Episode 86: Rethinking Achievement — The Empowering Journey Through Competency-Based Education in Our Schools

Are you doing these critical things to help your child succeed academically? Take the quiz now to find out the important actions you can take to enhance your child's education. Go to my website, liberationthrougheducation.com quiz and take the quiz today.

Foreign.

Welcome to another episode of K12 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 microdiscriminations 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 K12.

Education trends and topics is important to.

You, so keep listening. 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 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. 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 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 U.S. department of Education form 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. Incompetency based education, which is an outcomes focus 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 or 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 consistent consists of 40 to 45 minute lessons, 180 day school calendar, and a teacher and 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. 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 U.S. 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. 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 and 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 where, 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. 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 competencies based education. The study reported on student exposure to the 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 in 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, points, portfolios, et cetera, 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 seek to understand, understand, and refine instruction. When the 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. Competency based education focuses on endpoint 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 limitations 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. 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. Foreign have you had a chance to.

Check out my interactive expert on my website? There are some great conversations and questions going on there. You can check it out ation through education.com forward/ask me anything. Again, check out the questions and conversations happening there at.

The 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 time table 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. 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 went compared to standardized testing measures may not have been good predictors of academic performance. 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 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. Learning information skills can be helpful to attain competency standards more easily. 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's 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 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 in your school by teachers and school leaders, parent advocacy is a must. Here are this episode's takeaways. According to a 2021 research study, competence based education is the process in which learners progress according to their competencies certified by formative process evaluation rather than the time they spend at school. They are supported in every stage of their education from mastery learning and may gain the knowledge, skill, skills, and attitudes necessary for them to become lifelong learners. End quote Competency based education should emphasize 1 student learning versus elapsed time 2. The power of technology for teaching and learning and 3 defining the competencies and developing valid, reliable assessments. Competency based education is intended to help students solve new problems in unfamiliar situations. Competency based education only measures observable results and doesn't consider the complex connections across thought, performance, and context. It assumes that all competencies 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 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 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. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please follow my podcast or whatever service you're 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 K12 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. Foreign.

My show. Consider being a regular subscriber. You can subscribe for as little as $3 per month. Just go to HTTPs://forward/tinyurl.com forward/podcast support there's no contractual obligation you can cancel at any time. If you choose to subscribe, I'll give you a special shout out thanking you in an upcoming episode. Remember, that's tinyurl tin.

Com.

Podcast support to subscribe.