August 23, 2012

3 pm eastern

The Art and Science of Designing Competencies

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Overview

• Welcome to CompetencyWorks

• What is Competency Education

• Introducing our Panelists

• The Art and Science of Designing Competencies

• Q.E.D Foundation

• Virtual Learning Academy Charter School

• Getting Involved in CompetencyWorks

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Partners

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Advisory Board• Schools and School Networks

• Wendy Battino, Reinventing Schools Coalition• Akili Moses Israel, DiplomaPlus

• States and Districts• Sandra Dop, Iowa • Steve Bowen, Commissioner of Education, Maine• Don Siviski, Maine Departmemt of Education,• Paul Leather, NH Department of Education• Ed Dennis, Oregon • Diane Smith, Business Education Compact, Oregon• Stacy Holland, Philadelphia Youth Network, Pennsylvania• Jim Rickabaugh, CESA 1, Wisconsin

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Advisory Board• National Education and Policy Organizations

• Betsy Brand, AYPF• Christina Brown, Center for Collaborative Education• Linda Pittenger, CCSSO• Tabitha Grossman, NGA• Rebecca Wolfe, JFF

• Leading Consultants• Rose Colby, New Hampshire• JoEllen Lynch, Consultant

• Foundations• Beth Miller and Charles Toulmin, NMEF• Tony Lewis, Donnel-Kay Foundation

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Competency Education: Working Definition • Students advance upon mastery.

• Competencies include explicit, measurable, transferable learning objectives that empower students.

• Assessment is meaningful and a positive learning experience for students.

• Students receive timely, differentiated support based on their individual learning needs.

• Learning outcomes emphasize competencies that include application and creation of knowledge, along with the development of important skills and dispositions

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Introducing our Panelists

Kim Carter>35 years as a preK – graduate school educator, 1991 NH Teacher of the Year, co-creator of 3 new high schools, founding Executive Director of Q.E.D Foundation, passionate about educational equity and learner agency

Elizabeth CardineElizabeth has experience advocating for transformational learning environments with local, state and national partners such as the Five Freedoms Project, School Reform Initiative, Extended Learning Opportunities, Faces of Learning, and the new MC2 Charter Schools.

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Introducing our Panelists

Steve Kosssakoski

>Dr. Kossakoski currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School. Under his leadership the Academy has grown from 700 enrollments to over 15,500 enrollments since opening in January 2008

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Our Mission is to build, inspire, cultivate and sustain cultures of transformational learning where• We are all learners with aspirations and passions which

deserve to be supported in every way possible.• Learning changes lives by helping us develop the will,

knowledge, skill, and capacity to achieve our aspirations.• Learning needs to happen in different ways, so we use

various strengths and resources to engage with the world around us.

• Learning empowers us to co-create our public world and to shape the decisions that impact our lives.

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What is a Competency

Competencies are the knowledge, skills and/or behaviors students must master in a specific content or performance area.

Students demonstrate Proficiency through a preponderance of evidence of attainment of the required competencies in and/or across a content area.

Mastery is the consistently successful application of a set of knowledge (facts), skills (processes), and behaviors (actions) to complex problems and novel situations. 

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What Makes a Good Competency• Describes knowledge and skills that can be applied to

novel, complex situations.

• Skills will be valuable ten years from now even if the

content knowledge has changed.

• Learning objectives have clear performance criteria so

students can identify their performance level(s) and what

they need to do to improve.

• Learning objectives are accompanied by effective rubrics

that help students understand themselves as learners.

• The competency and the learning objectives allow for

personalization and opportunities for deeper learning.

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Competency Development

List characteristics of graduates (what do they need to know and be able to do?)

- e.g. effective communicator

Identify how each discipline contributes to those characteristics.

- e.g. English: speaking skills, organizational methods, grammar and mechanics, etc.

Map the progression of knowledge and skills that get students there.

- e.g. Learning progression through skill levels

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Examples

Students will make informative presentations.

Students will understand that different audiences require different communication styles and strategies.

Students [I can] use a wide range of strategies to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences to convey a variety of purposes.

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Quality CompetencyCCSS: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communication tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

MC2: Students [I can] use a wide range of strategies to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences to convey a variety of purposes.

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Knowledge frameworks

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Habits

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HabitHabits

virtuallrnacad

facebook.com/vlacs

603.778.2500

30 Linden St., POB 1050, Exeter, NH

info@vlacs.org

About Us

• Enrollment• 15,500

• 98.5% part-time students• 1.5% full-time students

• Serving grades 6-12• Over 100 courses: traditional subjects, AP, and dual

credit • Instructors

• 120 adjunct• 12 full-time

• No calendar• Rolling admissions for

part-time and full-time students

• Students work at their own pace. Time is not a factor when awarding credit.

• Funding based on completion percentage

• Instructor compensation based on completion percentage

Competency based school -Phase I

• No calendar• Rolling admissions for

part-time and full-time students

• Students work at their own pace. Time is not a factor when awarding credit.

• Funding based on completion percentage

• Instructor compensation based on completion percentage

Competency based school – Phase II

• Competencies developed for all high school courses

• Students required to meet competencies in order to earn credit, regardless of course average

• Competencies are developed for all new high school and some college credit courses

• Competency recovery available to schools

• ELO’s, Learning Studios/Learning through Challenges now possible

Finding a competency

Sample CompetencyChemistry 1: Phases and Solutions

 

Competency: Students will demonstrate an understanding of physical

properties of matter as they apply to phase changes, gas laws, and

solutions.

Keywords: solid, liquid, gas, mixture, melting, boiling, freezing, colligative property, molarity, concentration, dilution

Assessments: 1. 5.03 Gas Laws2. 5.05 Mixtures and Solutions3. 5.09 Discussion-Based Assessment

Competency Maintenance• Competency team

• Instructors who are trained and experienced in writing competencies

• Annual competency “scrubbing”• Establish competencies for new courses• Train new instructors, as needed

Competency Maintenance

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New Resources• Competency-based Pathways Wiki

• https://sites.google.com/site/competencybasedpathways/home

• Coming Soon• Issue Brief on Supports and Opportunities• Case Study on Boston Day and Evening Academy by

Jobs for the Future• The Proficiency Based Pathways Project: A Close-Up

View of Competency Education by Nellie Mae Education Foundation

• Issue Brief on Information Management Systems• Virtual Schools Symposium Strand on Competency

Education

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FOR MORE INFORMATION AND SHARE IDEAS

CHRIS@METISNET.NET

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Get Involved

Knowledge Sharing Thru Blogging

• Become a contributing author

• Ask your staff and board to be contributing authors

• Leadership development and networking

• Raises attention to your organization

• Keep an eye out novice mastery among staff

Comment! Use the comments sections to share your

thoughts

Pass on ideas! People/places to highlight, and give us

feedback

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Get Involved! ….continued…..

Share tools, materials, and know-how

• Products: Create a wiki page to share resources

• Video’s: Create video for youtube on your best practices

Participate in a workgroup

Connect – Stand up for Competency

• Ask everyone in your network (board members,

staff, even students) to sign up at the website.

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More Info

• Competency-based Pathways Wiki • https

://sites.google.com/site/competencybasedpathways/home

• iNACOL Competency Based Reports - http://www.inacol.org/research/competency/index.php