many high schools, the concept of a freshman academy (or ninth-grade small learning community) is an example of an effective way a school focused on competency-based learning can use collaborative teacher teams to group students. Souhegan High School (n.d.) in Amherst, New Hampshire, uses such a concept. In its model, teams in one area of the building (part of an organizational structure it calls Division I) schedule students in grades 9 and 10. The teams are called 9A, 9B, 10Y, and 10Z and share common teaching areas separated by an accordion wall, which allows for flexible collaboration space. The team structure promotes a strong sense of community and encourages the development of meaningful relationships between adults and students, and between peers. Each team consists of a teacher from English, social studies, science, and mathematics, and a reading specialist. Teachers collaborate on all aspects of planning and preparation, curriculum and instruction, and assessment and grading. Each collaborative teacher team also has access to guidance counselors and special educators to assist in their efforts to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of each student on the team. There is also a support period known as saber support that allows teachers to provide personalized preteaching, reteaching, intervention, or enrichment options for students as needed.
Offer Recovery Options for Students Who Aren’t Successful the First Time
Schools that focus on competency-based learning believe that failure is not an option. All students can learn, and all students must reach competency. It is simply not good enough to allow a student to fail a course or an individual course competency and not provide him or her with recovery options. Failures represent gaps in student understanding, and if not addressed, these gaps will get wider and wider. In a perfect world, no student would ever reach the point of failure in a course. Helping a student recover a course after he or she has already failed is as effective as using an autopsy to determine what is wrong with someone in an effort to keep him or her alive. Once a student has failed, it is too late. It is far better to work with students who are failing while there is still time to recover the credit, much like it is easier for a medical professional to discover a potential life-threatening medical condition through preventative screening.
In a competency-based learning system there is always time because time is not the constant that dictates when learning can occur. This does not mean that schools need to move away from time-bound organizational structures such as school years, terms, or semesters. It is acceptable to assign students to a grade level or course for a set period of time. The question becomes, What will a school do for a student who has not reached competency by the end of the course? Schools must have recovery options for these students.
Elementary schools focused on competency-based learning can achieve recovery with additional targeted instruction during the summer or during the next school year. At middle and high schools, courses are tied to credit, so students receive credit for a course only when they have demonstrated mastery in each of the course competencies. If that doesn’t happen, students are placed in an appropriate competency-recovery program, which could take many forms—from summer work to online learning or a blended model that includes both. Oftentimes, students must reach mastery before they are allowed to continue to the next course of study.
Learning Outcomes Emphasize Competencies That Include Application and Creation of Knowledge, Along With the Development of Important Skills and Dispositions
All educators have had students who did well not because they mastered the material, but rather because they learned how to play “the game of school.” They may not be the best test-takers, but they come to class each day with the right attitude and their homework complete, and they make sure to raise their hands every day to ask important questions or contribute to a class discussion or activity. Subconsciously, teachers look out for these students. They exhibit the behaviors and dispositions that teachers want all students to exhibit. Teachers find ways to weave these behaviors into these students’ grades, sometimes without even realizing it. By doing this, teachers create grades that are no longer a pure representation of what it is the students know and are able to do.
In schools focused on competency-based learning, the fundamental purpose of grading is to communicate student achievement toward mastery of learning targets and standards. Grades represent what students learn, not what they earn.
In schools focused on competency-based learning, the fundamental purpose of grading is to communicate student achievement toward mastery of learning targets and standards. Grades represent what students learn, not what they earn. Academic grades must be separate from academic behaviors. These behaviors are critical to academic achievement, but commingling them with academic grades does not provide an accurate picture of the students’ achievement levels with their academic course competencies. For much of this chapter, we focused on the importance of learning outcomes that emphasize competencies, including the application and creation of knowledge.
Competencies That Address Important Skills and Dispositions
Now, we turn our attention to the importance of competencies that address the development of important skills and dispositions. The New Hampshire Department of Education (2014) provides a foundation for this work:
New Hampshire’s system of educator support should promote the capacity of educators to deeply engage students in learning rigorous and meaningful knowledge, skills, and Work-Study Practices for success in college, career, and citizenship…. Work-Study Practices [are] those behaviors that enhance learning achievement and promote a positive work ethic such as, but not limited to, listening and following directions, accepting responsibility, staying on task, completing work accurately, managing time wisely, showing initiative, and being cooperative. (p. 1)
From there, the department identifies four overarching work-study practices that could be embedded in any school, at any grade level, in any course of study (New Hampshire Department of Education, 2014):
1. Communication: I can use various media to interpret, question, and express knowledge, information, ideas, feelings, and reasoning to create mutual understanding.
2. Creativity: I can use original and flexible thinking to communicate my ideas or construct a unique product or solution.
3. Collaboration: I can work in diverse groups to achieve a common goal.
4. Self-Direction: I can initiate and manage my learning, and demonstrate a “growth” mindset, through self-awareness, self-motivation, self-control, self-advocacy and adaptability as a reflective learner. (p. 2)
Effective competency-based learning schools adapt these skills and dispositions into their competencies. They create rubrics for different grade levels and courses and develop assessment strategies so the competencies are regularly assessed, with progress reported to students and parents. Even more powerful, teachers are focusing instruction on how each student can individually develop further within specific work-study practices, and students are well aware of their own needs related to these important skills and dispositions. By embedding these work-study practices and dispositions into different aspects of a competency-based learning program, they take on more relevance for students. This ultimately helps students on the road to becoming college and career ready.
Reflection Questions
According to Sturgis (2015), competency-based learning models have five components. To start thinking about how to apply this model to your school’s current situation, consider the following five reflection questions with your team.
