Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend a webinar hosted by CompetencyWorks about what states are doing to advance the practice of competency education.  Presenters included Susan Patrick, President and CEO of iNACOL; Jason Glass, Director of the Iowa Department of Education; and Don Siviski, Superintendent of Instruction at the Maine Department of Education.

The webinar, which was based on CompetencyWorks’ latest briefing paper, Necessary for Success: Building Mastery of World-Class Skills – A State Policymakers Guide to Competency Education, provided a great conversation about what Iowa and Maine are doing to implement competency education in their districts.  As I wrote in my last post, Understanding Competency Education, Maine has been working to advance mastery education in their state for quite some time.  Like most states interested in competency-based learning, the conversation in Maine began with questions about student-centered learning and eventually shifted to learning being the constant and everything else being a variable.

Unlike Maine, the competency conversation is rather new in Iowa.  Last year, the Iowa Senate established a task force to examine competency education and what it might look like in the state.  The task force released a preliminary report in January of this year and will release further recommendations to the Iowa Legislature in November 2013.  The task force’s preliminary recommendations include:

• Developing common language and vision for competency education;
• Conducting a review of current policies, administrative rules, and education and para-educational practices that may block optimal implementation of competency education;
• Establishing a research partnership with an institution of higher education to monitor and evaluate the work and to share findings.

I’ll end this post with one of my biggest take-aways, a reading list provided by Don Siviski, for those making the shift, or thinking about making the shift, to competency education.

While my table was working on the future of K-12 education during the University of Houston’s Certificate in Strategic Foresight program, another table was working on the future of higher education. They forecast that higher education will move toward an à la carte system where students partake of what they need to gain employment and pursue other aims.

In commenting on that scenario in the context of formulating a strategic plan, one of the instructors, Peter Bishop, commented that education has a monopoly not on learning but on credentialing. That observation rang true and put a fine point on the crisis that higher education might be facing – and which K-12 education could face too.

Already, as I’ve been highlighting in other posts, competency based models are providing new ways for learners to pursue higher education on their own terms and at their own pace. Corporate universities are signaling a trend toward corporations’ addressing the apparent skills gap by offering education specific to their contexts. Apprenticeships such as those offered by Thought Bot to address a shortage in product designers and software developers are helping learners develop practical skills that they’re not gaining in other educational settings.

Corporate grooming is also making its way to the high school level. New York’s Pathways in Technology (P-Tech) Early College High School is positioning students to take jobs with IBM if they choose to do so upon graduating with associates’ degrees.

All of these approaches offer new ways of earning skills and credit, some of which translates into credit within traditional higher education institutions. And, as our Forecast 3.0 previews, do-it-yourself credentialing is on the rise via platforms such as Degreed and Pathbrite.

Education still has the credentialing monopoly. But how long will that be the case? Will alternative or do it yourself credentials become more important than college degrees, at least in some settings?

I’ve had the pleasure of taking part in the University of Houston’s Certificate in Strategic Foresight program this week. As part of learning more about forecasting, we worked as teams to develop baseline and alternate scenarios of the future based on compelling trends and key questions about what some of them could mean. Luckily for me, my table chose to forecast the future of K-12 education in the US.

Our quickly-developed baseline scenario, “This Ain’t Yo Daddy’s School District,” was pretty consistent with the fully articulated forecast of the future of learning in KnowledgeWorks’ Recombinant Education. As shown below, we forecast that school would take many forms and that learning would flow across multi-layered, interconnected, and distributed networks.

Our alternate scenario, “No Child Left,” forecast that the proliferation of learning options, combined with today’s trend toward opting out of public education for options such as homeschooling or digital learning, could result in a mass exodus from the system. (Keep breathing. Scenarios often push plausible developments to their extremes to help people stretch their thinking about what could happen and consider how they would respond if it did.) 

Then we explored possible implications of that scenario for a progressive state education agency. One of those implications could be a vast reduction in state and federal funding for education. Looking also at the trend toward new sources of investment in education innovation, we projected that an agency could respond by cultivating new sources of funding. In effect, its role could shift from managing compliance to serving as a broker between learning providers and funders. We created an elevator speech describing a possible response to the challenge of drastically reduced government funding, as shown below.

I share the highlights of this exercise as a way of illustrating how delving into different nuances of the future learning landscape can help us find ways in to grappling with key issues and illuminating strategies that we might want to explore, regardless of whether a particular scenario comes to pass.

So, in this example, should state education agencies or other key education stakeholders get more proactive about seeking alternative sources of funding? What would be the consequences of taking that course – or not? Are there other ways in which we might consider preparing for a large-scale exodus from public education, or things we might do to prevent that from happening?

