What is Competency-Based Education?

When it comes to education, there are a multitude of terms for school frameworks and teaching models. It can be hard to keep track of them all, especially if you are not a teacher yourself. Competency-based education is a relatively new framework that gained attention and popularity in the late 2010s. To make things more confusing, different competency-based schools may implement the ideas of the framework differently. Here, we will simplify it to the seven components that are widely accepted as crucial to competency-based education and touch on how each component can be seen in our preschool.

1. Student Choice
   • Students are allowed to make decisions about their own learning. This includes choosing what acivities they participate in and choosing how to showcase their knowledge. For any given skill or concept, students are presented with multiple activities to practice using that skill or to learn more about that concept. They are not expected to do every activity; instead they are encouraged to pick the ones that most interest them. Similarly, when teachers are assessing knowledge, students are allowed to choose how to present that knowledge. They might choose teach someone else or make a poster or do something else entirely. Which brings us to the next component:
2. Purposeful Assessment
   • When we think of assessments, many of us expect a long paper test, maybe with lots of multiple choice questions. Competency-based education moves away from that. Instead, students are asked to apply their knowledge to a project, such as solving a problem in their community. This connects their learning to real world situations and gives them an opportunity to showcase their knowledge in relation to things that matter to them instead of isolating it. Another important part of assessment is feedback. Assessments have to be evaluated in a timely manner to provide meaningful feedback. In competency-based education, this goes well beyond a letter grade. Students are shown specific skills they need to continue working on and skills that they excel at.
3. Differentiated Support
   • When students have skills they need to continue working on, teachers need to provide support designed specifically for them. These supports areeasy to integrate into the classroom because students are frequently doing different activities to begin with. Teachers can easily introduce additional activities to help students based on their interests and individual needs. The same is true for when students excel in a particular area. Teachers can easily introduce new acivities that challenge them and push their knowledge to ensure these students are continuing to learn and exceed expectations.
4. Mastery Based Progression
   • As we just mentioned, sometimes students may need more time to learn a certain skill than the rest of their class. In competency-based systems, that is expected and planned for. Individual students are introduced to new skills when they show they have mastered the previous skill. In one class, students may be working on several different skills depending on the pace that each individual student is learning at.
5. Active Learning
   • Many of the things discussed so far may have left you wondering how that could possibly work in a classroom. This is where I ask you to change the picture you have of schools. In competency-based schools, teachers don’t lecture students and students don’t study notes to memorize dates and details. These activities can be referred to as passive learning. These schools rely on active learning instead. This means that students learn through hands-on activities that lead them to draw their own conclusions. Teachers act as a guide, asking questions, challenging misconceptions, and presenting problems. Students investigate these questions, defend or modify their conclusions, and create solutions. This happens in a collaborative environment where students spend more time talking to each other than listening to the teacher.
6. Strategies for Equity
   • Competency-based schools challenge our views of traditional schooling in other ways as well because the framework is designed to achieve equity. Classes are not advanced or remedial. Grade levels are not set strictly by age. There is little to no division between students at different levels. These schools work closely with the community to help students take their learning outside of the classroom. Teachers collaborate across subjects and grade levels to provide individual students with meaningful instruction. There is a lot more flexiblity in the classrooms. Each school may have different policies or approached to this concept, but the goal is always equity and equity always requires individual attention.
7. Clear, Common Expectations
   • Part of this move toward equity is that all students have the same expectations. Students who may struggle with school are expected to master the same skills that students who excel at school do. This holds both students and teachers accountable that no student is left behind. Some students may take more time on a specific skill than others, but no student is left not knowing the skills that are standard. It is important that these expectations are clearly communicated to students and their families. Everyone knows exactly what they are working towards, which allows students to take extra time when they need it or to accelerate their learning by showing they have already mastered a skill. Additionally, the school’s standards should include transferable skills not just academic knowledge.

With these components in mind, competency-based schools give students more agency and individualized instruction than traditional schools do. While neither system is perfect for all students, competency-based schools offer another option, a strong alternative. If you are considering enrolling your child in a competency based school, be sure to read their specific policies. Most importantly, remember that many things will look different than your experience. Keep an open mind.