Proficiency Based Education

Defining Proficiency the Big Picture

The first 3 articles in this list are all from the Great School Partnership. We have used their work as the foundation of what we do in Two Rivers. If you read anything on this page it should be these three.

Elements of Effective Instruction -- This is a well designed and clear description of what instruction should look like in a proficiency-based (or any quality classroom) school.

Beliefs and Practices for Proficiency Based Education: This is from the organization that trained many of the schools in Vermont, including TRSU. These principles are big and broad ideas.

Framework for Proficiency Based Education: This is the structure we are using. We slightly different language, but if you can make sense of this graphic you will understand how we are organizing our work.

Glossary of Terms -- This is a list of terms we will use in the new PBE model. These terms were defined by a consortium of 10 supervisory unions in the Rutland area and represent our attempts to build a coherent understanding of Proficiency Based Education.

Self Paced Learning from the AOE: The Center for Collaborative Education has produced this series of short instructional videos. They have a slightly different take from our approach at TRSU, nonetheless the videos are very good. Watching them will give you a much more nuanced view of PBE implementation.

Five Key Principles of Proficiency Based Education: A detailed explanation of the design principles Proficiency Based Education

Grade Levels Could be a Thing of the Past: This is a news article from PBS it gives a broader narrative perspective on schools moving toward proficiency.

The Faculty Role In Competency Based Education vs Traditional Education: This is a detailed explanation of key aspects of Proficiency Based Education. It focuses somewhat more on what it looks like in schools than the 5 Key Principles article above.

The Past and the Promise: Today's Competency Based Education Movement: This short briefing provides a good general overview of the key concepts in PBE.

Reporting Out Proficiency

Moving from Quantities to Qualities: Standards-Based Learning and Reporting

Five Obstacles to Grading Reform -- Short article by Paul Guskey. Numbers four and five seem most relevant to TRSU.

Grades That Mean Something

What's Worth Fighting Against in Grading -- 2017 article that identifies four areas, averaging, the 100-point scale, zeros, and commingling work habits in grades, the most urgent reforms in grading.

Progress and Proficiency: Redesigning Grading for Competency Based Education

Grading From the Inside Out: This is a clear and practical exploration of standards based grading. The book takes the position that not everything has to be perfect and in place before you move to standards based grading. Here is an excerpt from chapter 4: The Standards Based Mindset.

Standards Based Grading Facebook Page -- Hook into a national conversation on standards based grading. This is a diverse and deep collection of ideas and resources.

Standards Based Arts Education -- This is a one-hour presentation by a practicing art teacher. She provides some useful ideas and thoughts on how art teachers can implement proficiency based education in their context.

Standards Based Physical Education -- This article specifically addresses the need for proficiency based education in PE. It is also written about the work done here in Vermont.

Standards Based Grading and Report Cards in PE -- This article is from 2007 and some of the practices have evolved in the last decade, but this is still a worthwhile read on how to track and report on student achievement in PE

Standards & Performance Assessment in Music -- This presentation is so well done that everyone should take a look. It draws a clear line from standards to instruction to assessment.

Standards Based Assessment in Comprehensive Music Classroom - This is a master's thesis from the University of Wisconsin Madison. I only scanned this, but it does clearly explore the role of standards based assessment and how it specifically relates to music instruction.

Grading Exceptional Learners - This article gives you 3 different categories for thinking about tracking the growth of exceptional learners and then provides a step-by-step process for developing a reporting system.

Transferable Proficiencies

Essential Skills & Dispositions Framework: This framework of transferrable skills was developed at the University of Kentucky. I find the clarity of these indicators and the criteria easy to understand. I also like the supporting materials and explanations.

Tony Wagner Talks About Transferrable Skills: This short video recorded in Vermont of the Harvard Educator making the case for developing skills beyond the traditional content areas.

Rigor Redefined -- In this short article Tony Wagner reprises his 7 Survival Skills and connects them to specific content areas.

The Near Win

Implementation

Introducing Students to Proficiency Scales -- This is interesting work Bill Rich has done with teachers. Lots of examples of teachers experimenting with defining proficiency.

Personalized Learning & PLP's

Students at the Center Framework: This site layouts out an overarching framework for thinking about PBE and provides comprehensive (and overwhelming) collection of resources and reports.

What Happens When Students Own Their Assessments: This is a brief Ed Week Article detailing how one schools moved away from tests and toward student designed assessments.

What Do You Mean When You Say Student Agency Pt 1 -- Great article on defining "Student Agency" this is essential reading.

Towards a Culturally Responsive Understanding of Student Agency -- This is a much deeper analysis of student agency. It raises the point that "agency" carries culturally embedded meaning and the cultures of our students must be considered as we set expectations for agency.

