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Know | Trust | Empower | Connect | Honor

Recently a school leader posted a question on LinkedIn asking how to boost morale with staff during challenging times. My immediate response was to share the K-TECH framework because it helps build the foundation for a safe and purposeful classroom for everyone– students and staff. K-TECH is the acronym EDWorks’ uses for integrating characteristics of a safe and purposeful school environment into overall school improvement. K-TECH is aligned with major youth development initiatives including Josepshon Institute’s Six Pillars of Character and Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets. K-TECH was originally created by Ohio’s Center for Essential School Reform as part of its Framework for Building Safe and Serious Schools. While we often talk about K-TECH in reference to improving school climate for students, these same strategies can be applied to building relationships with and effectively motivating staff.

In this five part blog, EDWork’s Manager of Partnership Development and Technical Assistance Coach Michele Timmons shares ideas for implementing K-TECH as a strategy for building morale and creating a community of adult learners who can truly meet the needs of the children they serve.

Last month we highlighted E- Empowering Staff to Lead, Change and Grow Together.

Today’s focus is C- Making Connections to Improve Morale and Performance

Empowering Staff to Lead, Change and Grow Together.

William Daggett’s research clearly shows rigor, relevance and relationships are critical for academic success. Dan Pink identifies autonomy, mastery and purpose as key drivers for motivating staff. Making connections is at the heart of the work of both men.

But what does this look like for school staff? How will making connections increase both job performance and staff morale?

Tip #1:  Connect Professional Learning to Individual Staff Needs

• Avoid generalized professional learning where every staff member has to ‘sit through’ training which is irrelevant or distantly connected to their actual work. Instead, develop a combination of online, blended and face to face training personalized to meet individual staff needs.
• When presenting topics such as Common Core State Standards implementation, be sure to clearly demonstrate how the strategies can be used across content areas.
• Provide professional learning opportunities for every staff member so all staff continue to grow as individuals and members of your school’s team. Training for paraprofessionals, office staff and custodial / maintenance staff are often overlooked but are just as important to how a school functions as teachers and leaders.

Tip #2: Connect Personally with Staff Members

• Make time to talk one-on-one with all staff members. Do you know them as a person? Do you know what is important to them beyond the school day? If not – make the time. The more people believe you care about them as a person; the more likely they will go the extra mile to make your school an amazing place to learn and grow.
• Thank them for a job well done. It is just as important for adults to be praised and thanked as it is for kids. When staff believe they are important and someone notices the good things they do it makes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Tip #3:  Connect Staff with Community

• Community members don’t really understand what goes on in schools and oftentimes school staffs don’t truly understand the real world applications of their content. Consider creating a school version of job shadowing where business and community members spend time in classrooms shadowing teachers and learning more about their role. Seek business partners to offer teachers externship opportunities so teachers can learn new ways of helping students see the connection between content and ‘the real world’.
• Collaborate with business partners to co-create inquiry based units with staff. This helps both the industry professional and the educator develop long lasting relationships which will foster future innovation and partnerships.

What strategies are your strategies for making connections? How does making connections increase both job performance and staff morale?

Check back next month for Part Five of EDWorks’ five-part series on implementing K-TECH as a staff morale strategy. You can also still check out earlier articles in this series:

• K- Knowing Your Staff Better
• T- Building a Sense of Trust
• E- Empowering Staff to Lead, Change and Grow Together

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When I shared KnowledgeWorks’ forecast on the future of learning with ASCD’s board in February, a strand of the conversation began to suggest that there wouldn’t be as much of a place for people to support learning because we will have so many digital tools for mediating, supporting, and delivering learning. Since that time, I’ve continued to reflect on how critical skilled people will be in an expanded learning ecosystem.

Yes, we will – and do already – have tools for helping learners and their families identify the learning experiences that meet their needs, reflect their interests, and support their goals. Aristotle Circle does this kind of digital brokering for learners as young as kindergarten age. The Noodle search engine focuses solely on education because there are already so many learning options that it’s hard for people to find them using a general search engine.

And of course many of those learning options already involve digital delivery, all or in part, opening the way for educators not just to develop new ways of relating to students and supporting learning, but also to define new kinds of jobs that make sense in those environments. The continuing expansion of high-quality open education resources available through platforms such as Khan Academy, TED-Ed, and WikiEducator is opening possibilities for independent learning while challenging traditional uses of classroom time.

