Afterschool and competency-based learning are increasingly emerging as student-centered, supportive learning models to prepare students for college and career. This white paper explores the intersection and relationship between these two fields, recommends ideal policy environments for implementing successful programs, provides real-world…

A striking convergence of research, documentation, commentary, and policy in the past five years strongly suggests that an almost exclusive focus on academic knowledge and skills is an incomplete solution. Additional behaviors, skills, and mindsets--sometimes called metacognitive skills or 21st-century skills--are just as necessary for academic…

This exploration into competency-based innovation at the school, district, and state levels suggests that competency-based pathways are a re-engineering of this nation's education system around learning--a re-engineering designed for success in which failure is no longer viable. This discussion draws on interviews and site visits with innovators…

The purpose of this paper is to begin the process of bringing conceptual clarity and order to the discussion of competency based education. Toward this end, a number of steps have been taken: (1) the wide variety of educational practices that relate to the concept of competency based education, and the variety of programs that carry the label,…

Activity and interest in competency-based education are growing. As of March 1978, some type of competency-based education requirement had been instituted in 34 states. Many recent changes in American society are affecting competency-based education. For example, today's learners are likely to be lifelong learners, but their learning may be…

Recently, the momentum of competency based education (CBE) has increased sharply in Oregon, due in part to the public outcry against perceived failures in the K-12 public school program. CBE is a program for certifying student performance that requires demonstration of an acceptable level of skill in those areas deemed vital to success in…

Examines the Oregon program in which each school district establishes and measures its own set of competency standards. (Author/IRT)

This booklet is intended to aid local school districts in Oregon as they work to develop and improve their educational programs in keeping with the competency-based high school graduation requirements established by Oregon's revised minimum standards for public schools. The booklet consists of six chapters that focus in turn on state requirements…

This publication examines the competency-based education (CBE) movement in Oregon, which resulted in the adoption of new Minimum State Requirements for Graduation in 1972 and the subsequent adoption of competency-based Minimum Standards for Oregon Public Schools in 1974. It first discusses the general characteristics of CBE and then suggests some…

This publication reviews the state-of-the-art of competency-based education (CBE) and discusses alternative methods for the development of CBE programs in public school systems. It begins with a discussion of the possible influences of various learning theories on the structure and content of competency-based systems. It then focuses in turn on…

The Oregon State Board of Education has rejected the use of cut-off scores on a proficiency test to establish minimum performance standards for high school graduation. Instead, each school district is required to specify--by local board adoption--minimum competencies in reading, writing, listening, speaking, analyzing, and computing. These…

Three conference sessions focused on attempts to implement minimum competency testing programs at various educational levels. In each of the sessions particular attention was paid to planning for the development of a minimum competency testing program; the processes of development, initiation, and interpretation of the results; and difficulties…

This report presents the framework for a legislatively mandated proficiency-based approach to admissions at Oregon's eight public baccalaureate-granting institutions. The goal of the report is to present a systems-level description of why and how a proficiency-based admissions system should operate. Part 1 considers the implications of the…