Competency Works! Leading Competency-Based Learning Initiatives

In Grading for Equity, Joe Feldman makes the case that the traditional grading schemes which often rely on “grad[ing] behaviors based on subjective interpretation . . . [are] a recipe for inequality” (2009, p. 41). Competency-based education is an approach to learning that ensures all learners develop explicitly defined, measurable, and transferable essential skills and dispositions by making continuous progress toward competency (also known and referred to as mastery). Even when a school (or a teacher) has made the decision to address such inequities, however, the question of how to move from a traditional, deficit-based grading system (with accompanying pedagogies) to an authentic, skills-based, student-centered approach is not an easy one. Indeed, the 2018–19 NAIS Trendbook (the last one published pre-pandemic) noted “a growing focus on measuring learning” and a need for schools to investigate “alternative ways of measuring learning” as critical to the future of education in independent schools (Trendbook, 2018, p. 166). This workshop is designed for leaders who are interested in leading and facilitating just this sort of change. In this 6-hour Summer Institute, participants will spend the morning hearing the story of one’s school’s process and learnings, with opportunities for engagement and connection. In the afternoon, individuals and school teams will work to chart a course for their own school’s journey.