Posts by Chris Sturgis
Competency-Based Education
Building Community Consensus for District Change
I visited Mesa County Valley School District 51 in Colorado for a week to observe its shift to competency-based education. Here are highlights on how leadership is building consensus and shaping community engagement for input on changes.
Leadership
Catalyzing Mastery-Based Learning: NYC’s Mastery Collaborative
As part of my NYC Mastering Mastery-Based Learning tour series, this blog discusses how the NYC Department of Education created the Mastery Collaborative to support schools ready to take on the new frontier of mastery-based learning.
Leadership
Part 1: What Does it REALLY Mean to Do Standards-Based Grading?
The first blog in a two part series exploring how a district can implement high quality standards-based grading, and when it is the right time to do so.
Leadership
Looking Under the Hood
A review of the AIR and NMEF research study that examines the relationship between CBE practices and changes in learning capacities, such as the skills, behaviors and dispositions that enhance student capacity to learn in school.
Leadership
Five Things for Big Districts to Think About
After speaking with district leaders, here are five thoughts on how big districts can move forward toward personalized, competency-based education.
Uncategorized
Multiple Pathways to Competency-Based Education?
Competency education is a paradigm shift – it is a change in the underlying assumptions. This means there has to be a way to shake off the old assumptions, which is tricky to do when all of us have grown up in the traditional education system.
Personalized Learning
A Reflection on the Field of Competency Education
By: Chris Sturgis. In perhaps the year's best blog on competency education, we examine the expansion of CompetencyEd, progress by leading organizations, the greatest weakness currently in the field and current Issues going forward.
Difference Making
Doing It Yourself: From Independent Learning Plans to Organizing Your Instructional Path
By: Chris Sturgis. Through competency-based models students take responsibility and ownership of their journey to a career of their choosing. This is what GenDIY is all about, students creating, designing, and owning their education.
Leadership
Preparing for Conversations with Parents
Designing conversations with parents about their student's academic levels, pace, and progress in competency-based education and helping parents and their students appreciate the value of personalized learning. emphasis on personalized learning based on where students are in their learning
Personalized Learning
Optimizing Personalized, Blended, Competency-based Schools
Wouldn’t teachers start to have those “what if” moments at lunch or walking in from the parking lot about how they could combine different elements of the different strands of innovation. Wouldn’t students start to bring ideas between classrooms about how their project-based learning could really benefit from having access to some of the resources on-line or how they might be able to create more deeper learning projects if once a week there was a three-hour open period to work on projects so they could get o they could get 4′s not just 3′s for “grades”?