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Report: Federal Rules Impede Competency-Based Learning

April 29, 2013 | 10:31 AM | By
scantron

Getty Images

Competency-based learning, which allows students to progress at their own pace after they’ve shown mastery of a subject, rather than by their age, is quickly gaining momentum. Already, a few states like New Hampshire, Maine, and Oregon are moving towards implementing competency-based learning models throughout the entire state. What’s more, 40 states have at least district experimenting with the model. But despite this growth, its proponents say federal policies for accountability and assessment are holding the movement back.

KnowledgeWorks, an organization that supports three education-focused initiatives — New Tech Network, EDWorks and Strive — recently released a report highlighting the pain points between federal policy and a competency-based system. The report, Competency Education Series: Policy Brief One [PDF], points out that, although the federal government has supported some aspects of competency-based learning, implementing the new model can be difficult because of federal restrictions.

“The greatest conflict stems from disconnect with the work on the ground and federal accountability and assessment systems,” the report states. “Implementers faced with this disconnect have no choice but to juggle two systems: one required by federal law and one developed by the educators, students, parents, and community leaders committed to successful implementation of competency education.”

CLASHES OVER TIME

Time is the biggest point of contention between the two systems. The federal government measures school accountability as well as student achievement through time-based modules. Seat time and annual test results are the primary ways that the government keeps schools accountable, Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, Research, assessment, competency-based education, KnowledgeWorks, SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium

The Future of Education: Creating Your Own Schools

October 29, 2012 | 9:31 AM | By

What will the future of education look like? KnowledgeWorks Foundation has just released the third edition of its education forecast, called Forecast 3.0, Recombinant Education: Regenerating the Learning Ecosystem, that outlines the deconstruction of the current education model, a change in educators’ roles based on their strengths, changing career pathways, and the role of technology in this realm. The language might seem a bit futuristic, but the insights are fascinating. Below, two short excerpts.

CUSTOMIZABLE VALUE WEBS 

While the digital explosion has long been creating an expanding ecosystem of new services, applications, and tools, innovative business models will find new ways of harnessing these opportunities into flexible value webs that deliver highly customer-centric experiences.

Across industries, new intermediaries, novel customer value propositions, and creative ways of facilitating open digital platforms and networks are already transforming customer experiences.  For example, new intermediaries in the music industry have integrated platforms such as iTunes, Google+, and Facebook with artist information, concert databases, and mobile apps to transform passive listeners into active music participants who share, create, remix, and produce music.

In education, new intermediaries will facilitate a similar integration of networks and systems that bring learners, resources, services, data, and learning agents together in novel value webs. Schools will no longer be singular, enclosed organizations.

Schools will no longer be singular, enclosed organizations.

Instead, they will serve students by harnessing and brokering resources and talent across the global community. Customer-centric value propositions will guide the creation of learning experiences that leverage rich value webs to serve distinct populations. What began as a “bring-your-own-device” (BYOD) movement may very well turn into a “create-your-own-school” movement as new intermediaries, learning agents, parents, and learners collaborate to weave vibrant value webs.

This increasing customization of learning will involve recombining learning experiences, assets, and tools to help each learner find the specific value proposition(s) that best meet her or his needs.

Opportunity: Watch for schools to create distinct value propositions and identities and to partner with other organizations as part of complex value webs that offer personalized learning for all Continue reading →
FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, Teaching With Tech, KnowledgeWorks

School Day of the Future: Learning in 2025

January 12, 2011 | 2:03 PM | By

Collective Invention

Adil Tahawai: future learner

What will a typical school day in the year 2020 (or beyond) look like? How and where will kids learn? What will be the role of the teacher, the parent, the education community?

Over the coming weeks, I’ll post responses from respected authorities on the field byway of articles, video interviews, and innovative projects.

We’ll launch the series with a collaborative project by Knowledgeworks and Collective Invention for Grantmakers for Education that shows what learning will look like in the year 2025. The group created scenarios of the future from the perspective of learners and educators in order to help grantmakers understand what kind of innovations would make the biggest impact on learners.

From Learning 2025: Forging Pathways to the Future.

The heart of formal learning is the relationship between a learner and a mentor, teacher or technical master. That relationship is supported by family and community. Traditionally we’ve built schools at the center of our communities to enable such relationships for larger numbers of children. In today’s world, the mentor-learner relationship is now managed by various entities, from school districts to charter school networks to home-school networks to—increasingly–online communities. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, Collective Invention, Grantmakers for Education, KnowledgeWorks, School Day of the Future

How Does New Tech Measure Up to Traditional Standards?

January 7, 2011 | 4:07 PM | By

Lenny Gonzalez

Some might say it’s all well and good to teach responsibility and accountability and self-sufficiency, but what about test scores?

At Napa New Tech, the numbers speak for themselves. The school’s 2009 API scores was 818. (Napa New Tech is the first school in the New Tech Network, and was opened in 1996.) The average score of all the 62 schools in the New Tech Network for 2008 was 691, and the growth in the score between 2007 and 2008 was 10.75.

“In general, our students do better across the country in humanities, language arts, social studies, and science,” said Chris Walsh, director of innovation and design at New Tech Network. “Math is still at average. But in terms of engagement, college attendance, and graduation rates, we’re off the charts.”

He’s right. From the KnowledgeWorks Foundation (which New Tech is a subsidiary of):

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, KnowledgeWorks, Napa New Tech High, New Tech Network

Napa New Tech: School of the Future is Here

January 5, 2011 | 12:10 PM | By

Lenny Gonzalez

What does the high school of the future look like? It’s one that emphasizes useful, relevant skills that can be applied to college and the work world beyond. One that encourages students to be critical thinkers, responsible for their own actions. One that trains them to work collaboratively and push themselves to outside their comfort zones. And one that uses the benefits of technology to reach those goals.

If these are the tenets, then the folks at Napa New Technology High School in Napa, Calif., believe theirs is the model.

One of 62 schools in the New Tech Network, Napa New Tech High has turned the traditional high school model on its ear. Its objective is to deliver responsible citizens who are ready to work or go to college, and learn the skills to be prepared for the world outside the confines of school.

I visited the campus recently and came away with a clear understanding of the school’s vision. There’s a lot to cover, but in essence, I’ve boiled it down to these five ways I consider New Tech a school of the future.

1) Breeding a culture of accountability.

Aligning with the growing movement of teaching 21st century skills, one of the recurring mantras at New Tech High is the pervasive culture of respect, trust, and responsibility that goes both ways between educators and students. For instance, you’ll hear no bells signaling the end of class periods. Students are trusted to keep track of their own time, just as they would as grownups in the outside world, and to show up where they need to at the appropriate times. They can organize independent study projects with teachers and work on their own or in groups in the school’s airy atrium/cyber café. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, KnowledgeWorks, Napa New Tech High, New Tech Network, project-based-learning