete reengineering around an equity-focused, high-achieving, continuously improving and customized education system. This reengineering creates new capabilities, which require re-tooling of policies, building organizational capacity, and managing the re-alignment process.
A competency-based school firstly differs in terms of its infrastructure. Moving away from chalk and talk classrooms that mimic the prison cell model, a competency-based learning space has opportunities to learn as a community where different age groups freely mingle with each other and learn as they assimilate various topics. Teachers interact with children on a one-on-one basis and in small groups. Learning happens on the go and every child is free to remain on his learning path. Student learning is of utmost importance in such an ecosystem without the rush to “cover the curriculum.”
Since the focus is on individualized learning plans and skill building, schools are open to creating interdisciplinary opportunities for students to develop and apply skills. It may require smaller class sizes, one-on-one teaching, and access to staff with extended school hours. If students’ needs are too great, the school leadership and teachers will need to provide additional resources, interventions, and student support. In this way a team of teachers would be responsible for each student. It is important that school teams embrace a “growth mindset.” The entire ecosystem must move beyond thinking some students are smart and others are not. Competency based education needs transparency with students on what they need to do to succeed.
Teachers adopting competency-based education move away from “covering the curriculum” to helping students reach proficiency. A competency-based system requires a focus on priority outcomes, at least some use of supplemental and asynchronous digital instruction, and an increased level of student ownership of expectations, learning, and progress. A teacher should be open to this evolutionary journey for herself, her students, and her ecosystem.
All the teachers are facilitators that work as a community. Each teacher is aware of the students under her care and knows where they are in terms of learner progression. Learners set their own pace when teachers give them time to understand the standards. Teachers unlock the power of personalization by letting every student take a unique path and by giving them the opportunity to demonstrate what they know on a regular basis. These periodic demonstrations of knowledge and skills inform their progress and matriculation, this is quite different from our current system that simply groups and advances students according to their age. These ongoing assessments and periodic demonstrations of student knowledge and skills create a progress record and learner portfolio.
Like standards-based learning, competency-based learning also focuses on outputs but it doesn’t expect all students to have the same outcome with the same instruction, within the same amount of time. Assessments, both formative and summative are diagnostic in nature, meaningful and serve as a positive learning experience for students. Students advance upon mastery of these competencies. Teachers come together to discuss each student, their learning styles, needs and interests and develop a unique learning plan for each student. Students then receive timely, differentiated support. Teachers describe it as no longer thinking about “my kids,” but “our kids.” Teachers work together, across classrooms, grouping and regrouping students according to where they need help. If there is a large group of students stuck on the same concept, the best math teacher might take on intensive tutoring. Assessing deeper learning requires authentic assessments that come in all shapes and forms, such as projects, simulations, reports, and presentations. We assess collaboration by observing group work and through student refection.
Data gathering is key in a competency-based system. Today tools exist to tailor instruction to individual student needs, collect and report student data down to each individual learning progression, and manage data-driven environments. Improvements in personalized learning and information systems have made it easier to pinpoint student needs and vary instructional approaches and interventions. The growth in online learning has created new options for many students and has demonstrated the opportunities and benefits of self-pacing when covering coursework.
There are some important elements to pay attention to in competency education to make sure it works for all students. Firstly, pacing matters! Self-paced does not mean any pace. Schools and teachers need to offer timely, differentiated support when a student is showing signs of slipping behind. Secondly, students enter a school and classroom with different skills. If it is a relatively narrow differentiation, the goal should be to accelerate their learning so that they catch up with the other children. Once behind should not mean always behind!
Another area of concern with competency-based education is that personalized learning may lead to personalized expectations that could be lower than what is expected in terms of standards, requirements of graduation, or what is needed to succeed in college or a career. This can be avoided with a commitment to rigorous standards and a valid and reliable assessment system. A competency-tracking system that follows students will allow teachers to personalize instruction from day one and will set high expectations for all students.
Parents are important stakeholders who need to understand that children will slowly but surely blossom under a competency-based model. They will not be graded A or B but as individuals who slowly but steadily achieve mastery over time at their own pace. This requires a change of mindset. Currently we are plagued by fear that makes us push children to mindlessly compete to rise to the top.
To sum up, moving to a competency-based system will change lots of things across schools. It means a change in the teacher-student relationship – challenging students to become independent, self-motivated learners, but also figuring out how to adjust systems and the roles of the teacher and other staff so they have the necessary support. It changes the way teachers assess and grade students and what information students and parents have about their progress, including report cards. In addition to assessing students on their actual level of performance (instead of seat time and completion) the reports are intended to provide a multi-dimensional view of a student’s strengths and areas of growth.
This article was featured in Mentor Magazine on April 9, 2021 – https://lxl.in/mentor/2021/04/09/competency-based-education-system/
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