Keeping Summer Fun and Educational

If you're wondering how to keep this summer educational but fun for your homeschooled kids without creating extra work for yourself as teacher, summer classes are a great idea to explore. Maybe you just haven't had time to squeeze in an art class and your child is really interested in art, or perhaps you've always wanted them to experience team sports, but it just hasn't fit into your school year--summer is the time! Perhaps you want your child to take a class to fill a specific hole in their learning. I talked to a mom recently whose child was not doing so well in their SAT math, and they decided that summer was a great opportunity to take an SAT prep class, because somebody else would do the actual teaching and mom would get a bit of a break. No matter your needs or your student's interests, there's sure to be an interesting class out there for you!
Summer is also a good time for your children to join or form some sort of club, or do some kind of volunteer work. My husband and I worked for a long time at a local clothing bank; but there are also food banks and vacation bible schools out there looking for volunteers. As an extra bonus, these things are really helpful for your student's overall portfolio when they start applying to colleges.
Another great summer activity is to encourage your child to keep a journal. I know a lot of people who are successful with this. While they might not have journal writing during the school year as a subject, their children are willing to journal every day during the summer. This can really help students with their writing skills, and is a fun idea if you're doing travel of any kind-- whether camping, visiting some different area of the country, or just staying home.
Whenever you do any form of summer school, remember to capture the learning your children do and turn it into school credit on their transcripts. Some common summer credits include physical education and occupational education (which simply means that they do some work). When you count these credits, remember that between 120-180 hours of work is one credit, and 75-90 hours of work is considered a half a credit. For instance, maybe your student is in an orchestra or a choir during the summer. You can just estimate those hours and say, "it looks like they're going to spend ten hours a week in class, for the eight weeks of summer, which would be eighty hours, which is half a credit experience."

The Homescholar offers excellent support for parents on homeschooling in california. Visit their website to gather more information concerning your kid's education.

Home-School Writing: Help Your Teen Write Any First Draft

When home-schooled teenagers sit down to write their first draft of any paper, there are a few simple things to place before them to make writing that first draft an effective and enjoyable learning experience.
Find Examples:
Before they take the plunge into writing, have your teens look at how other people approach that particular type of paper, how they shape their own ideas. Have them write with the best! Look for examples that are short and meaningful. Long pieces as examples could tend to make the eyes glaze over. The purpose of examples is to place possibilities and further ideas before your writers' eyes. Do not let them think that they must "write like this."
Pre-Writing Material:
Next, they will need the pre-writing charts or whatever note-taking work they have prepared to help focus their thoughts and ideas. They will need the rubric (see my article on rubrics and rough drafts) for that first draft, of whatever type of paper it is, as well. Have them study the rubric carefully, first, and look over the pre-writing notes.
Their Own Rough Draft:
Now, it is important for your budding writer's success in learning to write well that they write any first draft in one sitting with no outside assistance. A short break is fine, but have them set aside the time so that they are not away from writing draft one for more than a few minutes. Your teen should feel free to correct little problems they see while writing, but the first draft MUST be their own ROUGH Draft. That is, it must be what your child writes when they write without worrying about ANY writing "rules."
Write in One Sitting:
Next, write draft one in one sitting with no outside assistance and little, if any, revision. Follow the rules of writing the rough draft. Rule 2: There are no rules; just write. Even forget about the requirements of the first draft rubric. Once your writers have finished writing, have them go back through and be sure they have met the few requirements from the first draft rubric.
I give my students about one hour to write their first draft. That should be plenty of time if the pre-writing work is sufficient. One of my students, Zach, had this comment to make: "I learned that writing can be fun. Mr. Yordy allowed us to let go of all the rules and to "just write!" as he would say."
Mark It High:
Finally, once the draft is completed, check it against the rubric you prepared. Make encouraging comments and give it as high of marks as you can. Point out what they did well. On draft two, your marking will be tough, really tough. But after writing draft one, any writer needs to know the potential and unlimited possibilities for writing effectively that lies (however dormant) inside them.
It is only after draft one is successfully completed that the hard work of writing begins. However, any writer's first experience with writing a paper should leave them with a sense of success and accomplishment. "Writing was not as hard as I thought!"