Teacher and faculty roles will face continuing challenge and redefinition as freely available resources increase in quality and production value, taking us beyond the rise of rock star teachers that we’ve been seeing via MOOCs such as Coursera and Udacity toward Hollywood-quality learning environments that integrate multiple digital media formats. Such environments are already challenging institutional roles and boundaries and suggesting that content delivery will become an ever-lesser aspect of many educators’ roles.

Lastly, as learning providers get smarter about corralling data about learners’ academic performance, social conditions, and well being into easily understood learning analytics and dashboards, we’ll have more and more tools available to support learners and educators in selecting and fine tuning learning experiences and supports. Adaptive learning platforms such as Knewton and analytical tools such as Desire2Learn Insights are beginning to compile and contextualize digital information to help people direct and understand learning.

As the learning ecosystem becomes ever more complex and varied, individuals are going to need support in designing and making decisions around learning. Some of that support will come from digital tools. And some of it will come from specialized educators, or learning agents, who help guide learners, coach them along their chosen learning pathways, interpret relevant data, and support learning in ways that we can’t imagine today.

Yes, the future learning ecosystem will be digitally mediated, with many of its nodes and supports integrating digital tools in fundamental ways. But they’re our tools, for us to put to use for our purposes. Jobs will change. New roles will emerge. Learners will have more options. But people will remain at the heart of learning. Learners should be at the center. With a host of specialized learning agents nearby.

 

When I shared KnowledgeWorks’ forecast on the future of learning with ASCD’s board in February, a strand of the conversation began to suggest that there wouldn’t be as much of a place for people to support learning because we will have so many digital tools for mediating, supporting, and delivering learning. Since that time, I’ve continued to reflect on how critical skilled people will be in an expanded learning ecosystem.

Yes, we will – and do already – have tools for helping learners and their families identify the learning experiences that meet their needs, reflect their interests, and support their goals. Aristotle Circle does this kind of digital brokering for learners as young as kindergarten age. The Noodle search engine focuses solely on education because there are already so many learning options that it’s hard for people to find them using a general search engine.

And of course many of those learning options already involve digital delivery, all or in part, opening the way for educators not just to develop new ways of relating to students and supporting learning, but also to define new kinds of jobs that make sense in those environments. The continuing expansion of high-quality open education resources available through platforms such as Khan Academy, TED-Ed, and WikiEducator is opening possibilities for independent learning while challenging traditional uses of classroom time.

Teacher and faculty roles will face continuing challenge and redefinition as freely available resources increase in quality and production value, taking us beyond the rise of rock star teachers that we’ve been seeing via MOOCs such as Coursera and Udacity toward Hollywood-quality learning environments that integrate multiple digital media formats. Such environments are already challenging institutional roles and boundaries and suggesting that content delivery will become an ever-lesser aspect of many educators’ roles.

Lastly, as learning providers get smarter about corralling data about learners’ academic performance, social conditions, and well being into easily understood learning analytics and dashboards, we’ll have more and more tools available to support learners and educators in selecting and fine tuning learning experiences and supports. Adaptive learning platforms such as Knewton and analytical tools such as Desire2Learn Insights are beginning to compile and contextualize digital information to help people direct and understand learning.

As the learning ecosystem becomes ever more complex and varied, individuals are going to need support in designing and making decisions around learning. Some of that support will come from digital tools. And some of it will come from specialized educators, or learning agents, who help guide learners, coach them along their chosen learning pathways, interpret relevant data, and support learning in ways that we can’t imagine today.

Yes, the future learning ecosystem will be digitally mediated, with many of its nodes and supports integrating digital tools in fundamental ways. But they’re our tools, for us to put to use for our purposes. Jobs will change. New roles will emerge. Learners will have more options. But people will remain at the heart of learning. Learners should be at the center. With a host of specialized learning agents nearby.

 

As highlighted in a Wall Street Journal article earlier this year, the University of Wisconsin will, come fall of 2013, be the first public university in the U.S. to offer competency-based degrees and certificates. Targeted toward working adults and degree completion students, the program will enable students to progress by demonstrating mastery, whether they have attained it through traditional college courses, online instruction, work experience, or some other avenue. They will start whenever they want, take assessments when they feel ready, and progress at their own pace.

