Competency Education

[00:01] SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.

[00:06] Announcer:

Here's your host, director of the Principal Center and champion of high performance instructional leadership, Justin Bader. Welcome everyone to Principal Center Radio.

[00:15] SPEAKER_01:

I'm your host, Justin Bader, and I'm thrilled to be joined today by John Vander Elze, who is principal of Memorial School in Newton, New Hampshire. And that is a school that has switched to a competency education model. and John is here to tell us about that today.

[00:34] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[00:36] SPEAKER_01:

John, welcome to Principal Center Radio.

[00:38] SPEAKER_02:

Thank you very much, Justin. I'm glad to be here.

[00:40] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, tell us how this journey began. How did your school start moving in the direction of competency education, and what is that?

[00:46] SPEAKER_02:

So first of all, I've been the principal here at this school for seven years now. I'm in my seventh year, and a lot of changes have taken place in that time. We were, when I began, a school in need of improvement. And so we were really forced to examine what we were doing, how we were doing it, and how we were helping our students to progress to the highest degrees possible. So through that, we did a lot of work around standards, obviously around instruction, assessment, and within a lot of the research we were doing, we started to look at how we were grading students, but also how we were assessing their learning and their progress. And so competency education really looks at a competency is the ability for a student to transfer what they've learned in and across different content areas.

[01:42]

So it's really that level three, that depth of knowledge three component type of learning that we hope to be able to assess and a lot of the standards are at a level one and two so we're really looking at those anchor standards or power standards those skills and dispositions as well so the work study practices that students need to be successful And we're really assessing their growth based upon that. So it really is a model that is looking at what a student is able to do in their time frame and not a seat-based model, so to speak. We have a ways to go in that regard, but it's really looking at how students are able to progress at their own level and be successful. And if they're not successful, what are we doing and what structures are we putting into place to ensure that their learning continues and they're able to be successful learners all the way from kindergarten through grade 12?

[02:46]

And so our district took that on K to 12, and we've seen tremendous growth in our students in that time.

[02:53] SPEAKER_01:

Now, at the secondary level, I understand the shift away from kind of a more traditional set of grading practices to a competency model might have a dramatically different look. At the elementary level, what did you do to make it more than simply kind of a retitling of the things on the report card, so to speak? What did you do to bring about changes in the way that students are assessed, the way that students are supported, and the way you communicate with families about that progress?

[03:23] SPEAKER_02:

One of the things that, it does look different between elementary and secondary, and we recognize that, but I believe that what we did, so starting about five years ago, we really... went into this knowing that we were going to have to be flexible and that we were going to learn a significant amount through the process of transitioning over to a competency-based educational model. And I think if there's one thing that I think, to share with other building leaders is that patience is a must in transitioning to something like this because it does take time. And the learning that we as a school have had through this process has been instrumental in our continued growth.

[04:15]

And so when we started this, we were all learning. So what is a standard versus competency? What does it look like when we're assessing competencies in a classroom? uh... we you have to make wholesale changes in grading practices and and one of the things that we did to start out was to look at the grading practices of of two teachers who who voluntarily uh...

[04:44]

spoke to this but look at how they're assessing different things within their classroom so typically in a traditional model we may have teachers who have all their grades in a grade book and then you're going to have uh... participation possibly count as a certain amount might have other behaviors count as a certain amount and we separated academics from behaviors and that's a huge piece of competency education is that the academics and uh... what we refer to in new hampshire's work study practices are separated so that we're gonna separate between what they can do academically and maybe there are other behaviors that are associated uh... with twenty first century learning and

[05:24]

make sure that students understand very clearly where they're competent, where they're proficient, and where they need to grow. So, for example, on our report card, and this is where we had to have a lot of discussion around with parents about these are the changes in our report card, this is what it means, but really showing them the behaviors are here and here are the academics. So we didn't give an overall grade in reading. We gave a grade in the competencies within reading. And so students and parents and teachers had a very clear idea of where a student might be having difficulty or where they've already mastered the content and they could move on to be challenged in other areas. So it wouldn't be uncommon to see within reading if there are four competencies, three of them might be at what we would refer to as a P level, a proficient level at this point, and one might be an IP.

[06:20]

But that's great information because now we know specifically where the teacher needs to support the student, where the student has to focus his or her efforts, and where parents can also help that student. Whereas before, when everything is mixed and lumped together, it's really difficult to determine where a student might be struggling.

