Competencies & Standards
In our mission statement, we state that we want students to master standards, lead by example and embrace social responsibility. Academic standards are an important part of our mission, and our Graduate Profile Competencies are another important part of our mission. As we continue along the path toward being a fully Competency Based District, our academic standards will be integrated and will become a part of larger academic competencies, much like there are for Graduate Profile Competencies.
In 2019 innovators in competency-based education came together to update the definition of Competency Based Education. In this report from the Aurora Institute there are more details.
The revised 2019 definition of competency-based education is:
- Students are empowered daily to make important decisions about their learning experiences, how they will create and apply knowledge, and how they will demonstrate their learning.
- Assessment is a meaningful, positive, and empowering learning experience for students that yields timely, relevant, and actionable evidence.
- Students receive timely, differentiated support based on their individual learning needs.
- Students progress based on evidence of mastery, not seat time.
- Students learn actively using different pathways and varied pacing.
- Strategies to ensure equity for all students are embedded in the culture, structure, and pedagogy of schools and education systems.
- Rigorous, common expectations for learning (knowledge, skills, and dispositions) are explicit, transparent, measurable, and transferable.
What is Standards Based Learning?
Standards-Based Learning is the system combining:
- how we teach, assess and measure student learning ... with ...
- how we report and communicate academic progress to students and parents/guardians.
- Student progress is based on demonstrating understanding or mastery of the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn as they progress through their education.
SHIFTS:
CONTENT VS COMPETENCY
In order to have each stakeholder in our community demonstrate the competencies of our Graduate Profile, teachers need to design learning experiences around the development of essential competencies rather than specific content domains. This requires a shift in instructional practice that teachers are learning about as they grow as learners and facilitators of learning.
TIME VS PERFORMANCE
Students advance upon mastery of competencies or standards within a competency.
GRADING VS EVIDENCE of LEARNING
Teachers focus on how to give students feedback regarding the evidence of learning they produce. Use of reflection as a tool along with rubrics, mastery scales, and conferring help students focus on the learning process over products.