The first cohort of its Flexible Option program will include a bachelor’s degree for registered nurses, degree completion in diagnostic imaging, a Bachelor’s in Information Science and Technology, and a Certificate in Professional and Technical Communication. University of Wisconsin Colleges will also be offering competency-based general education courses in fields ranging from biology to psychology to exercise science and athletics to women’s studies to English to art to music.

As the Wall Street Journal article put it, the university is “decoupling the learning part of education from student assessment and degree-granting.” As such, it is one of a handful of institutions blazing the trail toward reconsidering the role of institutions in credentialing learning. KnowledgeWorks’ Forecast 3.0 highlights de-institutionalization as a key disruption that will reshape learning over the next decade.

With learning experiences diversifying, the need for continuous career readiness growing, and the trend toward organizing without organizations to pursue work and other productive activity, the role of today’s institutions in brokering and credentialing learning promises increasingly to be called into question. Existing institutions will need to define distinct, and often multiple, value propositions to attract students who will expect to be able to learn what they want when they want and who will increasingly turn away from limiting structures.

So what does it take to implement competency education within an existing university? As described on the Flexible Option website, three advisory groups are steering the transition:

• A Faculty/Instructional Academic Staff advisory group is developing principles for quality, competencies, assessments, and levels of mastery, as well as identifying an ongoing oversight role for faculty as UW Flexible Option programs are developed.
• An Administrative Advisory group is working through infrastructure issues and assisting in the development of a business model.
• An Academic and Student Support group is assisting in the development of the operational mechanisms and support needed to allow students to enroll and progress in UW Flexible Option programs.

On the student support side, a team of success coach advisors will help students plan and manage their learning journeys. These success coach advisors seem similar to the learning journey mentors that KnowledgeWorks’ 2020 Forecast imagined helping students create and navigate their learning itineraries.

UW’s Flexible Option program, and the transition to it, highlight just some of the possibilities for redesigning learning experiences and their credentialing to create a vibrant learning ecosystem comprised of many viable options, each of which will suit some students some of the time.

As highlighted in a Wall Street Journal article earlier this year, the University of Wisconsin will, come fall of 2013, be the first public university in the U.S. to offer competency-based degrees and certificates. Targeted toward working adults and degree completion students, the program will enable students to progress by demonstrating mastery, whether they have attained it through traditional college courses, online instruction, work experience, or some other avenue. They will start whenever they want, take assessments when they feel ready, and progress at their own pace.

The first cohort of its Flexible Option program will include a bachelor’s degree for registered nurses, degree completion in diagnostic imaging, a Bachelor’s in Information Science and Technology, and a Certificate in Professional and Technical Communication. University of Wisconsin Colleges will also be offering competency-based general education courses in fields ranging from biology to psychology to exercise science and athletics to women’s studies to English to art to music.

As the Wall Street Journal article put it, the university is “decoupling the learning part of education from student assessment and degree-granting.” As such, it is one of a handful of institutions blazing the trail toward reconsidering the role of institutions in credentialing learning. KnowledgeWorks’ Forecast 3.0 highlights de-institutionalization as a key disruption that will reshape learning over the next decade.

With learning experiences diversifying, the need for continuous career readiness growing, and the trend toward organizing without organizations to pursue work and other productive activity, the role of today’s institutions in brokering and credentialing learning promises increasingly to be called into question. Existing institutions will need to define distinct, and often multiple, value propositions to attract students who will expect to be able to learn what they want when they want and who will increasingly turn away from limiting structures.

So what does it take to implement competency education within an existing university? As described on the Flexible Option website, three advisory groups are steering the transition:

• A Faculty/Instructional Academic Staff advisory group is developing principles for quality, competencies, assessments, and levels of mastery, as well as identifying an ongoing oversight role for faculty as UW Flexible Option programs are developed.
• An Administrative Advisory group is working through infrastructure issues and assisting in the development of a business model.
• An Academic and Student Support group is assisting in the development of the operational mechanisms and support needed to allow students to enroll and progress in UW Flexible Option programs.

On the student support side, a team of success coach advisors will help students plan and manage their learning journeys. These success coach advisors seem similar to the learning journey mentors that KnowledgeWorks’ 2020 Forecast imagined helping students create and navigate their learning itineraries.

