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Information about High  Reliability Schools: Westminster 

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Information about High  Reliability Schools: Westminster 

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Here's the website of the CBL school I toured!

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High Reliability Schools - Competency Based System

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High Reliability Schools - Competency Based System

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Proficiency Scales and the Westminster Model 

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Proficiency Scales and the Westminster Model 

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Click here to see examples of proficiency scales!

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Westminster Public Schools Proficiency Scale Model

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Example: Proficiency scale for English 9 argumentative writing, LSR7

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Example: Proficiency scale for English 9 argumentative writing, LSR7

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Here's one of the proficiency scales I will be using with students next fall.

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ENG 9 Proficiency Scale - Argument Writing 

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Conference Proceedings: CBE and Writing Education at the college level 

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Conference Proceedings: CBE and Writing Education at the college level 

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Not a Horror Story: Competency-Based Education (CBE) & Writing Instruction

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“Horrifying,” “dystopian,” “there be wild beasts out there” – these are not descriptions of a terrifying new movie, but recent reactions to competency-based education (CBE) on the Writing Program Administrators (WPA) listserv. However, closing our eyes and pulling up the covers is not going to serve…

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This chapter defines CBE and explains different models for CBE in the higher education, including some of the benefits and perils of each model

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"Shifting Educational Paradigms: From Traditional to Competency-Based Education for Diverse Learners"

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Shifting Educational Paradigms: From Traditional to Competency-Based Education for Diverse Learners 

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Shifting Educational Paradigms: From Traditional to Competency-Based Education for Diverse Learners 

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This article explores the impact of CBE on one alternative school. It includes interviews with teachers, administrators, support staff, and instructional coaches on the benefits and drawbacks of CBE. It also outlines the school's approach to implementing CBE, and warns against some mistakes in implementation

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"Strategies for Implementing Personalized Learning While Evidence is Underdeveloped" 

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Strategies for Implementing Personalized Learning 

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Strategies for Implementing Personalized Learning 

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This article explores the cultural shift around CBE that is currently happening. It acknowledges that, while many districts are pushing CBE, research on academic outcomes is mixed and also limited. Pane advocates for strategies educators can use to implement the "best practices" of CBE, like timeline flexibility, student choice, and use of rigorous, multi-disciplinary learning materials. He claims that using these strategies can allow students to experience the benefits of CBE while research on implementation still develops.

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"Competency education offers promise and peril for students" 

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Competency education offers promise and peril for students

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Competency education offers promise and peril for students

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This article explores the implementation of CBE in the Lindsay school district in California. This school district serves a rural population that is 40% English Language Learners and 100% free and reduced lunch. The article addresses the fact that much of the research on CBE centers privileged students, and it explores concerns that CBE may worsen achievement gaps for disadvantaged students due to lack of technology or cultural access. It then explores steps Lindsay has taken to address these concerns, like explicit metacognitive scaffolding, technology courses for parents and students, and scholarships for summer programs/field trips to local cultural centers

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This article defines the mastery-based classroom (they use mastery, competency, and proficiency as synonyms). Nolan differentiates the mastery classroom from the traditional classroom by describing assessment (ongoing versus “one-and-done”) structure (individual versus cohort) and outcomes (creation and application, versus standardized exam).  Nolan argues that mastery-based education is more: collaborative, growth-mindset based, intentional, metacognitive, objective, and transparent. The Mastery Collective, Nolan’s organization, as worked with over 40 primary-and-secondary schools in New York to implement this style of learning.  Nolan provides a framework for inter-district mastery implementation and input from teachers and students who have worked in mastery-based classrooms. Nolan concludes with a list of key takeaways from year one of implementation.

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"Ask students in a traditional classroom what they're working on and why, and they might respond, "We're doing a worksheet on the French Revolution, and we need to hand it in to get a good grade." Ask the same of students in a mastery-based classroom, and they will likely be able to tell you specifically what skills they are building, and how this activity fits into the overall arc of learning for the course. In fact, two students working on the same assignment might inform you that they are focusing their respective efforts on different learning goals, according to what and what objectives still lie ahead for each" (Nolan 41)

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Information about the Mastery Collaborative, the organization behind the research in source five 

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Information about the Mastery Collaborative, the organization behind the research in source five 

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They now call themselves the "Competency Collaborative" and are doing ongoing research in NYC.