The Brookings Institution’s new paper, “Should Everyone Go to College?” analyzes the return on investment of higher education, concluding that “while on average the return to college is highly positive, there is a considerable spread in the value of going to college. A bachelor’s degree is not a smart investment for every student in every circumstance.”

Having passionately pursued a major in English with minors in art history and medieval studies with scant regard to what that meant for my future employment, I apparently set myself up to land in the bottom third of the paper’s “Work-Life Earnings of Bachelor’s Degree Holders by College Major” chart. I still believe that many transferrable skills, such as critical thinking, analysis of information, and persuasive writing, can come out of following one’s interests, apart from direct ties to employment.

Indeed, passion-based learning is one of the avenues through which we might achieve the radical personalization of learning that KnowledgeWorks’ Forecast 3.0 implies. And since we don’t know what jobs will look like down the road, I prefer to emphasize such transferable skills over direct job preparation.

Nonetheless, college costs significantly more than it did when I enrolled twenty-five years ago, and the digital revolution has since come into maturity. As traditional higher education cracks under the weight of escalating costs and alternative pathways, these kinds of analyses serve as important signals. With more and more learners and their families asking questions such as, “Is a four-year college worth the investment of time and money?” more individuals will start looking for highly customized solutions that meet their needs in becoming career ready.

At the same time, more and more employers are noting a skills gap among potential employees. They too will be asking questions about the value of traditional degrees, where they come from, and whether other kinds of career preparation programs might better meet their needs.

We have a lot of big questions and complicated issues to sort out in rethinking how higher education will work and how it relate to what we currently call K-12 education. In the meantime, analyses such as that conducted by the Brookings Institution (whose infographic summarizing the analysis may be found here) provide useful insight into how things are working (or not) today.

As I talk to more and more people about competency education, the concept makes sense to them intellectually. Students advance when they’ve mastered the material. Students have control over their learning, making the actual experience of learning more meaningful. Exams are no longer things to lose sleep over; rather, they are seen as valuable feedback tools enabling students to get the supports they need. And, finally, learning isn’t about facts and figures but deeply understanding material in order to apply and transfer it. Yes, this all makes sense.

But when you think about how this might look in a school, classroom, or in the life of a student that vision becomes less clear. How do students really move at their own pace? How are teachers able to truly provide differentiated support to each and every student each and every day? What do report cards look like? How do colleges feel about accepting students from competency-based systems?

If you have these questions about competency education, I would encourage you to check out the Center for Best Practices at the Maine Department of Education. Supported by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the Center for Best Practices was created to focus on research and reporting as Maine transitions to proficiency-based diplomas. Serving as a “clearinghouse of materials, support and case studies related to learner-centered instructional practices,” Don Siviski and Gary Chapin have pulled together a ton of great material around the implementation of competency education in Maine including case studies, videos, and other resources. I wrote about the RSU 2 case study in CBEpalooza and wanted to share a video from RSU 16 about learner-centered literacy that I thought was particularly impactful.

If you want to learn more about what competency education looks like as it’s being implemented, the Center for Best Practices at the Maine Department of Education is a great place to start.

a guest post by Joseph Scherer, Executive Director, Superintendents’ National Dialogue

Recently a group of school executives from the Superintendents’ National Dialogue (SND) scheduled a meeting in Cincinnati to learn more about the latest forecast on the future of learning developed by KnowledgeWorks. Katherine Prince, Senior Director of Strategic Foresight introduced the work with a quote from Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

Unlike Twain’s Hank Morgan, none of us experienced a knock on the head that produced fun fanciful musings with cloudy imagery open to multiple interpretation but lacking in practicality. Instead Katherine challenged us to focus on five well-grounded disruptions to American culture that will change how we learn. Throughout the dialogue, I kept thinking about Twain’s quote and realized that this experience was different in that we were not, as we often do, trying to shoot holes in someone’s ill-crafted view of the future. Rather Katherine expected us to calibrate our thinking as it wrapped around solid but unfamiliar trends.

This distinctive experience gave me a new appreciation for Twain’s observation, and I left with the following discernments:

1. We too often hold fast to those things that we believe are true, and we think our choices are limited to only what we can see. The SND network is made up of individuals willing to call long-held beliefs into question and expand choices.
2. Massive amounts of information fill our environment, but we only have the conscious capacity to be aware of a small amount because we filter out what is important to us at the moment. The struggle is how to transcend the moment without disengaging from reality.
3. I kept asking myself, “Can I really know what lies before me if I am so accustomed to seeing only what I already believe?” One session with Katherine made me realize that I am too myopic and that widening my belief structure is an ongoing process. For me, this means more sessions so that my belief structure captures and holds the understanding that combining resources will shape shareable cities and leverage customizable value webs. This means more than a one-time feel good session; it means a continual commitment to grow – it means work.
4. Data is providing a greater understanding of cognition and motivation along with more robust feedback systems, and all of this leads toward a more personalized learning ecosystem. This is consistent with the transformation called for in the vision statements of a number of leading states. 
5. The learning ecosystem will experience greater diversification of structure and funding. Once again, the work of leading state associations accepts the change in both structure and funding as a given because the successes of the past are no longer enough.
6. How well you respond to challenges is affected directly by your focus, and focus is what you are aware of and what you choose to do or not do. Those in the SND network that have a written vision statement are better able to stay on task and work systematically toward achieving their goals. In addition, they can imagine how the disruptions outlined by KnowledgeWorks are more than possible; they are already here. 

