Background

One key of the competency-based education (CBE) described above is design and use of competencies as units of learning. A competency is the “expected learning based on one or more enduring conceptual understandings that requires the transfer of knowledge, skills, and dispositions to complex situations in and/or across content areas and/or beyond the classroom” Iowa Competency-based Guidelines (2016). Competencies may be designed at multiple levels of the system, including as graduation outcomes, for each discipline, for each course, or at grade levels to define advancement. In addition to the competency itself,

Multiple standards both within and across disciplines outline the knowledge, conceptual understanding, abilities, and skills required to meet the complex demands of the competency. Although individual standards may be assessed/demonstrated at any level of Bloom’s Taxonomy or Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, the expectation of deeper learning related to the competency requires assessment/demonstration at the upper levels of Bloom’s (analyze, evaluate, create/synthesize) or Webb’s (Level 3: Strategic Thinking, Level 4: Extended Thinking) as well as the appropriate use of the Universal Constructs, dispositions, and employability skills. Competencies guide students and teachers toward a shared development of pathways to demonstration of learning.

The co-construction of how students demonstrate their learning for each competency is part of what ensures that 1) learning is personalized, 2) learning transfers within or between disciplines or beyond the walls of the school, and 3) the locus of control stays within the student.

This page and the related subpages provide an overview of competency design. If you are interested in a conversation about competencies or competency design, or if you are interested in co-creating a local workshop on competency design, please contact us.

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Keys to Remember

• Competency design is a process and will necessitate time to draft and revise (multiple days are necessary per competency)

• Student, parent/guardian, and community collaboration and feedback will increase, rigor, relevance, and buy-in; engage additional partners as you become increasingly confident with the process

• Students can demonstrate proficiency in more than one competency in a course (or across courses) at a time, if they design their approach to accommodate all required demonstrations of learning; the design process should accommodate this facet of CBE

• Designing an equity statement for your competencies keeps equity at the forefront of design thinking and classroom-level implementation (e.g., Equity of access is the responsibility of the educational system and its community so that locus of control for design and demonstration of the competency is within the learner and not dependent on a student’s circumstances.)

• Facilitation of the competency design process is complex and warrants a consistent approach across a district in order to ensure quality of design and fidelity of implementation