UW’s Flexible Option program, and the transition to it, highlight just some of the possibilities for redesigning learning experiences and their credentialing to create a vibrant learning ecosystem comprised of many viable options, each of which will suit some students some of the time.

If you have had to spend more than 15 minutes with me in a professional setting recently, you have probably heard me make a distinction between principles and practices. I've had the chance lately to have a lot of conversations of this sort lately about PBL, PrBL, inquiry, and leading professional learning.

For what its worth, here's my list of principles to leading authentic learning:

1. Engage them in meaningful problems and give them the work

2. Give them the time

3. Help them articulate criteria for success

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A policy paper written by KnowledgeWorks Senior Director of National Policy Lillian Pace was highlighted on the MindShift blog which covers national innovation in education. Katrina Schwartz reviews Pace’s An Emerging Federal Role for Competency Education  in her blog post this week titled, “Report: Federal Rules Impede Competency-Based Learning.”

Schwartz writes:

The KnowledgeWorks report doesn’t give a smoking-gun solution for the various problems it raises. Instead, the group intends to continue investigating how federal policies could encourage competency-based learning by studying the effects of the few programs the government has decided to fund in this area. The organization also plans to pull together best practices from states moving ahead despite the challenges and to figure out how competency-based education could be assessed in a more comparative way.

MindShift is curated by long-time education writer and editor Tina Barseghian and is a product of San Francisco-based KQED public radio.

This past week during PBLChat, we discussed the importance of reflection for both ourselves and our students. Although we all agree on the benefits, some of us struggle with the how, especially for ourselves. Learn from all of the strategies as well as be inspired by the tweets from the chat.

Here is the archive.

Now, for some of our favorite tweets of the week!

 

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As colleges and universities seek new value propositions to attract students amid an increasing array of choices, the University of Southern New Hampshire’s College for America has launched a competency-based associate’s degree that seeks to make college accessible while also addressing what they describe as a nationwide workforce crisis. Students enroll via their employers at a cost of $2,500 a year and progress at their own pace as they master 120 competencies in these areas:

• Communication
• Critical and creative thinking
• Quantitative skills
• Digital fluency and information literacy
• Personal effectiveness
• Ethics and social responsibility
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Business essentials
• Science, society, and culture.

This program intrigues me for many reasons, not least of which is its goal of making relevant higher education available to students who might otherwise struggle to earn a degree. I also see it as enacting the kind of radical personalization that KnowledgeWorks’ Forecast 3.0 describes as being a key facet of the emerging learning ecosystem. And it addresses the emerging need for continuous career readiness, which will only become more pronounced as more jobs become automated, more work becomes ad hoc, and jobs that we can’t imagine today come into existence.

In addition, I was excited to read about the new roles that College for America has created to support students:

• Learning Coach – Helps each student navigate the program and set their own pace
• Accountability Partner– Similar to a “workout buddy” and chosen by the student, the accountability partner provides the motivation to keep learners on track
• Mentor – From the student’s place of work, the mentor focuses on career development
• Evaluator – The evaluator reviews tasks and gives feedback
• College for America Community – Includes other working learners in the program.

Ever since we published our 2020 Forecast in 2009, KnowledgeWorks has been forecasting the emergence of new learning agent roles that will support rich, relevant, and authentic learning in multiple settings. College for America has established a model that blows open traditional faculty roles to support students in navigating its distinct learning approach.

What other roles might be possible if we redesigned education – at any level – with learners at the center and removed the constraints of seat time, credits or Carnegie units, and age progressions to keep each learner growing and mastering skills at her or his ideal individual pace?

As colleges and universities seek new value propositions to attract students amid an increasing array of choices, the University of Southern New Hampshire’s College for America has launched a competency-based associate’s degree that seeks to make college accessible while also addressing what they describe as a nationwide workforce crisis. Students enroll via their employers at a cost of $2,500 a year and progress at their own pace as they master 120 competencies in these areas:

• Communication
• Critical and creative thinking
• Quantitative skills
• Digital fluency and information literacy
• Personal effectiveness
• Ethics and social responsibility
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Business essentials
• Science, society, and culture.

