Deeper Competency Based Learning

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

For years, educators have turned to the Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrices (CRM) when it comes to assessment. Now for the first time, the modules are packaged into one resource to help teachers evaluate the quality and premise of their current assessment system.

Education authorities from around the globe explore deeper learning, a process that promotes higher-order thinking, reasoning, and problem solving to better educate students and prepare them for college and careers. Relying on research as well as their own experience, the authors show how to use intensive curriculum, instruction, assessment, and leadership practices to meet the needs of 21st century learners.

Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning answers an urgent call for teachers who educate children from diverse backgrounds to meet the demands of a changing world. In today’s knowledge economy, teachers must prioritize problem-solving ability, adaptability, critical thinking, and the development of interpersonal and collaborative skills over rote memorization and the passive transmission of knowledge. Authors Linda Darling-Hammond and Jeannie Oakes and their colleagues examine what this means for teacher preparation and showcase the work of programs that are educating for deeper learning, equity, and social justice. Guided by the growing knowledge base in the science of learning and development, the book examines teacher preparation programs at Alverno College, Bank Street College of Education, High Tech High’s Intern Program, Montclair State University, San Francisco Teacher Residency, Trinity University, and University of Colorado Denver. These seven programs share a common understanding of how people learn that shape similar innovative practices. With vivid examples of teaching for deeper learning in coursework and classrooms; interviews with faculty, school partners, and novice teachers; surveys of teacher candidates and graduates; and analyses of curriculum and practices, Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning depicts transformative forms of teaching and teacher preparation that honor and expand all students’ abilities, knowledges, and experiences, and reaffirm the promise of educating for a better world.

New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NDPL) provides a comprehensive strategy for systemwide transformation. Using the 6 competencies of NDPL and a wealth of vivid examples, Fullan re-defines and re-examines what deep learning is and identifies the practical strategies for revolutionizing learning and leadership.

Americans have long recognized that investments in public education contribute to the common good, enhancing national prosperity and supporting stable families, neighborhoods, and communities. Education is even more critical today, in the face of economic, environmental, and social challenges. Today's children can meet future challenges if their schooling and informal learning activities prepare them for adult roles as citizens, employees, managers, parents, volunteers, and entrepreneurs. To achieve their full potential as adults, young people need to develop a range of skills and knowledge that facilitate mastery and application of English, mathematics, and other school subjects. At the same time, business and political leaders are increasingly asking schools to develop skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and self-management - often referred to as "21st century skills." Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century describes this important set of key skills that increase deeper learning, college and career readiness, student-centered learning, and higher order thinking. These labels include both cognitive and non-cognitive skills- such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, effective communication, motivation, persistence, and learning to learn. 21st century skills also include creativity, innovation, and ethics that are important to later success and may be developed in formal or informal learning environments. This report also describes how these skills relate to each other and to more traditional academic skills and content in the key disciplines of reading, mathematics, and science. Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century summarizes the findings of the research that investigates the importance of such skills to success in education, work, and other areas of adult responsibility and that demonstrates the importance of developing these skills in K-16 education. In this report, features related to learning these skills are identified, which include teacher professional development, curriculum, assessment, after-school and out-of-school programs, and informal learning centers such as exhibits and museums.

Deeper learning has been defined as “the skills and knowledge that students must possess to succeed in 21st century jobs and civic life” (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2013). Assessing Deeper Learning: Developing, Implementing, and Scoring Performance Tasks examines the role of performance assessment to facilitate student attainment of the core competencies of deeper learning. The book details a journey that a large school district undertook to create a system of performance tasks designed to assess students’ proficiency in critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communication. Chapters devoted to the development and implementation of the district’s high-quality performance tasks and rubrics highlight successes and lessons learned during the journey. Additional chapters focus on such topics as types of performance assessments, instructional methods that promote student engagement and deeper learning, policy, and how teacher leaders can drive this innovation to serve the teaching, learning, assessment, and accountability needs of schools. Assessing Deeper Learning: Developing, Implementing, and Scoring Performance Tasks was written for teachers, administrators, superintendents, and policy makers to better understand the challenges and opportunities afforded by using performance assessment to promote deeper learning.

Competency-Based Education introduces educators to a new model for anytime, anywhere schooling and provides tools and curriculum resources for redesigning the traditional structures of K–12 schools. Based on pioneering work across multiple states, the book shows how educators can design central elements of competency-based education—including performance tasks, personal learning plans, and grading systems—to meet the needs and interests of all students. Rose L. Colby provides critical tools for creating these elements in collaborative teams and engaging stakeholders such as educators, parents, and community members. The book incorporates case studies and voices from the field, and examines the variety of competency models that schools have adopted, highlighting the benefits for students. Competency-Based Education provides a much-needed resource at a time when states, districts, and schools are working to implement competency-based models and experimenting with new accountability systems that include evidence of learning beyond standardized tests.