Daniel Yordy is Your Editor at The Writing Conservatory. He has taught writing to students - and learned writing - for almost 30 years. His effective writing course has been hammered out inside of junior high, high school, and college classrooms.
Maybe you have a student homeschooling high school and you want to know that they can write effectively both in entering college and for life. Or maybe you want to learn to write (and teach writing) well. Check out http://www.thewritingconservatory.com/WritingCourse/index.php?page=IsetA. Help yourself freely to anything you see.
Copyright 2012 by The Writing Conservatory. Freely use without changes, including links.

Glamorising English Makes It Difficult to Learn the Language

Glamorising English makes learners keep the language on a high pedestal. As a result, learners think that it is complex to learn. The moment you glamorise, it becomes three times more difficult to learn the language. You will develop a sense of inferiority and feel substandard. This will be the major obstacle to learn. But, in fact English is not that tough to learn. All it needs is a deliberate effort to pursue it.
Who glamorise English?
Only two categories of people glamorise the language. Firstly, those who are ignorant about it. Since they don't know about it, they unnecessarily think high about it. Secondly, those who have low competence (low IQ). Barring English, they do not have other strengths. They glamorise the language to feel good about themselves.
For them English is not a language, it is a style statement. There are people in certain walks of life with elitist mindset. They learn English not because of the language, but because they think it adds to their celebrity status if they speak the language with confidence. They do not make the right use of it.
Real English is plain and simple
The use of a language is to communicate thoughts and feelings, so that the person you are communicating with is able to understand you clearly. It's not about slang, phrases or foreign accent, it's all about being clear.
Highly successful people keep their language simple and straightforward. For example, Jack Welch, the CEO of GE uses plain English in all his writings and lectures, which is very much direct and easily understandable. As a result, he inspires many people to become successful.
Another famous personality from history is Cicero, a Roman Philosopher. People used to admire him when he spoke. He did speak in a glamorous way, but he was not a great achiever. Julius Caesar, a Roman emperor, used to speak in such a way that people used to march after hearing him, and he is considered one of the greatest heroes of all times.
Great personalities didn't use any tactics to attract people. They didn't glamorise the language. Instead they kept it simple. Real language is simple and straight. It is for this reason that English has been given the status of global language.
First, you need to change your mindset that speaking English is glamour, it is then you can learn it quickly and easily. Learning the language is nothing but a skill. Let us repeat, English is a skill like cycling, swimming or driving a car. You can learn only if you stop glamorising it.

Hyderabad-india-online.com (HIOC) is a website about Hyderabad city in India that publishes updates, information and opinions on Hyderabad markets, real estate, maps and other topics.

