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For many, the promise of CBE and related practices is that student achievement will improve and minimize equity gaps. This systematic review serves to amplify what is known about CBE approaches and what still needs investigation.

Based on reports created for the 2017 National Summit on K-12 Competency-Based Education, this article explores how educators can take action to build momentum for and implement competency education and performance assessment. As a guide to taking action, the article provides the following: (1) links to the four framing reports from the Summit; (2) six key issues in performance assessment that emerged from the discussions of the framing reports at the conference, listed under the relevant report; and (3) suggestions for relating these concepts to educators' work through close reading of parts of the text and sample discussion questions, in a methodology often referred to as a text-based protocol. The four framing reports include: (1) In Pursuit of Equality: A Framework for Equity Strategies in Personalized, Competency-Based Education (Chris Sturgis with contributions from Ashley Jones); (2) Meeting Students Where They Are (Antonia Rudenstine, Sydney Schaef, and Dixie Bacallao); (3) Fit for Purpose: Taking the Long View on Systems Change and Policy to Support Competency Education (Susan Patrick, Maria Worthen, Natalie Truong, and Dale Frost); and (4) In Search of Efficacy: Defining the Elements of Quality in a Competency-Based Education System

The present paper offers a competency-based approach to evaluate high school laboratory skills during a chemistry course. The "Secretaría de Educación Pública" (Mexico's Ministry of Education) has identified experimental sciences specific competencies that are to be established in high school. This study investigated the following competencies: Formulating scientific questions, posing hypothesis, obtaining and registering information, applying safety norms in handling substances, materials and equipment, conducting practical activities appropriately in the laboratory, handling residues, collecting qualitative and quantitative data, contrasting results, communicating conclusions, and documenting information sources. An assessment tool where the students' level of achievements was created. This assessment tool evaluated these competencies by considering the curriculum and the students' graduate profile. Results indicated that by having a consistent evaluation plan and providing students with effective feedback, the students competency levels addressed in laboratory practical's can be improved significantly.

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Assessment is vital for a quality physical education program and for students' development toward becoming lifelong movers. The purpose of this article is to explore proficiency-based learning and evidence-based grading as assessment strategies that are both timely and meaningful. This article will first explain proficiency-based learning and evidence-based grading and how these two strategies complement each other to allow for well-rounded assessment to occur in physical education programs. Then it will provide examples demonstrating how these two strategies can be utilized in a physical education unit focused on nutrition and on the five components of health-related fitness: cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, body composition, and flexibility. These strategies provide physical education teachers guidance toward best practices in assessment, as well as proof of student learning.

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Standards-based accountability (SBA) has been a primary driver of education policy in the United States for several decades. Although definitions of SBA vary, it typically includes standards that indicate what students are expected to know and be able to do, measures of student attainment of the standards, targets for performance on those measures, and a set of consequences for schools or educations based on performance. Research on SBA indicates that these policies have led to some of the consequences its advocates had hoped to achieve, such as an emphasis on equity and alignment of curriculum within and across grade levels, but that it has also produced some less desirable outcomes. This article summarizes the research on SBA in three areas: quality of standards, ways in which SBA has shaped educators’ practices, and effects on student achievement. The article identifies lessons learned from the implication of SBA in the United States and provides guidance for developing SBA systems that could promote beneficial outcomes for students.

This paper explores the methodology and application of an assessment philosophy known as standards-based grading, via a critical comparison of standards-based grading to other assessment philosophies commonly employed at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels of education. Evidenced by examples of increased student engagement and more thorough comprehension of course materials, standards-based grading is illustrated as an effective replacement for conventional points-based grading. The analysis also identifies and responds to common issues and concerns inherent in the application of standards-based grading, and includes a review of relevant literature and research in support of standards-based grading as a progressive and successful alternative to more conventional assessment philosophies.

How do proficiency-based accountability systems affect inequality in academic achievement? This article reconciles mixed findings in the literature by demonstrating that three factors jointly determine accountability’s impact. First, by analyzing student-level data from a large urban school district, we find that when educators face accountability pressure, they focus attention on students closest to proficiency. We refer to this practice as educational triage and show that the difficulty of the proficiency standard affects whether lower or higher performing students gain most on high-stakes tests used to evaluate schools. Less difficult proficiency standards decrease inequality in high-stakes achievement, while more difficult standards increase it. Second, we show that educators emphasize test-specific skills with students near proficiency, a practice we refer to as instructional triage. As a result, the effects of accountability pressure differ across high- and low-stakes tests; we find no effects on inequality in low-stakes reading and math tests of similar skills. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that instructional triage is most pronounced in the lowest performing schools. We conclude by discussing how these findings shape our understanding of accountability’s effects on educational inequality.