[06:39] SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So you're being much more specific about the knowledge and skills that students have in each area. And it sounds like you're also de-emphasizing assignments or the completion of work or compliance behaviors, as you indicated. Is that true as well, that there's not as much focus on assignments?

[06:56] SPEAKER_02:

I would say that they're... is a greater level of focus, although it's included elsewhere, if that makes sense. So the work-study practices, those dispositions are very, very important, but they don't tell us If we had to go to a number scale, what was an 85 before? What did that really tell us?

[07:24]

People say, well, that's a B. That's a good grade. But if the skills that they didn't master were foundational skills that they need to do something that's coming up, then it's very important that they don't know that because how, you know, now they're going to head into something where they have a missing skill set. And let's say that they had mastered everything, but the behaviors were what was bringing a student down to some, you know, in some cases something could be worth participation, could be worth, you know, 25%, 20% in some classes. And what we wanted to do was to really understand make it very clear that across the board at our grade in a grade level the grading was done together so that there was inter-rater reliability so to speak between teachers within a grade level and then vertically as well it was important that students understood what to expect

[08:20]

and they knew that behaviors were important and they were going to be assessed that way, but they weren't going to necessarily impact the academic grade. So it was a true, I guess the best way to say it is it's a true academic grade versus a behavior grade, which is also included on a report card.

[08:41] SPEAKER_01:

Right. And when you look at two different students who have the same grade on the report card, that actually means that they know roughly the same things compared to a traditional report card, where, as you said, that 85 or 75 could reflect some combination of knowledge, of behavior, of participation, of not trying very hard on one thing, whereas another student could have worked really hard and kind of gotten better grades than you might think based on what they actually know. So it does allow for kind of a more even analysis of where students are and what they need instructionally.

[09:16] SPEAKER_02:

That's exactly right, Justin.

[09:18] SPEAKER_01:

Now, I understand from reading your article on connected principles, which we'll link up in our show notes, that there was quite a bit of discussion among staff and in communicating with parents about the specific language. And of course, we could all say one, two, three, or four. But what was that process like to kind of negotiate and refine the language used in that framework to communicate what you wanted to communicate?

[09:42] SPEAKER_02:

It's really been fascinating because when we first started out, as the article kind of describes, we settled on E as exemplary – excuse me, E as exceeding and M as meeting. And then we had IP, which was inconsistent progress. LP which was limited progress and what I explained was that the IP is the is the indicator that really got a lot of attention from parents because to them it had a very negative connotation even though it described precisely that it was a student who was able to do it sometimes but wasn't consistently able to demonstrate their mastery of that those specific standards or competencies so But we listened because when we went into it, we said this is something that we believe strongly in.

[10:35]

And when you explain it to a parent in the sense that they're going to have more information about their children's learning or their child's learning, they'll listen because it's true. And then they see that. But we responded by kind of through a form of sorts of saying, does in progress better capture that and that was something that came from parents and they felt like yes that that would be the best way to do it and we made that change we really didn't look back after that one thing we found k to 12 though which was one of the most fascinating pieces of this is that and I mentioned in the article as well we had a group of teachers and administrators sit down at the end of last year And we were at a point within our district where we said we really need to settle on a common scale across the schools because parents, as they're transitioning with their students from one school to the next, and students, as they're transitioning from school to school, want to have that consistency.

[11:39]

So we put a group of K-12 teachers together in a room, and over a couple days, we were talk about some great professional conversation. The point was made that exceeding suggests amount of work, whereas we're really looking at quality of work. And so we ended up changing that E to exemplary. M, the meeting, we wanted to kind of be consistent. And so we ended up changing the M to a P. So it signified proficient work because we were talking about proficiency and competency.

[12:19]

So those were two of the changes that we made and then kept the IP, the LP. Another one that has been added in since is IWS, which is insufficient work shown. And the reason why that isn't there is because we realized after we were doing this for a couple of years that we couldn't make a judgment about where a student was if we didn't have the work sample to assess their competency. So IWS reflects just that, that we don't have the work sample, the work samples to make that determination. So that's what goes in there. And we're not judging one way or the other.