Tips For Understanding the Most Difficult Aspects of English

It is said that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn as a second language, and rightly so! For individuals whose native language is English, the language obviously appears very easy for them because they grew up with it and speak it naturally. For someone who speaks English as a second language, however, there are several areas that most people find very difficult to learn and master. This article will review and discuss some of the most difficult aspects of English, as it pertains to this population.
1. Pronunciation differences can be very challenging.
When a person learns English as a second language, they must learn some new sounds that are not in their native language. Each person brings with them some of the sounds from their native language that are most similar to American English sounds. But, because these sounds don't match exactly, these differences create accents. The heavier the accent, the more difficult a person's speech is to understand. Probably the most commonly used sound and the most difficult to learn is the "r" sound because it can be a consonant and a vowel. The America English "r" sound is also formed differently than in most other languages. Other sounds that tend to be challenging are "w", "v", "t", "d", "th", "ih" and "ee."
2. American English grammar has many exceptions to the rules!
English grammar has what we call "regular forms" which follow specific rules and "irregular forms" that don't. Both have to be learned, which makes English grammar very difficult!
Let's look at the following examples:
Regular plural words: To form regular plural words in English, just add an "s" or "es" to the end of the noun.
For example, the word "hat" changes to "hats", and the word "bus" changes to "buses". Easy, right?
Irregular plurals
That would be great if that's all there was to it, but wait a minute, not so fast! Just when you are thinking, "Hey, this isn't so bad", now you learn that there are just as many plurals that don't follow the rules. Irregular plurals can stay the same as the singular form or can change completely. These must be memorized.
For example, "mouse" changes to "mice", "goose" changes to "geese", and "ox" changes to "oxen".
Forming past tense verbs:
Verbs in English must not only agree with the subject, but are formed in specific ways to indicate tense.
Regular verbs
Regular verbs are verbs that follow the rules. For the past tense this means that they will always add "ed" to the end.
Let's take a look at an example:
The verb "to walk" is a regular verb. To form the past tense, add "ed" to "walk", forming "walked."
Irregular verbs
Irregular verbs are verbs that do not add "ed" at the end when forming past tense. These verbs may stay the same or change completely in spelling.
For example:
The verb "drive" changes to "drove"
The verb "say" changes to "said"
3. English is not a phonetic language.
In some languages, it is easy to sound out a word because the sounds that letters make stay the same. English is not one of these languages, which makes it very difficult to learn. In English, there are many instances when a letter or series of letters do not say what you would think they would say, and they may not even be consistent.
Look at the following example of the letters "ough" in words. So confusing!
"ough" can say several different sounds:
"ough" in "rough" says "uff"
"ough" in "ought" says "aw"
"ough" in "though" says "oh"
"ough" in "through" says "oo"
"ough" in "bough" says "ow"
Yes, English can be very challenging to learn. With patience and dedication, however, one can significantly improve their spoken and written English. Practice makes perfect!

To learn more about Cheryl Posey and her accent reduction services, please go to http://www.speakingyourbest.com and check out courses available. For self-study courses, go to http://www.speakingyourbestonline.com.

The right curriculum for kindergarten: Play

Last year, as Harlem Village Academies prepared to open new elementary schools , our principals visited dozens of kindergarten classrooms. The upper-income schools focused mostly on active play, interesting discussions and crafts, including papier-mache projects that delighted children for hours. In the lower-income schools we saw regimented academics, reward-and-punishment behavior systems and top-down instruction. In one South Bronx classroom, the only time children spoke during the course of three hours was to repeat drills of the sounds of letters over and over.

Why the disparity? Many educators are placing the blame squarely on the Common Core — national learning standards recently adopted by 45 states and the District and supported by the Obama administration — and asserting that they lead to poor-quality teaching and take all the joy out of kindergarten.

One Brooklyn teacher who attempted to teach the Common Core told the New York Post that her kindergartners broke down in tears, anxious and frustrated. Early-childhood development experts such as Nancy Carlsson-Paige argue that the standards will lead to an increase in rote learning and a decrease in active play and exploration. If so, we should heed her warning.

The question, however, is whether the new standards should be blamed for poor quality instruction. It’s an important question, as the Common Core will be the reason for spending billions of dollars for new textbooks, state tests, teacher evaluation systems and more.

The standards were designed to elevate the quality of instruction in our country: to teach students to think independently, grapple with difficult texts, solve problems and explain their thinking in a clear and compelling way. This is a noble vision. But its attainment depends entirely on the execution. In fact, the authors of the Common Core write, “the standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers should teach.”

Take vocabulary, for example. The Common Core standards state that kindergarten students should be able to “distinguish shades of meaning among verbs that describe some general action (e.g., walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings.” Imagine a classroom full of 5-year-olds marching, strutting, walking and prancing for 10 minutes to different kinds of music while laughing and learning vocabulary. Imagine, further, that this activity is organically integrated into a meaningful project or a theme-based unit that lights up the child’s love of learning. So while some schools might choose to teach vocabulary in a rote, boring way, clearly the standards are not to blame.