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Personalized learning refers to a collection of practices designed to place student interests and needs at the heart of schooling. Schools that implement personalized learning need leaders that support educators and students in redesigning the core practices of teaching and learning in K-12 schools. To answer the question of how leaders support this redesign, we use distributed leadership theory to focus on the macrotasks and microtasks that leaders enact to create the conditions for personalized learning practices. Drawing on a five-year, qualitative study of 11 personalized learning programs in the Midwest, we identify three macrotasks supporting personalized learning: reorganizing learning environments to support student voice and choice, assembling idiosyncratic technology ecosystems to distribute teaching and learning tasks, and redesigning instructional time to prioritize student's interests, agency, and learning relationships. After we describe a number of microtasks associated with each macrotask, we discuss how a consideration of these kinds of leadership tasks can open the contemporary discussion of personalized learning from a narrow focus on learning technologies to an expansive vision of student-centered school reform.

The education system of the United States is not adequately preparing a large proportion of its students for college, career-training, and, ultimately, jobs that provide enough income to support a middle class standard of living. Because the education system has failed to attain hoped-for outcomes, some states are investigating new systems, including competency-based education (CBE). A model based on CBE starts by assessing what a student knows and then allows that student to advance at a pace that reflects his or her knowledge and skills. In the process, CBE encourages student success by providing targeted learning support, thereby creating a more personalized educational experience. Once in higher education or job training, CBE allows older students (traditional-age college students or adult learners) to learn on their own time at their own pace. As competency-based pilot projects are developed in kindergarten to high school classrooms and schools (K-12) and higher education institutions, policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels are discussing options about how to support and expand CBE in both K-12 and higher education, as well as strengthen the bridge between the two systems. CBE has the potential to improve the education system of the United States by allowing more students to receive the support they need when they need it to learn effectively and master the desired content and skills, and governors are in a position to bring these efforts together and explore the transition from an education system that holds time constant and varies what students learn to a CBE system that varies time but holds content mastery constant. The promise of such a system is that it can adjust the methods of instruction and assistance to provide deeper, more personalized learning and help ensure that all students meet or exceed the high expectations of rigorous and relevant standards.

Competency education is attracting significant interest as a promising way to help meet our national priority of ensuring that all young people are ready for college and careers. In competency-based schools, students advance at different rates, based on their ability to demonstrate mastery of learning objectives. Teachers provide customized supports to help propel everyone to proficiency. This is the first paper in Students at the Center's new Competency Education Research Series. It lays a foundation for assessing the potential of competency-based models, grounded in an exploration of the outcomes from previous like-minded efforts. Recent research and theory from the learning sciences shows that a personalized approach to competency education may help better prepare all students from all backgrounds for deeper learning and for life after graduation. New information technologies are making it feasible to try these strategies on a large scale. Putting in place an equitable system necessitates navigating the many--but far from insurmountable--political and implementation challenges facing personalized competency education.

Personalized learning (PL) is spotlighted as a way to transform K-12 educational systems. PL customizes learning pace, instructional methods, and learning content to individual students. As much as PL sounds promising and complex, little guidance is available to educators and policymakers about how to effectively design PL. Five essential features are identified through a literature review: (1) personalized learning plan, (2) project-or problem-based learning, (3) competency-based student progress, (4) criterion-referenced assessment for ensuring student learning, and (5) multi-year mentoring of students by a teacher. This article discusses the educational benefits and design principles of each feature.

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Drawing on national and state assessment datasets in reading and math, this study tested “external” versus “internal” standards-based education models. The goal was to understand whether and how student performance standards work in multilayered school systems under No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Under the “external” model, states’ common standards shape teachers’ standards which, in turn, affect student achievement. Under the “internal” model, teacher standards are insulated from state standards but instead influenced by prior student achievement and background characteristics in classrooms. The study employed multilevel analysis and instrumental variable analysis with fixed effects. Findings provided support for the internal as opposed to the external model. The linkage between state standards and teacher standards was tenuous, whereas the linkage between teacher standards and student achievement was solid and reciprocal. Further, students’ gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) had direct and/or indirect influences on teacher standards through achievement gaps. Implications for research and policy were discussed.

Grading and reporting are foundational elements in nearly every educational system. Grading represents teachers’ evaluations, formative or summative, of students’ performance. Reporting is how the results of those evaluations are communicated to students, parents, or others. Because of their fundamental nature, educators must ensure that grading and reporting always meet the criteria for validity and reliability. And because of their primary communication purpose, educators must also ensure that grading and reporting are meaningful, accurate, and fair.