This program intrigues me for many reasons, not least of which is its goal of making relevant higher education available to students who might otherwise struggle to earn a degree. I also see it as enacting the kind of radical personalization that KnowledgeWorks’ Forecast 3.0 describes as being a key facet of the emerging learning ecosystem. And it addresses the emerging need for continuous career readiness, which will only become more pronounced as more jobs become automated, more work becomes ad hoc, and jobs that we can’t imagine today come into existence.

In addition, I was excited to read about the new roles that College for America has created to support students:

• Learning Coach – Helps each student navigate the program and set their own pace
• Accountability Partner– Similar to a “workout buddy” and chosen by the student, the accountability partner provides the motivation to keep learners on track
• Mentor – From the student’s place of work, the mentor focuses on career development
• Evaluator – The evaluator reviews tasks and gives feedback
• College for America Community – Includes other working learners in the program.

Ever since we published our 2020 Forecast in 2009, KnowledgeWorks has been forecasting the emergence of new learning agent roles that will support rich, relevant, and authentic learning in multiple settings. College for America has established a model that blows open traditional faculty roles to support students in navigating its distinct learning approach.

What other roles might be possible if we redesigned education – at any level – with learners at the center and removed the constraints of seat time, credits or Carnegie units, and age progressions to keep each learner growing and mastering skills at her or his ideal individual pace?

Last week, several colleagues and I had the extraordinary opportunity to participate in school tours and speak with teachers, school and district leaders, and state policymakers in Maine about the implementation of standards-based education, also known as competency-based education or CBE (see what I did there with the title?). A huge hat tip goes to Mark Kostin and David Ruff from the Great Schools Partnership for putting the visits together for us.

My goal on this trip was to wrap my arms around what implementation at a school level might look like as the state transitions to proficiency-based diplomas. This is particularly interesting in Maine because each district, and in some case each school, is permitted to set their own proficiency standards and implement their own models.

During the trip, we had the opportunity to meet with Virgel Hammonds, Superintendent at RSU 2. Not only is Virgel leading the standards-based efforts at RSU 2, he began the competency-based movement in the Lindsay School District in California. On a side note, Lindsay was recently awarded a District Race to the Top Grant supporting the personalization of education for all students in their schools. Virgel was extremely candid about the challenges and triumphs that come with implementing student-centered education, what comes next in RSU 2’s journey, and his goals for the district. To read more about what is happening in RSU 2, you can check out this case study on Maine’s Department of Education website. It is a very quick read, well worth your time if you’re interested in competency-based education, and does a better job of explaining what’s happening than I could do here.

 

Last week, several colleagues and I had the extraordinary opportunity to participate in school tours and speak with teachers, school and district leaders, and state policymakers in Maine about the implementation of standards-based education, also known as competency-based education or CBE (see what I did there with the title?). A huge hat tip goes to Mark Kostin and David Ruff from the Great Schools Partnership for putting the visits together for us.

My goal on this trip was to wrap my arms around what implementation at a school level might look like as the state transitions to proficiency-based diplomas. This is particularly interesting in Maine because each district, and in some case each school, is permitted to set their own proficiency standards and implement their own models.

During the trip, we had the opportunity to meet with Virgel Hammonds, Superintendent at RSU 2. Not only is Virgel leading the standards-based efforts at RSU 2, he began the competency-based movement in the Lindsay School District in California. On a side note, Lindsay was recently awarded a District Race to the Top Grant supporting the personalization of education for all students in their schools. Virgel was extremely candid about the challenges and triumphs that come with implementing student-centered education, what comes next in RSU 2’s journey, and his goals for the district. To read more about what is happening in RSU 2, you can check out this case study on Maine’s Department of Education website. It is a very quick read, well worth your time if you’re interested in competency-based education, and does a better job of explaining what’s happening than I could do here.

 

So if you knew food would be scarce in a couple of years, would you begin to make your kids know what it was like to be hungry now?  

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I just read a fascinating opinion piece in the New York Times entitled “No Rich Child Left Behind.”  I wasn’t surprised by what I was reading.  There is a significant gap in education success between high-income families and those of lower socio-economic status. This we know and have known for years.  What did surprise me is how much the gap has grown over the past few decades.  The author, Sean Reardon, found the gap in test scores is around 40 percent larger than it was 30 years ago. He also found that the income test score gap is considerably larger than the black-white test score gap.  “Family income is now a better predictor of children’s success in school than race.”