As Zoltan Sarda, an elementary school teacher with 22 years of experience, said to me last month, “The textbook companies are trying to box the big ideas of the Common Core into little disjoined pieces. But just because they are written in a linear way, that doesn’t mean you have to teach in a linear way.” Sarda, who now guides teachers at High Tech High in San Diego, once had his kindergartners build a life-size paper model of how humans would need to be designed in order to fly. This project taught them gravity, anatomy, speed, addition and subtraction, and measurement — all included in the standards — and the children loved it.

When I told one of our kindergarten teachers that there was a growing concern that the standards were ruining kindergarten, she laughed: “I didn’t know standards had that much power!”

So the standards are neither the problem nor the solution. The issue is how to use the standards to teach well. How do we do this at Harlem Village Academies?

First, we hire the smartest people out there and, when necessary, let go those who are not up to par. This is more important than ever, because the Common Core is immensely challenging and requires teachers to make intelligent, nuanced decisions about instruction during every lesson, every day. The only way to teach at this level is for every school to empower its principal to select, nurture and develop an outstanding faculty and then to hold the principal accountable for results.

In our schools, we prioritize teacher development over curriculum development. You do not make teachers better by handing them a packaged curriculum and sending them to a few days of training. Instead, teachers need time to analyze the standards, practice different teaching strategies, learn from mentors, collaborate with colleagues, observe one another, look at student work together, reflect on why certain approaches work better than others, learn from mistakes and continually improve. None of this is fast or easy. But it is how teachers become great.

Above all, we share a vision of engaging, sophisticated education. When a friend visited recently, she saw 27 children dancing in one kindergarten classroom. In another, she saw children singing a song about numbers. And in a third, the children were spread out in different parts of the room — some sprawled on the floor reading, some coloring and others playing with blocks. During our reading and writing period, each child chooses which learning activities to pursue that day. “This looks just like my son’s kindergarten,” she said. “But I pay $37,000 a year!”

Our classrooms are less structured and less orderly, sometimes even a bit chaotic. That’s how kindergarten should feel. Play is not a break from learning or a way to fill time for the little ones: play, imagination and discovery are how kindergartners learn.

Those of us who spend our years fighting for social justice should be as passionate about pedagogy as we are about politics. And that starts with equal access to a quality kindergarten education.

At one school district, the motto is BYOT - Bring Your Own Technology

iPhones, Nintendos and Kindles — devices synonymous with "fun" — are taking a new role in the classroom, thanks to a new trend in education called Bring Your Own Technology – or BYOT.

BYOT programs — like the one at Georgia’s Coal Mountain Elementary School — encourage students to bring in their own personal mobile technology — including iPads, Kindle Fires, netbooks — even gaming devices — to use during class.

“It’s really a simple thing,” says Tim Clark, District Technology Specialist for Forsyth County School District. “Kids have technology in their pockets and [are] taking them to school, but trying to hide them from teachers and from their parents. What we’re trying to do is have the kids take them out of their pockets and use [them] for instruction.”

Technology can be incorporated into lessons in various ways — serving as a research tool, providing access to educational games and allowing students to create multimedia presentations. Clark says students who don’t have their own devices, or opt not to bring them, can use district-owned laptops and electronic resources.

He says the program encourages participation and interaction because “it’s not a solitary type of activity where every child is buried in their device … it increases collaboration. It increases communication with the teacher. The teacher sees immediate feedback from the student’s work and the students are able to overcome other difficulties.”

Tracey Abercrombie, a fifth grade teacher at Coal Mountain, has been impressed with the program in general and praises the difference it has made with her special education students. “I’ve got one [student] who has trouble getting [information],” Abercrombie says. “He can get the ideas formed but there’s a bit of difficulty getting them out verbally. There’s something about typing it, having it come up on that screen. All of a sudden the barrier is gone.”

Clark says incorporating students’ personal devices in the classroom not only enhances learning, but teaches responsibility. “All of this is putting the responsibility on the shoulders of the students and [we’re] also trying to teach them and guide them to use their devices more effectively…not only taking care of their device and being careful not to drop it, but also wanting to make sure they know where it is at all times so it’s not stolen. [Using] it appropriately so they don’t post inappropriate pictures, so they don’t text inappropriate message to each other.”

