A Leader S Guide To Competency Based Education

As interest in competency-based education (CBE) continues to grow by leaps and bounds, the need for a practical resource to guide development of high-quality CBE programs led the authors to write this book. Until now, there has been no how-to manual that captures in one place a big picture view of CBE along with the down-to-earth means for building a CBE program.A variety of pressures are driving the growth in CBE, including the need for alternatives to the current model of higher education (with its dismal completion rates); the potential to better manage the iron triangle of costs, access, and quality; the need for graduates to be better prepared for the workforce; and the demands of adult learners for programs with the flexible time and personalized learning that CBE offers.Designed to help institutional leaders become more competent in designing, building, and scaling high-quality competency-based education (CBE) programs, this book provides context, guidelines, and process. The process is based on ten design elements that emerged from research funded by the Gates Foundation, and sponsored by AAC&U, ACE, EDUCAUSE, and the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), with thought partners CAEL and Quality Matters. In short, the book will serve administrators, higher education leaders, faculty, staff, and others who have an interest in CBE by:• Giving context to enable the audience to discover the importance of each design element and to help frame the CBE program (the “why”);• Providing models, checklists, and considerations to determine the “what” component for each design element;• Sharing outlines and templates for the design elements to enable institutions to build quality, relevant, and rigorous CBE programs (the “how”).

Foreword by Chris Sturgis Shifting to a competency-based curriculum allows educators to revolutionize education by replacing traditional, ineffective systems with a personalized, learner-centered approach. Throughout the resource, the authors explore how the components of PLCs promote the principles of competency-based education and share real-world examples from practitioners who have made the transition to learner-centered teaching. Each chapter ends with reflection questions readers can answer to apply their own learning progression. By reading this book, K-12 administrators, school leaders, and teacher leaders will: - Evaluate the qualities of true competency-based schools and the flaws in traditional schooling. - Consider the foundational role that PLCs have in establishing the competency-based approach and promoting learning for all. - Gain tips for successfully implementing student-centered practices for learning competencies and performance assessment and grading. - Explore real school experiences that highlight the processes and challenges involved in moving from traditional to competency-based school structures - Access reproducible school-design rubrics appropriate for the five design principles of competency-based learning. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Understanding the Components of an Effective Competency-Based Learning System Chapter 2: Building the Foundation of a Competency-Based Learning System Through PLCs Chapter 3: Developing Competencies and Progressions to Guide Learning Chapter 4: Changing to Competency-Friendly Grading Practices Chapter 5: Creating and Implementing Competency-Friendly Performance Assessments Chapter 6: Responding When Students Need Intervention and Extension Chapter 7: Sustaining the Change Process References and Resources Index

The roadmap for your school’s CBE journey! Employ the WHAT (deeper academic and personalized learning), the WHY (equity), and the HOW (learner-centered approaches) of Competency-Based Education, maximizing the time, place, and pace of student learning. Make the shift to CBE using best practices from the authors’ CBE implementation experiences across states, districts, and schools. Build the foundation with organizational shifts - policy, leadership, culture, and professional learning Shift teaching-learning structures—rigorous learning, performance assessment, and evidence-based grading and reporting Dive into student-centered classrooms—personalized instruction and shifting mindsets for teacher-student roles, responsibilities, and classroom culture

Now is the time to evolve from the existing model of schooling into one that is more innovative, relevant, effective, and successful. Leading the Evolution introduces a three-pronged approach to driving substantive change (called the evolutionary triad) that connects transformative educational leadership, student engagement, and teacher optimism around personalized competency-based education. Each chapter includes supporting research and theory, as well as clear direction and strategies for putting the evolutionary triad into practice. Learn how and why to implement a personalized competency-based approach for academic achievement and student engagement: Understand the current state of education and why changing to a competency-based approach is imperative. Identify the instructional leadership behaviors that lead to the organizational and cultural shift necessary to transform the current education paradigm. Consider in detail all three points of the evolutionary triad: transformational instructional leadership, teacher optimism, and student engagement. Examine the central focus of the evolutionary triad: personalized, competency-based education. Explore educational leadership practices that support successfully implementing the evolutionary triad and learning competencies in schools. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Foundations for Evolution Chapter 2: The Transformational Instructional Leader Chapter 3: The Optimistic Teacher Chapter 4: The Engaged Student Chapter 5: The High-Impact School Epilogue References and Resources Index

Competency-Based Leadership is intended for school leaders that currently are serving as practitioners in the field. In addition, those individuals who aspire to a career in the principalship also will find the information of special value. The primary purpose of the book is to provide practicing principals and others to meet the challenges related to learning leadership. The book serves as a guide for ensuring the accomplishment of the goal of establishing a learning culture in the school. Persons who use the book will gain the knowledge and skills that are required for becoming an effective learning-leader in practice.

FIRST EDITION SPECIAL RECOGNITION:Winner of the 2018 Sue DeWine Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, National Communication Association, Applied Communication Division REVIEWS OF THE FIRST EDITION“The book provides frameworks and resources that would be highly relevant for new and aspiring department chairs. In fact, this text is ideally designed to serve as a selection for a book discussion group.”—The Department Chair“Succeeds in providing accessible and useful resources to individuals across different leadership roles... As a midpoint between textbook and reference work, it is successful at both and provides a clear and unbiased background to issues facing current leaders.”—Reflective TeachingDuring a time of unprecedented challenges facing higher education, the need for effective leadership – for informal and formal leaders across the organization – has never been more imperative.Since publication of the first edition, the environment for higher education has become more critical and complex. Whether facing falling enrollments, questions of economic sustainability, the changing composition of the faculty and student bodies, differential retention and graduation rates, declining public confidence in the enterprise, or the rise in the use of virtual technologies – not to mention how COVID-19 and an intensified focus on long standing issues of racial and gender representation and equity have impacted institutions and challenged many long-standing assumptions – it is clear that learning on the job no longer suffices. Leadership development in higher education has become essential for advancing institutional effectiveness, which is the focus of this book.Taking into account the imperative issues of diversity, inclusion, and belonging, and the context of institutional mission and culture, this book centers on developing capacities for designing and implementing plans, strategies, and structures; connecting and engaging with colleagues and students; and communicating and collaborating with external constituencies in order to shape decisions and policies. It highlights the need to think broadly about the purposes of higher education and the dynamics of organizational excellence, and to apply these insights effectively in goal setting, planning and change leadership, outcomes assessment, addressing crises, and continuous improvement at both the level of the individual and organization.The concepts and tools in this book are equally valuable for faculty and staff leaders, whether in formal leadership roles, such as deans, chairs, or directors of institutes, committees, or task forces, or those who perform informal leadership functions within their departments, disciplines, or institutions. It can be used as a professional guide, a textbook in graduate courses, or as a resource in leadership training and development programs. Each chapter concludes with a series of case studies and guiding questions.

The need for competency-based education (CBE) in nursing has been recognized for years. CBE provides a way to help ensure that learners are competent at the end of educational endeavors. This book is designed as a resource for nurse educators who are responsible for diverse education programs. Authors Anema and McCoy bring together all the elements of CBE, and provide a road map to develop, implement, and evaluate competency-based approaches to nursing education. The book provides valuable guidelines for developing organizational strategies, new care delivery approaches, and project planning tools. Guidance on performance assessment tools and data collection is also included. Key features: Explains why CBE is needed and how it can help improve current education programs Presents practical guidelines on how to transition to the CBE approach Provides helpful guidance on developing valid and reliable assessments Includes critical information on data collection and the use of data to verify achievement of outcomes Contains practice activities at the end of each chapter to simulate real-life situations