I found this shocking and disturbing, given what has seemed to be a great deal of focus and resources dedicated toward closing the achievement gap over the years.  But, as I continued reading, what I found even more surprising was the author’s conclusion for why this rapid widening of the gap has occurred.  After reviewing a significant amount of historical data, particularly related to family income, he found that the academic gap is widening because the rich keep getting richer.  As income inequality rises (which it has substantially over the past decade) rich students are increasingly entering kindergarten much better prepared to succeed in school than even middle-class students, much less poorer students.  Which means that wealthier students are not only better prepared to succeed in their first years of schooling, but ultimately better prepared to succeed in life as a whole. This supports what we know about the critical importance of early childhood education as building the foundation for education success.

So, could it be that we, as a nation, have been focusing on the wrong issues when working to eliminate these educational disparities? Much of the strategies to close the achievement gap have focused on improving teacher quality and failing schools and we have made some great progress, yet the gap continues to widen and at such a rapid pace.  The author suggests that we must also focus on the relationship between family income and educational success and he makes some suggestions for how to address these challenges.  In reviewing his suggestions, it is clear that our work to build cradle to career cross-sector education partnerships is particularly relevant as it will take the combined efforts of business, philanthropy, government and education sectors to close these gaps or better yet, prevent them from occurring.

First, improving outcomes in early childhood education must continue to be a focus for cradle to career partnerships.  If states and the federal government are not going to do the right thing and increase investments in this area, then it is imperative that local partnerships really dig into the early childhood data, identify what is working and align resources to expand these practices, with a specific focus on ensuring greater access and equity when it comes to high-quality early childhood experiences.

Next, cross-sector cradle to career partnerships are uniquely well-positioned to advocate for more family-friendly policies, such as more generous maternity and paternity leave policies or access to high quality childcare.  These types of policies will enable parents to have the flexibility and resources to spend more time supporting and teaching their children.  In fact the business partners at the table of cradle to career partnerships could set the precedent by implementing these policies for their own employees.

There are so many things that partnerships can do to help prevent and eliminate gaps, but what is perhaps the key lesson learned from this particular issue, and so many other education issues, is that it all starts with data.  Just as the author of this piece used data to understand the growing problem of income disparities, cradle to career partnerships must take the finest cut at the data – digging into student data and monitoring important contextual data in order to get at the root cause of the issue and address it head on before the gaps occur.  Only when we have looked at disaggregated data as a community, can we be prepared to have the tough conversations and take the appropriate action that are so critical to reversing this trend.  If the achievement gap begins well before children reach kindergarten, then an ounce of prevention is most definitely worth a pound of cure.

A truly remarkable education transformation is underway in five New England states – CT, ME, NH, RI, and VT – inspired by the idea that every child can graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge to succeed in life. This transformation – called proficiency-based learning (aka: competency, mastery, or standards-based) – flips the education system on its head, providing multiple pathways, extra time, and intensive supports for a truly customized learning experience. 

I was fortunate to experience this transformation first hand last week, thanks to an impressive tour led by the Great Schools Partnership. This organization is impacting every level of the system: from the grassroots coaching partnerships they have with schools and districts throughout the region to the high-level systems change conversations they lead as the coordinator for the New England Secondary Schools Consortium (NESSC). My big take-away from the tour is this: These leaders have the right vision for learning and an incredibly talented team of experts to help make that vision a reality.

If you want to know more about their vision, I encourage you to spend a little time in the NESSC resource room. Although I always leave school tours with more paper than I have time to read, this time was an exception. I actually spent the entire flight home reading their materials. My favorite resource was the 2011-2012 NESSC Policy Framework – a must read for any policymaker or thought leader interested in the transition to competency or proficiency-based learning. I find it remarkable that five states actually agree on three high-leverage policy areas to tackle together AND are well on their way to making this framework a reality:

1. Graduation Decisions – The NESSC states want to replace or enhance current graduation requirements to ensure students demonstrate achievement of specific learning standards through experiences both inside and outside of the school building.
2. Flexible Learning Pathways – The NESSC states propose a state policy that will require all middle and high school programs to offer multiple and flexible learning pathways to help students navigate the new graduation requirements.
3. System Accountability – The NESSC states are committed to the creation of an accountability system that measures, understands, and improves the current learning system to ensure students attain 21st century skills and knowledge.

