Learner Outcomes: Competencies

Getting Smart Resources

What Should Young People Get Really Good At?

This resource from Getting Smart examines the question of what core competencies young people should develop to thrive in a rapidly changing world, moving beyond traditional academic metrics to consider skills, dispositions, and capabilities that matter for life and work. It challenges practitioners and school leaders to rethink how they define and measure student success, offering frameworks and perspectives that can inform curriculum design, instructional priorities, and school-wide outcomes. The resource is particularly relevant for educators engaged in competency-based learning, portrait of a graduate work, or strategic planning around what a school or system truly values and produces. For leaders driving transformation, it provides conceptual grounding and practical language to anchor conversations about reorienting education toward deeper, more relevant learning outcomes.

How to Design Schools to Grow Thriving Adults: A Provocation

Getting Smart’s “How to Design Schools to Grow Thriving Adults: A Provocation” is a thought leadership resource that challenges educators and school leaders to rethink the foundational purpose of schooling by centering the question of what young people actually need to flourish in life and work. The resource examines competency-based outcomes beyond traditional academic metrics, pushing practitioners to consider social-emotional development, agency, and real-world readiness as core design principles rather than add-ons. It serves as a provocation in the truest sense, offering frameworks and critical questions that can drive strategic conversations among leadership teams, curriculum designers, and community stakeholders about what school models should prioritize. For those engaged in learning innovation, it provides a useful starting point for auditing existing systems against a more holistic vision of student success, making it particularly relevant for schools navigating redesign efforts or strategic planning processes.

Podcast: Tim Knowles and Amit Sevak on What To Do with the Carnegie Unit

This Getting Smart podcast features Tim Knowles and Amit Sevak in a focused conversation about rethinking the Carnegie Unit — the century-old seat-time measure that has long defined student progress in American schools. The episode examines why the Carnegie Unit persists despite its misalignment with modern learning science and what credible alternatives grounded in competency-based progression could look like in practice. Knowles and Sevak bring institutional credibility to the conversation, offering perspectives on how systems can shift from measuring time to measuring demonstrated mastery of skills and knowledge. For practitioners and school leaders pursuing competency-based education, the podcast provides both a clear diagnosis of structural barriers and a forward-looking framework for advocacy and policy change. It’s a practical listen for anyone working to move their school or system beyond credit hours toward outcomes that actually reflect what students know and can do.

Additional Resources

Putting Competencies into Practice

KnowledgeWorks
Putting Competencies into Practice” is a resource from KnowledgeWorks designed to help educators and school leaders move beyond surface-level competency adoption toward genuine implementation in learning environments. It provides practical guidance on defining, assessing, and embedding competency-based approaches into instructional design and school systems, addressing the gap between policy intent and classroom reality. The resource is particularly relevant for practitioners navigating the shift from traditional seat-time and grade-based models toward systems where students demonstrate mastery of clearly defined skills and knowledge. For leaders driving education transformation, it offers a grounded framework for aligning competencies with equitable outcomes, making it a useful tool for schools redesigning how student progress and success are measured and communicated.

Competency-Based Education Across America

Aurora Institute
Competency-Based Education Across America is a resource from the Aurora Institute that maps and examines how competency-based education (CBE) is being implemented across different states and districts throughout the United States. It provides practitioners and school leaders with an overview of policy landscapes, implementation models, and real-world examples of how systems are shifting from seat-time requirements to mastery-based progression. The resource helps educators understand the structural and policy conditions that enable or constrain CBE adoption, making it useful for those designing or scaling personalized learning approaches. For leaders pursuing education transformation, it offers concrete evidence that competency-based models are viable at scale and provides a foundation for advocacy, system design, and instructional planning grounded in defined learning outcomes.

All States Allow Competency-Based Learning. Will It Become a Reality in Schools?

EdWeek
This EdWeek article examines the current landscape of competency-based learning (CBL) across the United States, where policy now permits but practice remains inconsistent. It explores why widespread legislative enablement has not translated into meaningful classroom implementation, surfacing the structural, cultural, and logistical barriers that schools and districts continue to face. For practitioners and school leaders, the resource offers a grounded look at what distinguishes schools that have successfully adopted CBL from those that haven’t, drawing on real policy context and implementation evidence. It matters because shifting from seat-time to demonstrated mastery is central to any serious equity-focused redesign of schooling, and understanding the gap between policy permission and actual practice is essential for leaders ready to move from aspiration to action.