Dive Brief:

• Deborah Everhart, vice president of design and innovation at Learning Objects, writes for eSchool News that schools need to be clear about the difference between competency-based education programs and competency-based learning strategies.
• Everhart says CBL is broader than CBE, referring to learner acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities in any context, even outside of school, and its focus is empowering lifelong learners through CBE as a vehicle.
• Schools considering competency-based programs should start with well-defined competencies and assessments that can measure them, working backward form there, making sure students ultimately understand the value of achieving competencies and can communicate them for greatest impact.

Dive Insight:

Competency-based education has taken off in the higher education realm in recent years as colleges and universities respond to the flexibility needs of returning adult learners, who now make up the majority of the post-secondary student population. At the K-12 level, competency-based education is an important strategy to make learning relevant to students and to give them more agency in their educational journey.

Some parents remain skeptical about competency-based education, a fact that administrators should be aware of as they develop their own programs. But the model fits directly into recent trends toward personalizing education and enabling students to move at their own pace. Educators have to be able to communicate these benefits to ensure buy-in for new programs.