Thank you to the Great Schools Partnership and all of the talented policymakers and implementers who graciously made themselves available to the KnowledgeWorks team this past week. Your leadership and commitment to a new vision for education is powerful.

A truly remarkable education transformation is underway in five New England states – CT, ME, NH, RI, and VT – inspired by the idea that every child can graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge to succeed in life. This transformation – called proficiency-based learning (aka: competency, mastery, or standards-based) – flips the education system on its head, providing multiple pathways, extra time, and intensive supports for a truly customized learning experience. 

I was fortunate to experience this transformation first hand last week, thanks to an impressive tour led by the Great Schools Partnership. This organization is impacting every level of the system: from the grassroots coaching partnerships they have with schools and districts throughout the region to the high-level systems change conversations they lead as the coordinator for the New England Secondary Schools Consortium (NESSC). My big take-away from the tour is this: These leaders have the right vision for learning and an incredibly talented team of experts to help make that vision a reality.

If you want to know more about their vision, I encourage you to spend a little time in the NESSC resource room. Although I always leave school tours with more paper than I have time to read, this time was an exception. I actually spent the entire flight home reading their materials. My favorite resource was the 2011-2012 NESSC Policy Framework – a must read for any policymaker or thought leader interested in the transition to competency or proficiency-based learning. I find it remarkable that five states actually agree on three high-leverage policy areas to tackle together AND are well on their way to making this framework a reality:

1. Graduation Decisions – The NESSC states want to replace or enhance current graduation requirements to ensure students demonstrate achievement of specific learning standards through experiences both inside and outside of the school building.
2. Flexible Learning Pathways – The NESSC states propose a state policy that will require all middle and high school programs to offer multiple and flexible learning pathways to help students navigate the new graduation requirements.
3. System Accountability – The NESSC states are committed to the creation of an accountability system that measures, understands, and improves the current learning system to ensure students attain 21st century skills and knowledge.

Thank you to the Great Schools Partnership and all of the talented policymakers and implementers who graciously made themselves available to the KnowledgeWorks team this past week. Your leadership and commitment to a new vision for education is powerful.

Just about a year ago I gave an Ignite Talk at our New Tech Network summer conference called "Bridges & Fences".

As I rehearsed for this I could never say the ending without choking up, you can hear in my voice at the end that I barely made it through. I think it makes me emotional because those of us in education know so many students who are surrounded by fences they didn't build but must somehow get over to reach their dreams and goals.

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We had a fast-paced #PBLChat this week sharing project ideas and helping each other out with ideas that were just being formed.  Tap into these resources here in our chat archive .  Don't forget you can add YOUR topic requests right here on this google doc. 

Now for a few of our favorite tweets of the week:

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As I take a deep dive into MIT Media Lab’s MOOC on “Learning Creative Learning”, there are so many great resources to explore. One of my favorites is an article on "Designing for Tinkerability." It’s by Mitch Resnick and Eric Rosenbaum from the Lifelong Kindergarten group at MIT Media Lab. If you’ve ever used Scratch, you know of their work.

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Over the past year, two words seem to dominate conversation about the future of our education system: competency education. At least 40 states have one or more school districts implementing competency based models and a growing number of states have begun serious conversations about how to transition to a system that ensures students get the supports and extra time they need to master academic content and transferrable skills. Despite an explosion of new policies, pilot initiatives, and tools designed to help schools implement competency-based approaches, a major road block in this paradigm shift lies ahead: federal K-12 policy.

KnowledgeWorks’ sheds light on this challenge in our first competency education policy brief released today:  An Emerging Federal Role for Competency Education. The goals of this publication are to not only familiarize policymakers with the paradigm shift happening in K-12 schools across the country, but to also bring to the forefront the fact that federal law makes it challenging for a state, district, or school to pursue this approach. In particular, the federal government’s reliance on time-based accountability and assessment systems makes it difficult for states to redesign their systems to support competency education at scale.

The success of the competency movement depends heavily on the federal government’s willingness to partner with states and districts as they design education systems that put students at the center. We hope this brief sparks lots of conversation toward this end.

Stay tuned for more policy briefs throughout the year on competency education including a federal accountability and assessment framework that supports continued innovation.