“Education is the way to move mountains, to build bridges, to change the world.” Oprah Winfrey
THE JOURNEY Competency-Based Education (CBE) is a system of instruction, assessment, grading, and academic reporting that makes learning goals and expectations clear and easily understood by teachers, students, and families. This transparency ensures that all students and their support teams have access to monitor progress toward proficiency and offer appropriate support as needed. CBE is designed to accurately identify the level of student understanding, allowing students to progress as they demonstrate mastery of the academic content, regardless of time, place, or pace of learning. CBE focuses solely on student learning by articulating precisely what students need to be able to do and know and mastery of skills rather than completion of tasks. CBE’s focus is to meet students where they are and provide a path forward. The journey to a Competency-Based Education system has been slowly gaining traction over the last several years through a number of past and current initiatives to improve teaching and learning. During this school year, we have been phasing in the system by having a number of our teachers pilot CBE and an aligned gradebook. Our goal is to have CBE fully implemented in each classroom by the Fall of 2024; however, the details of gradebooks, etc., will continue to be finalized based on feedback from the groups piloting the program. This newsletter will contain a page of CBE information and articles as a resource for the remainder of this year and into the next school year.
WORK DONE IN FALL 2023 As mentioned, many of our teachers have piloted CBE and the gradebook, Empower, during the Fall Term and more have been preparing to continue the pilot in the Spring. Professional development for teachers and counselors has been and will continue to be ongoing throughout the school year. At these meetings, they have been working on creating Proficiency Scales for each academic department/course, as well as teaching strategies and utilizing Empower. We have over 120 teachers and staff working diligently to help make the full transition to CBE a smooth and effective process. RESOURCES PUHSD and school websites have a dedicated page about CBE which contain a lot of information and resources. PUHSD Webpage Please be sure to listen to all of the podcasts, but especially the episodes that contain information about CBE. There are many useful episodes on how CBE helps students be successful as they leave one class and move on to the next. “The Point” Podcast "Competency-Based Education (CBE) makes the learning expectations clear, so students have a role in designing and executing learning plans intended to develop a mindset and skillset of success. All learners in this system will believe they have the ability, based on their capacity, to shape their lives. CBE uses a system of highly coordinated, evidence- based instructional and assessment strategies that, when executed together, have a combined effect greater than the sum of their parts." -Dr. Robert Marzano
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