Abstract:In recent years, most U.S. states have revised policy by providing schools at least some flexibility to move away from the Carnegie unit system, with its focus on credits and "seat time," toward competency-based policies that link student advancement to mastery of content. Yet, there is little systematically collected information about how competency-based education is implemented, making it difficult to evaluate the impact on student outcomes. Using data from 600 students in grades 9-12 and confirmatory factor analytic techniques, we report initial reliability and validity results from the pilot administration of a survey designed to capture student exposure to elements that have been described as essential to a competency-based, student-centered model for learning and instruction. These elements include mastery-based progression, personalization, flexible assessment, and the development of specific skills and dispositions. Results suggest that the survey offers a way to reliably measure and study variation in the implementation of competency-based education. Importantly, the survey provides a way to capture implementation from the student perspective, leveraging the fact that student reports about their classroom experiences may be a particularly reliable source of information about instructional practice. Keywords: competency-based education; secondary education; structural equation modeling; surveys Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol. 25 No. 24 2 La exposición de los estudiantes a la educación basada en competencias Resumen: Recientemente, la mayoría de los estados en los Estados Unidos han revisado la póliza educativa con métodos que han proveído flexibilidad para alejarse del sistema de unidades de Carnegie, que se centra en los créditos y el "tiempo en el asiento o escritorio", hacia políticas basadas en competencias que conectan el progreso del estudiante con la materia del contenido. Sin embargo, hay poca información recopilada sistemáticamente sobre cómo se implementa la educación basada en competencias, lo que dificulta evaluar el impacto en los resultados de los estudiantes. Utilizando datos de 600 estudiantes de los grados 9-12 con técnicas analíticas con factores confirmatorios, informamos los resultados iniciales de confiabilidad y validez de la administración inicial de una encuesta diseñada para capturar la exposición de los estudiantes a elementos que se han descritos como esenciales para un estudiante basado en competencias centradas para el aprendizaje y la instrucción. Estos elementos incluyen la progresión basada en el la maestría, la personalización, la evaluación flexible y el desarrollo de habilidades y disposiciones específicas. Los resultados sugieren que la encuesta ofrece una manera de medir y estudiar con fiabilidad la variación en la implementación de la educación basada en competencias. Es importante destacar que la encuesta proporciona una forma de captar la implementación desde la perspectiva del estudiante, aprovechando el hecho de que los informes de los estudi...
Competency education has garnered support because a competency-based approach seeks to directly address issues of inequity to ensure that all students-students with disabilities and students from disadvantaged and different racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds-meet high expectations to prepare them for postsecondary success (Lewis et al., 2014; Sturgis, 2017). Supporters also argue that competency education incorporates many of the practices that learning-science research indicates improves student learning, including acknowledging and using student background knowledge for pacing instruction (e.g., Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000), using formative assessment and mistakes as learning opportunities (Bransford et al., 2000; Dweck, 2006), establishing intrinsic motivation for learning (e.g., Pink, 2009; Priest, Rudenstine, & Weisstein, 2012), and emphasizing assessments that measure application and deeper learning rather than basic skills (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 2009; Silva, White, & Toch, 2015). Although many see promise in competency education, converting to a competency-based system is a massive undertaking (Freeland, 2014; Sturgis, 2016). Many states have policies allowing districts and schools to adopt
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.