The SND attendees were not asked to dream only to awaken to questionable images, but rather were asked to focus on thoughtful realities resulting from changing societal parameters. Education cannot be thought of as immune to change, and educators can no longer simply object to change. Instead, they must lead with a vision for the future.

It is clear from the disruptions identified by KnowledgeWorks that community resources will combine in new ways. Educators will no longer have to shoulder the entire burden for learning, but they will have to formulate the vision that will draw communities together. KnowledgeWorks’ Forecast 3.0 provides an essential view of critical trends giving all readers/participants knowledge of the challenges, a common framework and language, and a concise understanding of expected outcomes.

I believe that all of us who engaged in the dialogue with Katherine and other KnowledgeWorks staff left emboldened to lead in the creation of a vision for the future of public education. That vision will focus our efforts on an achievable image. Selecting the right partners is a critical step in the entire process. KnowledgeWorks has a commitment to excellence and an open and receptive approach to what is possible, and is mission driven to continually push the edge, making it an ideal partner for those educators working on building a vision for the future because they will gain greater focus and be able to trust more strongly what they see.

President Obama’s visit to Manor New Technology (STEM) High School this week near Austin, Texas afforded me the opportunity to reconnect with an old friend and Austin sage, who shared this observation:

It is remarkable what a little money and encouragement can do. Before Samsung, that school district was broker than a third-tier country singer with laryngitis. Its achievement measures were in the dumper. This project has paid off big time.

After grinning hard at my friend’s clever turn of a phrase, the thing that immediately struck me the most was the impact of his “little money and encouragement” reference.

Manor New Tech is a member of the 120-school New Tech Network, a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks, a social enterprise which is working to create sustainable improvement in student readiness for college and careers.  Because someone (in this case, Samsung, Educate Texas, and other key partners) believed that kids from an economically depressed area could learn with the right support, and because of New Tech’s innovative approach to learning, six years later a sitting president came to town touting great results.

It’s not that simple, of course, because change is never easy – especially in education.  And learning in New Tech Network schools is about as untraditional as it comes. Visitors can peer through glass walls into classrooms. It’s noisy. Teachers and students are milling about, with teachers acting more as coaches and mentors, and students working in teams on laptops or tablets.  Students remain engaged and remember why they learn what they learn because lessons are based on real-world knowledge and outcomes.

This kind of change takes human will, great leadership, and the collaborative efforts of many. It takes the merger of pedagogy, public policy and free enterprise to finally see success.  New Tech Network schools have been able to bridge constituencies and implement innovation in education on the ground. As New Tech President Lydia Dobyns wrote in a Huffington Post column about the visit and the impact New Tech is making in education:  “At New Tech schools, we have found a way to close the achievement gap regardless of whether students reside in urban, suburban, rural or underserved areas. Our 2013 Student Outcomes Report offers compelling evidence that the vision we have to transform schools within public school districts is being realized.”

President Obama has called for a $300 million high school redesign initiative in his FY14 budget to ensure that America’s high schools prepare students for success in college and our work force. On the ground, that looks like Manor New Tech and any of a number of other schools, including successful Fast Track early college high schools developed by EDWorks – one of which, Brooklyn’s Pathways in Technology early college high school – was mentioned in the president’s State of the Union Address.

Our job is to continue to show lawmakers and others evidence that innovative education initiatives can succeed in all environments, and also to show them a pathway to make it happen.

President Obama will visit Manor New Tech, a school in the New Tech network, as part of his “Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity” tour (read our press release about the visit here). As the parent organization of New Tech Network, KnowledgeWorks is a proud participant in supporting schools creating sustainable improvement in student readiness for college and careers. Manor New Tech is one of those “demonstration” schools that New Tech and KnowledgeWorks have often showcased to politicians, school administrators and journalists interested in reframing the education discussion. Although I haven’t visited Manor I did meet some of their students  when they joined us during our core conversation at SxSW in 2011 about the confluence of technology and education.

For Lydia Dobyns, President of New Tech, this visit represents “A Lifelong Yearning Answered” and I imagine it is a momentous day for these students as well.

I hope to post some pictures later today so check back on the World of Learning blog or our Facebook page.

