WASHINGTON – Opportunities to promote the value of transformative education reform don’t come every day on Capitol Hill, and KnowledgeWorks Chief Learning Officer Virgel Hammonds plans to make the most of his.
Hammonds will testify before Congressional staff members Friday on a small panel assembled by the American Youth Policy Forum and iNACOL, entitled: Competency-Based Education: Promising Policies and Practices for the Future of K-12 Education.
He will highlight the benefits of states and communities – supported by the flexibility provided in state and national education policy – to aligning resources to implement personalized, competency-based learning.
“Each state has a unique approach to designing personalized, competency-based structures, and just like teachers and students, they need customized supports to realize their vision for teaching and learning,” Hammonds said.
The American Youth Policy Forum and iNACOL often partner on hearings together to inform, educate, and answer questions about innovative, learner-centered policies, structures, and systems. The panel includes local, state and national representatives that are building equitable, high-quality education systems that prepare students for postsecondary success through personalized, competency-based learning.
Joining Hammonds on the panel are:
- Bill Zima, Superintendent of Schools, Regional School Unit 2, Maine
- Latoya Dixon, Director, Office of School Transformation, South Carolina Department of Education
- Kelly Brady, Director, Instructional Support for Student-Centered Learning, Idaho State Department of Education
- Moderator: Susan Patrick, President and Chief Executive Officer, iNACOL
The panel will be updating veteran Congressional staff on progress made since it was last assembled a year ago, and it will also offer an introduction to the staff members of the many new members of the 116th Congress.
It’s Hammonds second time on the panel after appearing in the role of a superintendent in 2018.
