Competency Based Education

Is the writing on the wall?

On July 18, writing in The Wall Street Journal, Terry Moe, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of political science at Stanford University, wrote: “As the cyber revolution comes to American education, it will bring about a massive and cost-saving substitution of technology for labor. That means far fewer teachers … per student. It also means teachers will be far less concentrated in geographic districts, as those who work online can be anywhere.” It also means money “and jobs will flow out of the … regular schools into new … providers of online options.” . The founder of the site is Salman Khan, a Harvard-trained educator. The San Francisco Chronicle in 2009 called him the “math master of the Internet.” He began his operation by using YouTube videos to help some relatives learn math. Shortly thereafter, he decided to devote himself full time to e-learning. Now he is developing new course offerings and acting as an evangelist of e-learning. His organization provides educational videos that are available online — without charge — and number in excess of 2,400. Bill Gates is a fan. Khan’s “TED Talk” video is on the opening page of the Khan Academy website. It takes 20 minutes to view. Millions of these videos have been viewed around the world. More than 200,000 students watch the educational videos daily.

Khan’s computer offerings have evolved. Now they come with sophisticated tools for teachers to measure how well students in Khan’s courses are learning. A graph showing each student’s performance in relation to the others taking the course is available, and you can see an example on his website. Khan notes students fall permanently behind in the traditional educational system because they don’t learn an important concept in time to apply it to more advanced topics. They are labeled “slow” and don’t progress. But with “self-paced” learning, the gaps in their knowledge don’t develop because they have to master each concept before they are allowed to move on.

“In every classroom we’ve” studied, “there’s a group of kids who race ahead and there’s a group who are … slower. But when you let every student work at their own pace … you see students who took a little bit of extra time to learn one concept or the other, and who then race ahead. Students who you might have thought of as slow six weeks ago, you now would think are gifted. … It makes you think … some of the labels some of us have benefited from are due to a coincidence of time,” he says.

The Case for Competency-Based Education Reform

, Where the main character graduates from Princeton at age 10 and becomes the youngest doctor in the country at the age of 16. Though fictional, it does beg the question: what would it be like if all children advanced through the school system based on demonstration of knowledge, as opposed to age?

As a responsible and concerned parent, I make it a priority to stay abreast of educational reform trends in our country. I think it’s important, (both for my kids and for future generations,) to understand our current education system, where it’s strong, where it’s lacking and where it’s heading. Therefore, I was keenly interested in an article I came across today discussing the idea of “competency-based learning” and what it would take to implement this strategy in our schools.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, competency-based learning (also known as “performance-based,” “proficiency-based,” or “standards-based” learning,) is an educational model in which students progress through the school system as they demonstrate mastery of different skills and concepts, (as opposed to spending a fixed amount of “seat-time” in the

classroom per year).  In theory, it works like this: every student has her own individually-tailored lesson plan so that she can progress at her own pace. This “student-centered” approach means that if the student is gifted, he can progress faster, so as to remain challenged and stimulated. On the other hand, if the student is struggling with a particular subject, he’s afforded the luxury of taking more time to master the skill.

This model has been proposed as an alternative to our traditional age-based learning system and some states, such as Arizona and Michigan, are already experimenting with it in the form of individually-granted “seat-time waivers,” which allow certain students to receive credits based on demonstration of knowledge, rather than the amount of time spent in school (usually two semesters per year). At the moment, however, these are isolated experimental cases which have yet to gain the support of the Federal government. After all, this is no small change; this is a complete educational transformation we’re talking about. Here is what proponents say will be needed in order to make this change happen:

•    A redefinition of awarding credits based on competency; •    Establishing mechanisms for quality control, “including rubrics and formative evaluations, and [providing] supporting tools and resources such as examples of student work at each proficiency level.

Competency-based education, an introduction

Competency based education and training

Competency-based education, a process for the improvement of education

Competency-based nursing education, guide to achieving outstanding learner outcomes

Competency-based education, the state of the scene