When I shared KnowledgeWorks’ forecast on the future of learning with ASCD’s board in February, a strand of the conversation began to suggest that there wouldn’t be as much of a place for people to support learning because we will have so many digital tools for mediating, supporting, and delivering learning. Since that time, I’ve continued to reflect on how critical skilled people will be in an expanded learning ecosystem.

Yes, we will – and do already – have tools for helping learners and their families identify the learning experiences that meet their needs, reflect their interests, and support their goals. Aristotle Circle does this kind of digital brokering for learners as young as kindergarten age. The Noodle search engine focuses solely on education because there are already so many learning options that it’s hard for people to find them using a general search engine.

And of course many of those learning options already involve digital delivery, all or in part, opening the way for educators not just to develop new ways of relating to students and supporting learning, but also to define new kinds of jobs that make sense in those environments. The continuing expansion of high-quality open education resources available through platforms such as Khan Academy, TED-Ed, and WikiEducator is opening possibilities for independent learning while challenging traditional uses of classroom time.

Teacher and faculty roles will face continuing challenge and redefinition as freely available resources increase in quality and production value, taking us beyond the rise of rock star teachers that we’ve been seeing via MOOCs such as Coursera and Udacity toward Hollywood-quality learning environments that integrate multiple digital media formats. Such environments are already challenging institutional roles and boundaries and suggesting that content delivery will become an ever-lesser aspect of many educators’ roles.

Lastly, as learning providers get smarter about corralling data about learners’ academic performance, social conditions, and well being into easily understood learning analytics and dashboards, we’ll have more and more tools available to support learners and educators in selecting and fine tuning learning experiences and supports. Adaptive learning platforms such as Knewton and analytical tools such as Desire2Learn Insights are beginning to compile and contextualize digital information to help people direct and understand learning.

As the learning ecosystem becomes ever more complex and varied, individuals are going to need support in designing and making decisions around learning. Some of that support will come from digital tools. And some of it will come from specialized educators, or learning agents, who help guide learners, coach them along their chosen learning pathways, interpret relevant data, and support learning in ways that we can’t imagine today.

Yes, the future learning ecosystem will be digitally mediated, with many of its nodes and supports integrating digital tools in fundamental ways. But they’re our tools, for us to put to use for our purposes. Jobs will change. New roles will emerge. Learners will have more options. But people will remain at the heart of learning. Learners should be at the center. With a host of specialized learning agents nearby.

As highlighted in a Wall Street Journal article earlier this year, the University of Wisconsin will, come fall of 2013, be the first public university in the U.S. to offer competency-based degrees and certificates. Targeted toward working adults and degree completion students, the program will enable students to progress by demonstrating mastery, whether they have attained it through traditional college courses, online instruction, work experience, or some other avenue. They will start whenever they want, take assessments when they feel ready, and progress at their own pace.

The first cohort of its Flexible Option program will include a bachelor’s degree for registered nurses, degree completion in diagnostic imaging, a Bachelor’s in Information Science and Technology, and a Certificate in Professional and Technical Communication. University of Wisconsin Colleges will also be offering competency-based general education courses in fields ranging from biology to psychology to exercise science and athletics to women’s studies to English to art to music.

As the Wall Street Journal article put it, the university is “decoupling the learning part of education from student assessment and degree-granting.” As such, it is one of a handful of institutions blazing the trail toward reconsidering the role of institutions in credentialing learning. KnowledgeWorks’ Forecast 3.0 highlights de-institutionalization as a key disruption that will reshape learning over the next decade.

With learning experiences diversifying, the need for continuous career readiness growing, and the trend toward organizing without organizations to pursue work and other productive activity, the role of today’s institutions in brokering and credentialing learning promises increasingly to be called into question. Existing institutions will need to define distinct, and often multiple, value propositions to attract students who will expect to be able to learn what they want when they want and who will increasingly turn away from limiting structures.

So what does it take to implement competency education within an existing university? As described on the Flexible Option website, three advisory groups are steering the transition:

• A Faculty/Instructional Academic Staff advisory group is developing principles for quality, competencies, assessments, and levels of mastery, as well as identifying an ongoing oversight role for faculty as UW Flexible Option programs are developed.
• An Administrative Advisory group is working through infrastructure issues and assisting in the development of a business model.
• An Academic and Student Support group is assisting in the development of the operational mechanisms and support needed to allow students to enroll and progress in UW Flexible Option programs.

On the student support side, a team of success coach advisors will help students plan and manage their learning journeys. These success coach advisors seem similar to the learning journey mentors that KnowledgeWorks’ 2020 Forecast imagined helping students create and navigate their learning itineraries.

UW’s Flexible Option program, and the transition to it, highlight just some of the possibilities for redesigning learning experiences and their credentialing to create a vibrant learning ecosystem comprised of many viable options, each of which will suit some students some of the time.