Those involved with the program say students aren’t the only ones with something to gain from BYOT. For example, Clark says teachers “can learn alongside their students instead of having to determine all of the ways that their students should learn … they get to ask questions and discover all these new uses of the devices themselves."

Abercrombie agrees and has seen her teaching style change since the program began.

“I thought my role was give them all the knowledge that I’ve got about something and use that textbook and my knowledge together," Abercrombie said. "Now I realize that’s not my job at all. My job is to facilitate them. My job is to point them in the right direction, give them the tools they need and — wow — they can do so much more.”

Before launching BYOT in Forsyth County Schools, teachers and administrators explained the program’s structure and ground rules to parents and students. At first, Kara Laurie, who has two children at Coal Mountain Elementary, was apprehensive about allowing her kids to bring their devices to school. She says her initial reaction was that it “was a horrible idea … I had the normal parent concerns, you know, are things going to get broken? Are they going to get lost or stolen? And what about those kids that don’t have technology that they could take to school?”

But as the program got underway, she saw “how much the kids were able to do with it in the classroom. I found that it was a phenomenal idea.”

“We had to sit down as a class, as a team, and really define our rules because [the students are] used to using it any way at home,” Abercrombie says. “They’re used to … putting everything on Facebook, so we had to have a little talk about … different ways to use these devices in school.”

Amy Anderson, another parent of two, was comforted by the district’s approach to the program. Her fourth grader uses a netbook in class, while her first grader has a Nintendo 3DS. “The administration "set some very clear ground rules at the beginning and we had to sign an agreement as parents and they had to sign an agreement as students that they would only stay on,” Anderson recalls. The students "have to be on the school network which has all of the filters. If they don’t abide by those, if they use them when they are not supposed to, if they use them incorrectly, then they lose that privilege of being able to bring it in.”

In 2010, seven schools in Forsyth County School District began BYOT programs. This year, all 35 of the district’s schools are participating. While it is a relatively new idea, BYOT already exists in schools across the country, in states like Texas, Minnesota and Ohio.

Clark says the district has received positive feedback, along with interest in the program.

“I’m receiving messages from other districts that would like to come and see the implementation of bring your own technology in their schools … we recently held a tour of BYOT in our district … we had over 100 visitors on that tour. They were not only other districts, but also vendors wanting to understand how it’s impacting [the students].”

As far as student reaction, Clark says “the students love it…[they] have their devices, they’re learning how to use them in a more responsible way, and they’re being critical thinkers and very creative with their devices in ways that they never would have used them on their own.”

Competency-Based Schools Embrace Digital Learning

Tom Rooney sees competency-based education—supported by digital learning tools—as the path to building a better school district.

The superintendent of the 4,200-student Lindsay Unified School District in California, Rooney set in motion this school year a plan to move to a system in which students progress not on the basis of their age or a set school calendar, but by demonstrating proficiency on learning objectives.

Educators in the district are aware that the transition will undoubtedly hit some bumps in the road, as do most districtwide school improvement efforts. But school leaders entered the school year feeling well prepared because the district has been gradually putting competency-based education, or CBE, in place since the 2009-10 school year.

The move to competency-based education—also known as proficency-, standards-, and performance-based education—by Lindsay Unified and other districts will likely give them a head start in preparing for the new demands of the Common Core State Standards, experts point out, and in their ability to use technology more effectively to personalize learning.

“We have these practices that are ingrained in the traditional public education system that are not consistent with principles of learning and not consistent with how most of the rest of the world operates,” says Rooney.

“Prior to kindergarten, everyone learns to talk at a different time,” he continues. “They get potty-trained at different times, but suddenly when you get to kindergarten, you’re placed in this box, and you’re given the kindergarten curriculum because you’re five, not because you’re ready for it, or even if you already know it all. Kids learn in different ways on different time frames.”

National advocates for competency-based education echo those sentiments, pointing out economic and policy forces that are building momentum for such an approach.