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Feedback is clear, timely, and and actionable. Students focus on next steps toward independent proficiency. Grades are neither rewards nor punishments. Instead, a grade is a message about where the learner is at a point in time, along the path to proficiency. This is a more fair and clear way to organize learning.

Teachers design a responsive arc of learning that builds toward independent proficiency via inquiry, collaboration, academic discussion, peer feedback, cognitive coaching, and presentation. Students' performance drives instruction. Assessments are rich, varied opportunities to show what learners know and can do-not just one-and-done high stakes tests.

Families and caregivers can be more in
the loop on children's progress. They get frequent, transparent feedback on how to understand, discuss, and support learning. A competency-based approach helps all stakeholders to go "beyond the grade" to discuss the learning process with young people.

The path to success is clear to everyone, because criteria for success are shared and "unpacked" from the start. Basing grades on objective outcomes and evidence in student work narrows the chance for implicit bias to factor into grading. Along the way, we use a growth mindset approach-so students hear "not yet" or "approaching" instead of "you fail." Culturally responsive-sustaining curriculum and pedagogy builds cultural competence: learners' ability to understand, empathize, and work successfully with others who are different from themselves. As they build critical consciousness, students gain perspective and access power to name what needs to change, and to "be the change" they wish to see.

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Feedback is clear, timely, and and actionable. Students focus on next steps toward independent proficiency. Grades are neither rewards nor punishments. Instead, a grade is a message about where the learner is at a point in time, along the path to proficiency. This is a more fair and clear way to organize learning.

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This article presents an argument for mastery-based common assessments at the state level, arguing that a common assessment could allow the state to gather relevant performance data while still safeguarding teacher autonomy and prioritizing student needs.

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YouTube Video with examples from economics and biology! 

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YouTube Video with examples from economics and biology! 

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Competency-Based Learning: Developing Mastery of Skills and Content

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Because they are more flexible and place more agency in the hands of the learner, CBE programs can be a powerful tool for student success. This article focuses on the college level, but I thought many of their arguments made sense for a high school level as well. For instance, they mention that a CBE program can give employers a better sense of skills of recent graduates, but I wonder: how helpful would it be for a high school teacher to have a baseline knowledge of the real skills of all students entering the classroom? Wouldn't it be more enjoyable (for students and teachers) to be able to assess skills like source integration based on artefacts chosen by the student, as opposed to one standardized essay?

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"Students may benefit from the self-paced nature of the instruction, as it increases their flexibility to complete the work around other obligations, and the individualized nature of instruction may help them to stay motivated and focused (Bell, 2013; Johnstone and Soares, 2014; Ordonez, 2014). This

may be particularly important for nontraditional students, that is, older students who often have jobs, families, and other life obligations that prevent them from being able to attend traditional courses" (Daughtery 17).

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I pulled from the "outcomes" section of this source for my all-class reading. It stood out to me because many of the claims teachers made in this article (improvements in rigor, improvements in behavior, etc.) were also claims I heard in Westminster or in other articles. I'm curious about using my classroom as a microcosm of implementation: how can I emulate some of these practices in a small classroom container, like a writer's journal?

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'"All kids can learn, and can learn a

level, when it is relevant to their lives outside of schools...Students are beginning to take responsibility for their own learning'" (Study participant, qtd. in Sullivan and Downey 16).

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Honestly, to me, the takeaway is that research around CBE is still developing. Best-practice (relevance, student choice, etc.) will be best practice, no matter what you label the learning model. My school is very all-in on CBE right now, so I think it's important to note that research on whether CBE actually helps kids at the macro level is ongoing.

