About the Book
The roadmap for your school’s CBE journey!
The one-size-fits-all instructional and assessment practices of the past no longer equitably meet the needs of all students. Competency-based education (CBE) has emerged not only as an innovation in education, but as a true transformation of the approaches to how we traditionally "do" school.
In Deeper Competency-Based Learning, the authors share best practices from their experiences implementing CBE across states, districts, and schools. Leaving no stone unturned, readers are guided step-by-step through CBE implementation and validation phases, beginning with defining your WHY and collaborative development of the competencies describing deeper learning. The CBE readiness tools and reflections inside will help your team:
Build the foundation for organizational shifts by examining policies, leadership, culture, and professional learning
Dig in to shifts in teaching and learning structures by addressing rigorous learning goals, competency-based assessment, evidence-based grading, and body of evidence validation
Take a deep dive into the shift to student-centered classrooms through personalized instructional strategies that change mindsets regarding teacher-student roles, responsibilities, and classroom culture
Discover how your students can demonstrate deeper learning of academic content and develop personal success skills by maximizing time, place, and pace of learning with this roadmap for your CBE journey.
Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables
Foreword
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction
Chapter 1: The WHAT, the WHY, and the HOW of CBE
1.1 A Historical Look at the WHAT and WHY of Competency-Based Education
1.2 Considering the HOW that Connects With Your School’s WHY
1.3 Start by Examining the Traditional Education Framework
1.4 Shifts in Moving From Traditional Education to CBE
1.5 Getting Started on Your CBE Journey
Chapter 2: Making Organizational Shifts
2.1 Organizational Shift 1: Policy
2.2 Organizational Shift 2: Leadership
2.3 Organizational Shift 3: Professional Culture
2.4 Organizational Shift 4: Professional Learning
2.5 Developing CBE Assessment Policies and Practices
Chapter 3: Making Shifts in Teaching and Learning Structures
3.1 Establishing Rigorous Goals for Learning: Competencies
3.2 A Range of Performance Assessment Types
3.3 Evidence-Based Grading in CBE Systems
3.4 Evidence-Based Grading and the Body of Evidence (BOE)
3.5 CBE Development and Validation Tools and Processes
Chapter 4: Making the Shift to Student-Centered Classrooms
4.1 Changing Mindsets: Roles, Responsibilities, and Classroom Culture
4.2 Integrating Personalized Core Instruction With Competencies of Deeper Learning
4.3 Applying Instructional Practices to CBE Learning Cycles
4.4 Promoting Intrinsic Motivation and Engagement Through Assessments and Timely Feedback
Appendix A: CBE Tools 1–12
Appendix B: Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrices #1–#5D
Appendix C: Recommended Resources to Support CBE Implementation
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Journal Entries
About the Author :
Karin Hess, author of the Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix, is a former classroom teacher and school administrator with over 40 years of deep experience in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Dr. Hess is recognized internationally as a leader in developing practical approaches for using cognitive rigor, depth of knowledge, and learning progressions as the foundation for curriculum design and assessments at all levels of assessment systems, from developing local assessment systems to state-level grade-level standards and test specifications for large-scale state assessments. Over the years, she has contributed to Maine’s early thinking about how to structure requirements for assessing high school graduation exhibitions and has provided technical assistance to Science Exemplars in the development and annotation of K-8 science performance tasks (www.exemplars.com), to the Center for Collaborative Education’s Quality Performance Assessment (QPA) initiative, and to Benchmark Education’s Ready to Advance curriculum for Pre-K, using learning progressions in curriculum and assessment design. Her most recent publications include a chapter in the second edition of Fundamentals of Literacy Instruction and Assessment, Pre-K–6 (Hougen & Smartt, Eds., Paul Brookes Publishing, 2020) and A Local Assessment Toolkit to Promote Deeper Learning: Transforming Research into Practice (Corwin, 2018). Karin’s ongoing CBE work has included guiding the development and implementation of New Hampshire’s K–12 Model Competencies and supporting school districts throughout the United States in creating and analyzing the effective use of performance scales and high-quality performance assessments for competency-based learning.
