CompetencyWorks released An International Study in Competency Education: Postcards from Abroad in October. You can access the archived webinar and additional resources here. We also just learned about the Common Ground Project based in Brussels, offering a slightly different way of framing competency education. (See Our Learning EcoSystem.)

Resources and Blogs

• What Happens When Students Control Their Own Education? in the Atlantic Magazine looks at Pittsfield School District. (See our 4-part series on Pittsfield.)
• Two powerful papers (A New Era for Assessment by David Conley and Accountability for College and Career Readiness: Developing a New Paradigm by Linda Darling-Hammond,Gene Wilhoit, and Linda Pittenger) are reshaping how our nation can approach assessment and accountability.
• Check out So You Think You Want to Innovate? Emerging Lessons and a New Tool for State and District Leaders Working to Build a Culture of Innovation by 2Revolutions and The Learning Accelerator.

• Next Gen Tools: Matchbook Learning’s “Spark” highlights Spark, a data integration tool created to support Matchbook Learning’s student-centered, mastery-based, blended learning model.
• Growth vs Mastery is by Shayla Adams, a U.S. History teacher at Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School in Northeast Washington, D.C. The article appears on Blend My Learning.
• For principals, there are several resources on leadership. Virgel Hammonds shares his insights in leading competency-based schools at CompetencyWorks, and Getting Smart has published two pieces: Next Gen Principal Prep: Blended, Personalized, Competency-based and Preparing Principals: Consider the Adaptive Challenge.
• Interested in brain science? Neuroscience & the Classroom was developed by the Annenberg Learner (thanks to Students at the Center for bringing this to our attention).

Update from States

• North Carolina is showing interest in competency education. They are organizing a meeting, Preparing Educators for the Competency Learning Revolution, in December.
• Across Maine, districts are considering how to move toward the proficiency-based diploma. The SAD 17 school board is discussing how to make sure all students are proficient in a world language. Lewiston is moving forward step by step in proficiency-based learning. Other districts, such as  Scarborough School Department, have asked for extensions to ensure that they have to time to implement effectively. Check out the piece Proficiency-based Education to Change Teaching Methods on WCSH news for ideas about how to talk about proficiency-based education.

 Upcoming

• REL Central Webinar,  Secondary Mathematics Learning Progressions: Integrated Pathways and a Systematic Review Process for Materials will be November 6, 2014 (11:30 – 12:00 pm Mountain/12:30 – 1:00 pm Central).