KnowledgeWorks believes the federal government is a critical partner in helping state and local innovators build dynamic education systems where every student is challenged, and every student succeeds. Our organization has a dedicated presence in Washington, D.C., where we work alongside federal policymakers to advance policies and resources in support of personalized learning while removing policy barriers that make it challenging for state and local communities to innovate. Partnering to influence federal education policy is a key part of our work in laying the foundation for future students’ success.
Our federal policy and advocacy work is focused on six areas for building policy environments that support long-term personalized and competency-based learning at scale. Each of these areas and their strategies emphasize strong partnerships between federal, state and local leaders to ensure alignment and sustainable transformation across the education system.
- Assessment: We recommend empowering states to design balanced assessment systems; prioritizing investment in assessment redesign; and expanding and improving opportunities for states to pilot and scale innovative assessment approaches that drive deeper learning.
- Accountability: Empowering states to pilot holistic accountability programs that center community voices and empower diverse stakeholders to address inequity.
- Support for educators: Expanding personalized and competency-based professional development for educators and leaders; fostering professional development in social-emotional learning and personalized learning; and modernizing teacher preparation.
- Student learning pathways: Expanding and targeting resources for access and completion of student learning pathways including competency-based pathways and college in high school programs; and making Pell grants available to low-income students seeking to take college courses in high school.
- Culture of innovation: Building state and local capacity to pilot, evaluate and scale innovative, personalized and competency-based practices.
- Continuous school improvement: Building local capacity to help schools farthest from opportunity design personalized learning solutions.