Rose Colby is a nationally recognized Competency-Based Learning and Assessment Specialist, assisting schools in designing high quality competency, assessment, and grading reform systems in many states. She is a Talent Cloud Fellow for 2Revolutions, an education design firm. She is a member of the national Advisory Board and contributor to CompetencyWorks, the national clearinghouse and resource for innovative practices in competency education. She has served as Competency Education Consultant for the N.H. Department of Education supporting school districts as they develop their competency education systems and in designing and supporting the new state accountability pilot system, the New Hampshire Performance Assessment for Competency Education (NH PACE). She is an Adjunct Professor at Southern New Hampshire University in the Masters/CAGS program in Competency Education. Rose is the author of two books on Competency Education: Competency-Based Education: A New Architecture for K-12 Schooling (Harvard Education Press, 2017) and Off the Clock: Moving Education from Time to Competency (Corwin, 2012.)
Daniel Joseph is the founder of CBE Solutions, an organization that supports districts in the strategic transformational shift from traditional, time-based education to personalized competency-based systems of teaching and learning. Promoting systems level change, by engaging shareholders, building capacity through continuous improvement and aligned intentional instruction. Daniel strives to provide the knowledge, tools and processes to promote the depth of change needed to realize the vision of learning for all students. Daniel’s practical experience in the arenas of public will, policy, and practice provide direction to schools working towards sustained growth and progress. His involvement with a state level task force in the State of Maine, “Proficiency Based Diploma- Strategic Task Force” provided support for the systemic change in both practice and policy. In addition to state level engagement, Daniel also was the representative and building based leader for his school district which was part of the (ILN) Innovation Lab Network, CCSSO. Prior to founding CBE Solutions, he supported districts across the country in developing personal mastery systems of learning for Marzano Research and Reinventing School Coalition. Daniel teaches graduate level courses as an adjunct faculty member at Southern New Hampshire University and Saint Joseph’s College of Maine.
Review :
"The beauty and professional appeal of competency-based education (CBE) is that it emphasizes more than just academic success; it places equal value on the vitally important element of students’ personal success. In Deeper Competency-Based Learning, co-authors Hess, Colby, and Joseph have created a richly detailed CBE roadmap that any school system can confidently follow to significantly transform their classrooms and make a greater impact on student learning. Helping educators make the often-challenging shift from the traditional teacher-centered instructional model to the learner-centered model can become, for readers, an exciting journey. This powerful book, illustrated with chapter-specific tools, resources, and educator examples, is your trusted ‘tour guide’ for making this noble vision of a dynamic, learner-centered school system an ultimate reality."
"Deeper Competency-Based Learning takes the current ′caterpillar′ state of education, where we are beginning to recognize that individualized, personalized learning is key in student success, and provides the wings—the tools and guidance necessary to transform the caterpillar into the butterfly. This book is not a ′quick fix′ for a classroom problem. It is a transformation of education—the transformation that is critical to meeting students where they are, guiding them through the learning challenges of both academic and interpersonal/intrapersonal skills, and then confidently preparing students for what lies ahead."
"Finally, a primer on competency-based education that understands that every school is unique in the same way that every student will take personalized pathways as he or she learns! The authors provide a comprehensive guide for districts and schools to use in plotting their journey to competency education. One thing that makes this book so valuable and unique is that it is rooted in effective practices identified in John Hattie’s Visible Learning research. This is a book that you can trust to help you chart your course."
"Hess, Colby, and Joseph’s new book, Deeper Competency-Based Learning, is nothing less than extraordinary, timely, and necessary as the nation questions the validity of traditional educational systems and their impact on student achievement and potential. Business and industry must respond to ever-changing advances in technology and information if they are to remain competitive; however, the nation’s traditional education system has remained stagnant until now. This book reveals a teaching and learning instructional model known as competency-based education (CBE), which predominantly focuses on students mastering competencies through performance-based tasks, projects, and collection of evidence of learning. Students′ learning is made visible to them and the power of a CBE system becomes exponential for optimizing student potential. This book is enlightening, proactive, and much-needed for student learners in the 21st century. Kudos to all educators who empower students to learn through competency-based educational systems."
"It is clear to me that this new book will be a major step forward for US educators seeking to transform their systems of teaching and learning to one that provides equitable and practical access for every student. As the authors point out in the introduction, ′the work of transforming to competency-based education is complex, requiring major shifts away from the conventional organizational structures of schools and away from many less-effective teaching and learning structures towards student-centered classrooms.′ This approach is just right: Competency-based education requires major changes organizationally, however, these shifts must be grounded in transformed experiences of the learner and also of the teacher in the classroom first, and each additional change must support that experience through new structures and reformed culture."
"I recommend this book for anyone looking to begin or continue your work around competency-based education in your district. This is an easy to read, comprehensive guide to implementation with resources, examples, and several entry points."