In recent years, most U.S. states have revised policy by providing schools at least some flexibility to move away from the Carnegie unit system, with its focus on credits and “seat time,” toward competency-based policies that link student advancement to mastery of content. Yet, there is little systematically collected information about how competency-based education is implemented, making it difficult to evaluate the impact on student outcomes. Using data from 600 students in grades 9-12 and confirmatory factor analytic techniques, we report initial reliability and validity results from the pilot administration of a survey designed to capture student exposure to elements that have been described as essential to a competency-based, student-centered model for learning and instruction. These elements include mastery-based progression, personalization, flexible assessment, and the development of specific skills and dispositions. Results suggest that the survey offers a way to reliably measure and study variation in the implementation of competency-based education. Importantly, the survey provides a way to capture implementation from the student perspective, leveraging the fact that student reports about their classroom experiences may be a particularly reliable source of information about instructional practice.

Research has shown that there are positive associations between students’goals and learningbehavior. However, less is known about these associations for adolescent students in competency-based learning compared to adolescent students in teacher-directed learning. The current studywas conceptualized with the aim of getting more in-depth information about competency-basedlearning with a competency matrix based on trait-based scales for students’self-assessment vs.teacher-directed learning. The sample consists of 846 (Mage¼14.06; SD¼0.94) middle adolescentstudents (8th-9thgrades) from secondary schools in Germany. By using latent mean comparison andmultigroup structural equation modelling in Mplus, it could be shown that the association betweenmastery goals and learning behavior is stronger in competency-based learning and performance-approach goals have a positive effect to effort investment. Furthermore, students of competency-based learning report higher values in mastery goals, effort investment and elaboration.

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Grading according to standards, competencies, or concepts is nothing new. With the current grading system gaining more scrutiny, parts of the basic framework of how we grade students are being questioned. Stephens (2010) and Marzano and Heflebower (2011) reinforced the notion that homework, behavior, attendance, notebooks, and group work should not be factored into a student's grade. Standards-based grading allows students to be graded solely on mastery of course content, which can lead to student motivation and a meaningful learning relationship. As family and consumer sciences educators, we need to demonstrate to students the standards under which they will be evaluated in the professional and postsecondary world.

The research was aimed to investigate the effect of various, innovated teaching models to improved the student's achievement in various topic in Mathematics. The study was conduct experiment by using innovated teaching with contextual, media and web which are the compared. with conventional teaching method. The result showed the innovation in the teaching by using media and web were found very effective and improving the ability of the student to understand the concept of mathematics. Student achievement in the teaching of Mathematics with the aid of Contextual was found higher the teaching the same topic by using Conventional method. Where the data analysis has shown that two methods are significantly differences. Students achievement with another innovated teaching method by using of web for the teaching distillation was found higher than that with conventional method, where the data analysis has shown that the two methods were significantly difference.

Competency education, an educator-led reform, is taking root in schools and districts across the country. In some states, state leadership has cleared the path with policies to advance competency education. This paper seeks to map out the terrain of the district implementation strategies being used to convert traditional systems into personalized, competency-based ones. Although not a detailed guide, the hope is that the discussion offered here will prepare you to begin the transformational process. Four stages of implementation are proposed in this paper: (1) Ramping Up for Transformation; (2) Designing the Infrastructure for Learning; (3) Transitioning to a Competency- Based System; and (4) Embracing Continuous Improvement and Innovation. Schools and their district offices work in partnership during this transformation, which means implementation issues at both levels will be discussed. The findings in this paper are based on interviews and site visits conducted over the past five years as well as the knowledge shared by leaders in the field at CompetencyWorks.

In order to be successful in the 21st century, students will need to master an expanded set of competencies that extends beyond discrete academic standards. Competency-based education (CBE) is an educational approach that focuses on mastery of these competencies -- rather than seat time -- as a measure of student learning. This approach is being adopted by a growing number of educators focused on ensuring students graduate college and career ready. States engaged in CBE initiatives need to ensure that their efforts do not inadvertently promote "shallow" learning by equating "competency" only with the mastery of academic content. True competence is deeper, broader and more personal. It includes academics, but it also includes a wide range of other cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, and dispositions that higher education institutions and employers value and demand. This brief from the CCRS Center, the Great Lakes and Midwest Regional Deeper Learning Initiative, and the Center on Innovations in Learning explores how states and districts can define learner competencies that reflect the full range of knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for students to achieve college and career readiness. [This report was also produced by the Great Lakes & Midwest Regional Deeper Learning Initiative at American Institutes for Research.]

Learning goals such as the Common Core State Standards are helping educational leaders to better understand the critical role assessment and grading plays in the teaching and learning process. In response to the growing body of empirical research on the topic of accurate grading practices, a number of schools are moving away from letter grades and adopting standards-based grading which separately report learning goals from work habits. The purpose of this essay is to document what works when K-12 schools implement standards-based grading through a deep dive into related literature and to suggest areas for future consideration. With this improvement to educational systems on the horizon, K-12 teachers and administrators in the early stages of redesigning their grading practices will benefit from understanding the successes and struggles of early adopters in order to successfully reform grading in their own context.