Blog
3 Key Shifts from Traditional Grading to Competency-Based Learning and Assessment
This is the second blog post in a series on Competency-Based Learning from Bryanna Hanson. Read the first post on what competency-based learning is and why it’s important here. As a teacher, I quickly became frustrated by the limitations of the traditional grading system, one based on points, percentages and averages. This sparked my…
Blog
Education is Everyone’s Business: Bridging the Gap Between School and Learning for Success in Life
Logan Country Schools Exhibition of Learning Every educator I have ever met wants their students to be successful. The challenge, however, is that we don’t all share the same definition of success. Some educators narrow it to their specific standards, their class, or their personal view of what it means to be successful. Others…
Tools
Competency-Based Reporting Playbook
Welcome to the Learner-Centered Collaborative’s Playbook on Competency-Based Assessment, Grading and Reporting. In many traditional grading systems, learners are ranked, sorted and seen as a number in a gradebook. But there’s a competency-based world in which learners can be valued for who they are and how they are growing as individuals. It’s time…
Blog
Great Teachers Make Innovative Solutions Possible
Guest Author: Dr. Cory Steiner, Superintendent of Northern Cass School District (ND), Learner-Centered Collaborative Advisory Council member Northern Cass is a mentor school district in the 2023-24 Learner-Centered Connections program Several years ago Northern Cass School District in North Dakota acknowledged that despite traditional markers indicating things were “good” across the district they wanted…
EventsBlog
Webinar Recording: Cultivating Meaningful Learning Experiences in Hawaii
An insightful discussion with leaders from SEEQS in Hawaiʻi as they share their philosophies and approaches for cultivating meaningful learning experiences for students. SEEQS, the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability, is an innovative public charter school in Honolulu serving grades 6-8 since 2013. This webinar explored SEEQS’s core beliefs and how they…
Blog
Competency-Based Learning: Shifting from Grading Points to Assessing Learning
Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages I started as a first year teacher, armed with a student teaching experience and a master’s degree, fairly confident that I was well prepared. If you are or have ever been a teacher, you are laughing right now because as you know, I figured out pretty…
Tools
Ladder and Knot Outcomes
The first step in designing learner-centered experiences, assessment systems, and structures that are competency-based is to define the desired learning outcomes—what we want students to know and be able to do. There are two types of learning outcomes and, ideally, we are tending to both. We often think of them as Ladder and Knot…
EventsBlog
Webinar Recording: Beyond Standards: Innovations in Competency Based Assessment
Tired of standardized tests and letter grades that fall short of capturing deeper learning? Explore the possibilities of competency-based assessment with school leaders at Embark Education as they: Explain the core principles and benefits of competency-based assessment. Share real-world examples and applications of competency frameworks in action. Provide valuable insights and lessons learned from…
Blog
Elevating Learner Voices: Deer Lakes Students Share Their Vision in Video
At Learner-Centered Collaborative, we know centering student voice is key for meaningful change in education. We recently witnessed the power of learner voice in an impressive video produced by high school students at our partner district, Deer Lakes School District. To showcase Deer Lakes’ work with Learner-Centered Collaborative to redesign learning, high school students…
Blog
What It Means to Center Learners By Design
What does learner-centered education have to do with design? A lot, actually. At the core, both design and learner-centered education are human-centered. Contrary to what one might think, they don’t require a blank canvas or a sleek modern building, but rather a story, assets to build upon, challenges to address, and a deep understanding…
Tools
When to Leverage AI
AI is here. With its arrival also comes a renewed tension often felt around technology: striking the balance of efficiency and valuable human interaction. This tool guides education practitioners and leaders to evaluate which tasks can best harness the power of AI, which are best left to be done by humans, and everything in…
Blog
How You Can (Almost) Have It All With AI: Optimizing the Balance of AI and Human Interaction
Written in collaboration with Brittany Griffin, Director of Strategic Partnerships There’s ample buzz around AI’s potential in K-12 education. It ranges from excitement, to concerns around ethical dilemmas, to debates about the efficacy of learning in front of a screen, to fear that technology will replace educators. Some have called for an all-in adoption…
EventsBlog
Webinar Recording: Supercharge Learning: Unlocking the Learner-Centered Power of AI
Join host Marlon Styles and guests Sophia Mendoza (Los Angeles Unified School District) and Brittany Griffin as they discuss strategies for leveraging AI to supercharge learner-centered education. In this engaging webinar, they explore topics including: Creative ways educators are currently using AI like summarizing text and generating feedback Ideas for how school leaders, teachers,…
Blog
Using Feedback to Drive Learning, Connection, Purpose, and Ownership
Meaningful feedback is not the same as a grade or an evaluation. Feedback is information for the learner about where they are in relationship to the goal or target to help them get there.
Blog
Getting from School-Centered to Learner-Centered
Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages Some say “schools are broken.” We say schools are doing exactly what they were designed to do 150 years ago–but the needs have drastically changed and it is time to build newer and better systems that support every learner to achieve their goals and engage in…
Developing a Framework for the Future Informed by Learners, Industry, and Higher Ed
How a rural Pittsburgh district developed a Framework for the Future Informed by Learners, Industry, and Higher Ed
Blog
Bringing Your Learner Profile to Life with Learners
Brittany Griffin shares four concrete ways to bring your Learner Profile to life with your students.
Blog
Rethinking College and Career Readiness in a Hybrid World
The shift to more flexible, hybrid models in both college and career is happening at the same time as our education system is reverting back to a rigid, seat-time based system that was designed for a different era. Explore how we can best prepare students to be flexible, self-directed learners and contributors to society.