This report analyzes the components of effective competency-based information systems. Based on interviews and research, the ideas portrayed reflect lessons learned, best practices, and emerging opportunities. Read this paper to find role-specific strategies to make informed decisions, support new competency-based learning models, and to catalyze change in education.
Necessary for Success provides insights from state leaders on how to re-engineer policies and practices of our K-12 system. The authors introduce the main concepts behind competency-based learning, and they study important initial steps taken by states in developing this emerging model. Read this report and discover how state leaders create a culture of competency within state agencies.
Keeping Pace with K–12 Digital Learning is the title of this year’s report. Digital learning is replacing the previous reference to online and blended learning. This seemingly small word change signifies a significant evolution in the landscape, and a major change in the way we are analyzing and reporting on it. A bit of history should be helpful in understanding our original focus, and our reason for change.
Keeping Pace with Online Learning was first published in 2004. We chose to focus on the young and disruptive K–12 teacher-led online learning segment, and not the broader education technology segment. At that time, K–12 teacher-led online courses were almost exclusively provided by state-supported virtual schools delivering supplemental online courses, and charter schools where students took all of their courses online. A small but growing number of school districts were also beginning to establish full-time online programs accessible to students regionally and across individual states.
This report provides outcomes-based assurance frameworks, with associated course-level and school-level learning performance metrics, as well as implementation recommendations.
Viewed from the perspectives of online schools, courses, and students, this report suggests principles for reform that will help provide outcomes-based quality assurance to better identify successful schools, address needs of the student populations they serve, and may apply broadly to the ongoing debates about how best to evaluate physical schools as well. This report suggests multiple outcomes-based performance indicators and supporting metrics for quality assurance and effectiveness of online programs and courses.
This paper identifies the following key performance metrics for student learning outcomes:
As the fifth edition in the State of the Nation: K-12 Online Learning in Canada series, author Michael K. Barbour investigates policies that govern Canadian K-12 distance education. Because Canada was one of the first countries to deliver distance-learning courses, Canada proves to be an interesting and compelling exemplar to study.
Through analyzing its thirteen provinces and territories, Canada offers a wealth of relevant comparisons with other countries/regions of similar population. View this report to survey the level of K-12 distance education across Canada and learn of unique trends, challenges, and current issue briefs.
This report provides a detailed look at how mentoring occurs in various virtual school business models. All 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, have supplemental and/or full-time K-12 online programs, and teacher mentoring structures exist in many of these.
The mentoring strategies vary based on specific school criteria. For example, if the virtual school is a supplementary, district-run program, the teachers might be full-time, face-to-face teachers who are teaching one online course per semester. This mentoring program may not be as extensive as one for a teacher who is 100% full-time in a fully online school.
Read this book now to discover specific teacher mentoring strategies for your K-12 online learning environment.
The case studies shared in this report seek to highlight the experiences of leading blended learning practitioners, in particular, those implementing “lab” or “station” blended rotation models. The case studies were designed to address the following areas:
Use this resource to discover the strengths, challenges, and lessons learned by practitioners in the field of blended learning.
Globally, the highest performing nations have competency-based education systems – not systems based on seat time. iNACOL believes in student-centered learning and makes policy recommendations based on doing what is right for kids to have greater access to a world-class education. Authors of this report encourage legislators to adopt the following principles into their education policy:
This report summarizes recommendations for policymakers to transform education into highly personalized, competency-based systems.
The Art and Sciences of Designing Competencies paper discusses how innovators in competency education develop competencies. Often this is referred to as a tuning process or reengineering process – mapping from what we want students to know and be able to do all the way backwards to the choices for curricular tasks and assessments.
This paper provides insights into the orientation and processes that innovators use in designing competencies. Download your version of this report now and explore the reengineering process of developing competencies.
iNACOL released this policy brief providing federal legislators with background information and concrete, actionable recommendations on 5 key issues within student-centered, competency-based education. Online Learning: Top 5 Federal Policy Issues advocates for the following key policy takeaways:
These federal policy recommendations are designed to transform the learning environment toward competency-based systems, where each student has access to a world-class education.
