Summary
Central Rivers AEA is helping school partners vision and plan for moves toward a more learner-focused instructional model. For more information, contact a regional administrator or school improvement consultant.
The state of Iowa has had Competency-based Education (CBE) Pathways in code since 2012, yet many schools are unaware of the option as a way to provide flexibility and increase authentic learning experiences for students. In short, CBE is a system that focuses on the students’ proficiency of knowledge and skills – their learning – as a way to move through the system rather than the age of the child or how long they received instruction.
To understand what CBE is, here are some videos to help set the stage:
- Competency-based vs traditional system Office for Innovation in Education, 1 minute
- Competency-based Education: Focus on Learning Digital Promise, 3 minutes
- Competency-based Learning: Developing Mastery of Skills and Content  Edutopia, 5 minutes
To highlight the differences, a blog post about mastery learning, a name that is synonymous with CBE, has a visual that lays out the differences in scheduling, instruction, assessment, grades and reporting, and earning credits in a traditional system and one that employs the principles of CBE.
Information about CBE in Iowa can be found on the Iowa Department of Education’s website and includes the following 5 principles.
By focusing on learning, implementing CBE principles allows a system to support learning for each student, having them advance only as they demonstrate proficiency. This may mean a student needs more time, more intensive instruction for some concepts than others. It means that we are paying attention to how students learn rather than placing them on a conveyor belt of instruction.
Central Rivers AEA is helping school partners vision and plan for moves toward a more learner-focused instructional model. For more information, contact a regional administrator or school improvement consultant.