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"Many students still struggle to graduate on time within traditional school systems, particularly racial and ethnic minority students, English language learners, and students with disabilities. States and schools are shifting their focus to ensure college and career readiness is a realistic and attainable goal for all students. This brief provides an overview of competency-based education (CBE), one model to support college and career readiness for all"

"Why today's interest in competency-based education (CBE)? "Number one, the degree completion agenda period is driving this-the fact that so many states are moving to performance funding, and colleges are feeling drive to help students be successful," says Pamela Tate of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). In addition, "A lot of employers are really pushing for having a clearer idea of what people know and can do in the workplace.""

"We believe every young person deserves a pathway to economic success. That's why we're announcing a new $75 million investment to expand high-quality career-focused education programs that lead to well-paying jobs and long-term careers. Failing to prepare young people with the right skills and education for these jobs is not just a missed opportunity for them-it's a missed opportunity for businesses to hire the talent they need to grow and compete."

"Many states in the Northeast & Islands Region have increasingly begun to view proficiency- or competency-based learning (P/CBL) as a way to boost graduation rates and prepare students for success after high school. In P/CBL approaches, students demonstrate mastery of a defined set of proficiencies or competencies in their courses in lieu of completing credit requirements based on time spent in class. Although many states in the region are adopting P/CBL policies, full implementation of this reform is still in progress, and more information is needed to help states define P/CBL, inform their policymaking, and effectively confront barriers to and leverage facilitators of implementation."

"oin the growing national and regional conversation about proficiency- and competency-based learning, the school and district reform that departs from traditional Carnegie unit and seat-time requirements for students. REL Northeast & Islands researchers will present a new study on definitions and policies related to competency-based learning and implementation across the region, and a representative from the New Hampshire Department of Education will discuss the implementation of a competency-based program in several pilot districts."

"Taking Competency-Based Learning From Policy to Reality"

A briefing series for New England's educational leaders--competency based education; personalization....

"The education model used in many classrooms across our country can find its roots in the 20th century-in which students, organized by age, move at the same time and pace through their learning experience. Yet after decades of research and experiences in the K-12 classroom, coupled with a world where technologies have transformed the opportunities available to us, this system no longer makes much sense. Competency-based education transforms this traditional model. It shifts the focus of learning from time to mastery, from purely summative assessments to formative experiences and most important, creates personalized pathways for each student to move at their own pace and ability to meet their learning needs"

"This paper presents an overview of New Hampshire's efforts to implement a pilot accountability system designed to support deeper learning for students and powerful organization change for schools and districts. The accountability pilot, referred to as Performance Assessment of Competency Education or PACE, is grounded in a competency- based educational approach designed to ensure that students have meaningful opportunities to achieve critical knowledge and skills. These opportunities are judged by the outcomes students achieve and not by inputs such as seat time. Therefore, students must achieve these competencies before moving on to the next major learning targets and/or graduating from high school. High quality performance assessments play a crucial role in the PACE system because of the need to have assessments that measure the depths of student understanding of these complex learning targets. Performance assessments are used as both summative and interim measures in the PACE system as a way to document student learning of the competencies and to support remediation or extension interventions. The paper describes the system of assessments being implemented as part of the PACE pilot as well as providing a discussion of the technical quality issues the state is working to address as part of this accountability pilot. For example, being able to produce valid and comparable annual determinations for all students each year is a considerable technical challenge as well as documenting the degree to which all students are held to the same threshold expectations (equity). The paper concludes by relating the PACE initiative to the push for deeper and more meaningful learning for students. "

"Competency-Based Education Is Working"

"Join the effort to create a high school transcript to transform high school."