“We’re in a place right now with the forces of global competitiveness, the adoption of common core, all of these new learning models, and the desire to do student-centered, personalized learning—you can’t really do that in a time-based system,” says Susan D. Patrick, the president and chief executive officer of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. The Alexandria, Va.-based iNACOL is a fervent advocate for competency-based education.

“Common core is a game changer because it’s going to allow us to be able to share best practices and knowledge of skills across states, and it’s going to keep the innovators that are developing online content from having to reinvent the wheel in 50 states,” says Patrick. The ability of states to collaborate will allow more districts to be able to implement pedagogies like competency-based education without having to start from scratch, she says.

Along with a number of other partners, such as the National Governors Association, MetisNet, Jobs for the Future, and the American Youth Policy Forum, iNACOL recently launched an initiative called CompetencyWorks that aims to promote competency-based education and provide resources for educators who are interested in learning more about the model.

The CompetencyWorks organizers hope to bring innovators together and help share their experiences with more schools and districts.

The concept is not new, but several factors have contributed to renewed interest in the structure, says Patrick.

“What’s different now is that [previously it] had to be entirely paper-based,” she says. “Now, with all of the new online and blended learning tools, teachers have a whole set of resources that can help them work with students on their learning goals. Teachers have a way to manage the personalization and allow the different pacing to happen in a very structured, goal-oriented way.”

In addition to helping teachers differentiate instruction for students, new technologies are giving rise to more powerful and detailed information systems that can help track students at the level of granularity that CBE requires, says Christine Sturgis, the founder of the Santa Fe, N.M.-based education consulting company MetisNet, one of the partners of CompetencyWorks.

“[CBE] creates an enormous amount of data about students and teachers and teacher effectiveness,” she says. New information systems are needed to make “data-rich and informed decisions,” adds Sturgis.

Based on conversations at a competency-based-learning summit held in March 2011,Sturgis and Patrick published a five-part working definition of CBE. Under the definition, students advance upon mastery, competencies are broken down into explicit and measurable learning objectives, assessment is meaningful for students, students receive differentiated support based on their learning needs, and learning outcomes emphasize competencies that include the application and creation of knowledge.

However, re-engineering schools to a competency-based model is not a silver bullet, and creating competencies must be done thoughtfully and carefully to be successful, Sturgis explains in a paper about designing competencies, published by CompetencyWorks.

“If the competencies, learning objectives, and rubrics are not designed well, students may become bored by low expectations, frustrated by high-level competencies without adequate scaffolding embedded in the learning objectives, or disengaged through inconsistent feedback from flawed rubrics,” the paper says. “Although it is obvious, it cannot be overstated: Well-designed competencies are one of the essential elements for high-quality competency education.”

‘Pace Does Matter’

Empowering students and making sure they know exactly what it is they should be learning and how it can be demonstrated is a key component of CBE, its advocates say.

“Learners really understand where they’re at and where they’re going next,” says Rooney, the Lindsay Unified superintendent.

To create their learning objectives, officials of his district brought together 30 teachers and about a dozen administrators to go through the California state education standards for grades K-12 and realign the information into need-to-know learning objectives. The district also worked with the Marzano Research Laboratory, run by educator Robert J. Marzano, to help design the new curriculum.

In addition, the group created a set of assessments to go with the curriculum to evaluate how well students learned the material.

After several years of tweaking those standards and piloting them in classes, the district moved to CBE officially in 2009-10 with the incoming class of 9th graders.

Teachers, who under the new system are now called learning facilitators, scrapped the traditional grading scale and moved to a 0-4 rubric, where a 3 is the minimum passing standard and 4 indicates that a student has gone above and beyond the requirements of mastery.

Although students in Lindsay Unified are still grouped into grade levels, each student is also grouped by a content level (readiness levels 1-13), so the learning facilitator knows exactly where every student falls in each subject area by content level. The district also built in more flexibility with scheduling so that students can move from one content level to the next without having to wait for the semester to end.

In addition, students receive frequent and meaningful feedback from their learning facilitators, Rooney says. In the new information system, teachers, students, and parents can check to see students’ exact progress in each content area at any point in time.