Changing Systems to Personalize Learning -- A comprehensive report and action planning guide from Brown University. It is 15 years old and still one of the best things I've read.

Assessment

Performance Based Assessment Reviewing the Basics

Considering Evidence of Learning In Diverse Classrooms -- Chapter form McTighe and Tomlinson with explanations, processes and examples of assessment

The Qualitative Formative Assessment Toolkit - A simple infographic with great ideas for capturing student work in progress.

Students Self-Assess Their Way to Learning

A School Wide Performance Assessment System -- This is fairly quick overview of Envision Schools ideas about school wide assessment. The real value is in the webinar at the bottom of the page.

Literacy Design Collaborative Templates: This folder contains temaplates, explanations and examples of tasks designed using the LDC templates. This is a good starting point if you need support in designing aligned performance assessments.

Instructional Strategies

8 Strategies Hattie and Marzano Agree On -- This is a short blog post style of an article, however it embeds links to go deeper. Each strategy is clearly stated and describe. This really should be a go to article

The Secrets of Effective Feedback - This is a a quick read from Educational Leadership that sets up a general model for feedback in a classroom. Even if you think your feedback is effective this article is still worth the read.

Making Time for Feedback - This article offers some practical strategies for managing and focusing your feedback.

Top 10 Evidence Based Teaching Strategies for Those Who Care About Student Results -- A quick read of simple strategies that take years of practice to develop. A list we all need reminding of.

Backward Design

Coverage Teaching is a Kind of Blindness

You have to Create Understanding by Design

Critically Examining What You Teach

Introduction to Driving Questions -- This is a comprehensive introduction to driving questions. It is not something you digest in one sitting, but it a clear understanding of the kinds of questions you use in design and instruction. This reading is worth the time and effort.

Crafting Questions That Drive Projects: This short article describes what a driving question is, why you would use one and gives plenty of examples.

Learning Targets

Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding in Today's Lesson: This book is an in depth exploration of the theory, writing and use of learning targets as drivers of instructional change.

Getting Started: Writing Learning Targets: This is a chapter in the book Leading Their Own Learning this is a shorter and more direct explanation of learning targets than the link above. It provides some examples and some dos and don'ts.

Unpacking Learning Targets with Students: This is a lovely low key example of a teacher using a learning target in his elementary classroom.

What Are Learning Targets & Why Are They Important - Short blog post with a basic description of a learn of the purpose and structure of learning targets.

Replacing Learning Objectives with Learning Targets - This is an excellent blog post from the perspective of a music teacher.

Special Education

Is It an Accommodation or a Modification? -- In a proficiency based environment it is important that teachers understand the difference between an accommodation and a modification. This very short primer gives you a quick guide to understand the difference.

Differentiated Assessment and Grading -- This article updates Jung's 2007 article. In this she details her DiAGraM model for assessing students who have IEP's.

Supporting Students with Disabilities -- This webinar produced by the Great Schools Partnership highlights the work of a practicing special educator and how she develops standards based IEPs and grading for students on IEP's.

Differentiation in a Standards-Based Classroom -- A short blog post by practicing Vermont educators on how they use learning scales (verification criteria) to support planning for a differentiated classroom.

"Backing Out" Learning Targets from general education - this blog post was written by a practicing special education teacher at Champlain Valley Union HS. It specifically addresses how to use verification criteria with students struggling to meet a grade-level indicator.

The Promise of Special Education In a Proficiency Based System -- This brief written by the Great Schools Partnership outlines the key components of special education in a proficiency-based system.

Myths About Grading Exceptional Learners -- This is excerpted from Jung and Guskey's article on standards-based grading for students on IEP's.

Standards Based Grading & Reporting: A Model for Special Education -- Jung and Guskey's important early work on standards-based IEP's. It outlines five steps the IEP team should take in developing a standards-based IEP. This is required reading for anyone working with special education students in a proficiency-based system.

Understanding the Standards-Based IEP -- This policy brief from the National Center for Learning Disabilities that outlines the parameters of standards-based IEP's and provides some of goals, modifications and accommodations. The brief was written before the advent of new national standards particularly the CCSS, however the basic principles still hold. The interview at the end of the brief is well worth reading.

Scales of Progress -- Another article by Lee Ann Jung. I particularly like this one because it clearly aligns the way general education uses learning targets with "scales of progress." Scales of progress also provide a concrete communication tool to use with students and general education teachers.

Webinars

Developing Effective Assessment Tasks in a Proficiency-Based Learning System

Determining Proficiency Levels and Establishing Scoring Criteria

Developing Effective Graduation Standards & Performance Indicators

Supporting Students with Disabilities