[12:55] SPEAKER_01:

Right, and I think that clarity is so helpful because before, if you gave a student a zero, well, did that mean they cheated and earned a zero? Did it mean they completed the assignment and got zero correct? Did it mean they didn't do the assignment at all? Did it mean they were sick? So I think the specificity that you're able to provide now I think directs people's thinking in the right way. And I was struck, as you were talking about the language and kind of muddling through that process of figuring out the language, It occurred to me that this is a really big change for people to change the fundamental language of something as important as the way we assess and the way we communicate our assessment results to families and to students.

[13:36]

Have you seen any related changes that have happened as that language has shifted in addition to those we've already talked about?

[13:43] SPEAKER_02:

We have. I guess the first true indicator that we were on the right path for me was the first three months of the first year were very, very difficult, as they are in any change process. We got to the point where we were in trimester, so we had our first trimester conferences with parents, and there had been ongoing communication with teachers and parents through that time, but when we were able to actually sit down with the parents with the progress reports at that point, and go through that and we we we did in a way that every parent we wanted every parent to come in so we can have those conversations with them their teachers did just an amazing job of this but we have fourth grade teacher who came to me after and she said to me that she knew more about her students at that point in the school year that she knew about any students previously throughout the whole year because of the way we were assessing kids uh... that struck us and so

[14:44]

And her reason for saying that was that she was able to provide parents in her class with so much information about their child's progress that the parents left you know, thinking, wow, this is a lot of information for us and this is great. So at that point, we really started to learn more about our assessment practices and that shift has come kind of full circle instructionally because now we have students who clearly understand what it is they're trying to learn and They're invested in their own learning because the engagement is high. We have teachers whose instructional practices have changed dramatically because now we're assessing students at level threes using performance assessments. And our teachers know that they have to instruct in that way because we can't assess kids in a way that they don't have a chance to practice prior to.

[15:41]

How we're grading and the conversations around language have... evolved into whole conversations about practice and I will say that highly functioning professional learning communities are integral for this work to be successful because you're relying on your colleagues and feedback from colleagues and your colleagues observations of work from students in your class and building assessments that capture a student's competency which is a lot of work however the result is all of us having more information about kids where they are where they need to go and what we need to do together to get them there

[16:30] SPEAKER_01:

Well, those shifts make so much sense together to not only report how students are doing from a competency perspective, but to design instruction in a way that the tasks that students are doing on a day-to-day basis are sufficient to get to that level, that depth of knowledge that they need in order to kind of show that proficiency. And I think that's something that could easily be missed. in a traditional grading model. We taught lessons, we did assignments, students took the assessments based on those learning objectives, and everybody got a score, but are they doing that work at the depth of knowledge level that they need to, and are they demonstrating competency in those specific areas? Most of the time, we don't know. So I really applaud the shifts you've made and the work you've done in PLCs and school-wide and communicating with parents to make that happen.

[17:24]

Powerful.

[17:25] SPEAKER_02:

Thank you, Justin. It is, and again, it goes back to getting away from, and we're fortunate here in our school and in our district that it's not whether we've taught it, but whether kids have learned it and been able to demonstrate their learning consistently. So this... model of education has truly helped us to realize some of the goals we set out to achieve a number of years ago.

[17:55]

It's an ongoing process and it's certainly something that will continue to be ongoing, but we feel it gives us the best information to help our students.

[18:06] SPEAKER_01:

Well, John, thank you so much for sharing with us about what your school is doing in terms of shifting to a competency model. It's been a pleasure speaking with you on Principal Center Radio.

[18:14] SPEAKER_02:

Thank you very much, Justin, and I look forward to additional radio broadcasts from you.

[18:22] SPEAKER_00:

And now, Justin Bader on high-performance instructional leadership.

[18:26] SPEAKER_01:

So high-performance instructional leaders, what did you take away from my conversation with John Vanderells? I have to say I love speaking with school leaders who are right in the middle of major cultural shifts today. their schools because when you change something when the ground is shifting beneath your feet and you're grappling with the implications of that change on multiple levels you really have to see how everything fits together and I want to highlight something John said about the importance of his PLC isn't the importance of teachers working together in high functioning teams I think anytime people are grappling with change anytime people are are changing the nature of their work and the way they look at that work and the way they look at their students and the content that they're teaching, it's critical that we have opportunities to process those changes collectively and make decisions collectively about how we can best move forward.

[19:20]

So thanks again to John for joining me for this episode of Principal Center Radio, and I hope you took something valuable from his experience and his insights.

[19:30] Announcer:

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