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"In sum, the goal of personalized learning is to make each student’s educational experience responsive to his or her talents,

interests, and needs" (Pane 2)

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Much of the research I have found focuses on alternative schools or higher education, and the risk of perpetuating an achievement gap is not something I saw mentioned elsewhere. I think the strategies outlined in this article to mitigate the achievement gap are also important strategies to be mindful of in our classrooms. They reminded me of our class conversation around sentence stems--teaching metacognitive and technological processes explicitly is important to creating equity

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“In a personalized system like performance-based education, the inequities scream out at you. It’s up to us to fix them" (Ritterband and Heller 29).

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On the last three pages, Nolan provides a framework for implementation that could be helpful at the school or classroom level. He also provides a list of testimonials from students and staff in a mastery-based program that emphasize how students, through this program, have gained agency in their own learning.

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Question: What could competency-based education look like in writing assessment across the school year? 

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Question: What could competency-based education look like in writing assessment across the school year? 

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Question: how can I implement classroom practices that allow students to see their own mastery and growth? 

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Question: how can I implement classroom practices that allow students to see their own mastery and growth? 

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Awesome is all around us. Every day you walk into your school something amazing is bound to happen. Some days that awesome is easy to see, it comes in the form of laughter, academic progress, achieving goals, and building relationships with kids. Some days that awesome is nearly impossible to see among all the meetings, curriculum changes, displeased parents, and behavior concerns. Come along with me on this 180 day quest as we learn to focus on those little awesome moments that have the power to change everything. Because sometimes it's the little things that make the biggest difference. So put on your teaching shoes, a big smile, and get a cup... or pot of coffee ready, you are about to embark on 180 days of awesome!
Click Here to Download some Awesome Ideas Click Here to Check Out a Whole Book About Awesome!

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180 Days of Awesome- Celebrating Education

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Click Here to Download some Awesome Ideas Click Here to Check Out a Whole Book About Awesome!

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Student reactions and example assignments in a Saint Louis district

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Personalized Learning Stories - Pattonville R-III School District

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Personalized Learning Stories - Pattonville R-III School District

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This is a template (with not great wording) - as a class we define what a 4, 3, 2, 1 and add specific examples for each assignment in our math small group

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This is a template (with not great wording) - as a class we define what a 4, 3, 2, 1 and add specific examples for each assignment in our math small group

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Example of Data tracking skills based on grade level standards 

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Example of Data tracking skills based on grade level standards 

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I admire the idea of substantive change.  It is acknowledging that we make choices of what we learn, and most of schools are based on this faulty premise that we are learning everything because we are teaching everything.

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I admire the idea of substantive change.  It is acknowledging that we make choices of what we learn, and most of schools are based on this faulty premise that we are learning everything because we are teaching everything.

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How would it look if extra-curricular opportunities could be tools that students factor into CBE?

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How would it look if extra-curricular opportunities could be tools that students factor into CBE?

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Tutoring is something that gets thrown around in secondary as a volunteer opportunity for students, but if an student has demonstrated mastery in a "ninth-grade" skill, could they not seek to achieve a higher level of learning through peer teaching?

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ELA 6th grade proficiency scales - maybe cool to look at an uppper elementary example 

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ELA 6th grade proficiency scales - maybe cool to look at an uppper elementary example 

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Not PCBL exactly, but HMH Into Literature

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Not PCBL exactly, but HMH Into Literature

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Me and another English 9/AS9 teacher at LSN brainstormed this before any units were decided in the new resource (hence the Xing out), which as you know we are also launching with the use of proficiency scales in the new curriculum, so I thought I'd leave it for you here just in case you and LSW English 9/AS9 friends find it helpful.

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Wondering how student-led focuses such as these meet the needs of diverse learners.

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I wonder what happens when a student is aging out of high school but has only shown competency at a 10th grade level in arguement writing. Do they graduate because they have a minimum sufficient level of ability? Or are they stuck because they are taking longer to learn a skill?

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Imagine using Bronco/Titan Time to "Level Up"

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Imagine using Bronco/Titan Time to "Level Up"

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This idea has been thrown around at various curriculum meetings, inspired by something I think a neighboring district of ours does already, and I LOVE IT. What a wonderful way to leverage that "free" time and tie it directly back to what we're doing in the classroom and PCBL specifically.