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Free iNACOL Webinar to Explore K-12 Competency Education

  • 03/17/16

Washington, D.C.  – On Wednesday, April 20, 2016, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) is hosting a Special Edition webinar as an introduction to K-12 competency education, by sharing foundational elements and exploring public school models that meet students where they are and ensure mastery of high standards for all students. The webinar will highlight promising practices from leaders and practitioners on the frontier of the next generation of teaching and learning through competency education.

Competency education is an educator-led reform and is taking root in schools and districts across the country. The concept behind competency education is simple: learning is best measured by students demonstrating mastery of learning targets—and students advance upon mastery through a “performance” of what a student knows and can do—rather than just the number of hours spent in a classroom on a given subject.

The co-founders of CompetencyWorks, Susan Patrick, iNACOL President and CEO, and Chris Sturgis, MetisNet, will share competency education’s design elements and structural underpinnings. To understand how these elements are implemented by educators in districts and schools, this webinar will highlight emerging competency education models. Dr. Kristen Brittingham, Director of Personalized Learning, will introduce the model in development at Charleston County School District, South Carolina, and Sydney Schaef will share the model being designed at Building 21 in Pennsylvania. Virgel Hammonds, Chief Learning Officer at KnowledgeWorks, will then discuss why educators and communities want to convert to a competency-based structure, and he will share his experiences from Lindsay Unified School District and RSU2, and as Chief Learning Officer at KnowledgeWorks.

“By focusing on empowering educators to personalize instruction for each student’s needs, students advancing on competency-based progressions are experiencing powerful learning experiences,” said Susan Patrick. “Districts and schools throughout the United States and around the world are fundamentally transforming K-12 education by designing new, powerful personalized learning models, structured within competency education systems to ensure all students master core learning objectives. By redesigning the education system around actual student learning and building educator capacity, we will work together to effectively prepare each student for college and career in an increasingly global and competitive economy.”

This webinar is free to attend—participants are invited to register at www.inacol.org/event/what-is-competency-based-education/ for final details and login information.

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