But just because students now learn at their own pace does not mean that students can take multiple years to get through one content level, emphasizes Rooney. “Pace does matter,” he says. “Our system is about increasing the rigor and holding everyone accountable—administrators, learners, and learning facilitators.”

Students who are more than two content levels below their grade levels receive individualized learning plans to help them catch up to their peers. Those students are allowed to test out of certain parts of the curriculum that they may already know to increase their pace.

Ultimately, though, what CBE comes down to is good teaching, Rooney says. Providing good feedback, making sure that students learn what they need to know before they move on, and differentiating instruction for each student is what good teachers have always done, he says.

The Boston Day and Evening Academy, an alternative high school in the Roxbury section of Boston that serves overage, undercredited students, has been using competency-based education since it opened 17 years ago, says the director of curriculum and instruction, Alison Hramiec.

The school, which does not use a traditional grading scale or group students by grade levels, has broken down each yearlong course into 11-week classes so that students have more flexibility to move from one class to the other.

“With this population of students in particular, they leave school, they have poor attendance, different situations arise, and they may fall behind in that class,” Hramiec says. In a traditional school, she says, “when they get back to school, everyone’s far ahead, and there’s no flexibility to get those kids caught up.”

But at the Boston Day and Evening Academy, students have the flexibility to start up where they left off, she says.

Like Lindsay Unified, the Boston Day and Evening Academy has spent several years aligning the curriculum with state standards and breaking it down into need-to-know competencies.

“You start with [the standards] and from there pull out what you believe are the enduring understandings,” says Hramiec. “Those are the big learning objectives that are the ones you want students to carry with them ten years from now.”

All students must demonstrate competencies independently and multiple times to move on, she says. They are given many opportunities to practice mastery informally before the actual assessment.

Protecting Innovators

One state that has taken the lead in competency-based education is New Hampshire, which in 2005 eliminated the Carnegie unit, a seat-time-oriented way of accounting for students’ academic progress. Schools in the state were given until the 2008-09 school year to move from a time-based to a mastery-based system.

Those regulations extend to the statewide online public high school, the Exeter, N.H.-based Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, or VLACS, which has been competency-based since it opened in 2007.

When students take and complete courses at VLACS is flexible, allowing students to move at their own pace. They can complete courses in 10 weeks or take as long as 36 weeks, says Steve Kossakoski, the chief executive officer of the school.

Students must score at least a 75 or greater on all competency-based assessments, out of a possible 100, in addition to receiving a passing average score on all the assignments (not just the ones pegged as competencies) in order to pass.

To help brick-and-mortar schools in the state meet the mastery-based requirements, VLACS has begun offering competency-recovery classes for students in regular schools who have fallen behind.

“In a traditional school, one of the things they’ve struggled with is what do you do with a student who hasn’t met competency in a world where everything is attendance-based?” says Kossakoski. In the competency-recovery courses that VLACS offers, the courses are broken down into smaller units so students only need to go through the parts of the class that they didn’t pass the first time.

Interest in the competency-recovery classes has jumped from about 200 students the first year it was offered to 1,400 students in the last school year, says Kossakoski.

The Washington-based Council of Chief State School Officers has brought together nine states, including New Hampshire, in its Innovation Lab Network to build new models of education that empower learners. Members of the network challenge the status quo with six design principles for transformation, one of which is performance-based learning.

“We want [states] to wrap around [innovative schools and districts] and protect them like a cocoon,” says Gene Wilhoit, the president of the CCSSO.

The Common Core State Standards have helped pave the way for innovative learning models such as CBE, says Wilhoit.

However, while innovation is happening in pockets around the country, large-scale statewide movements are rare, he says.

To push that progress along, the Innovation Lab has identified diagnostic tools that need to be developed and more effective intervention strategies for teachers.

One of the most recent states to join the CCSSO’s Innovation Lab is Iowa, which has begun to explore the idea of competency-based education. It granted districts in the state access to seat-time waivers after a forum about CBE held in December 2011.

The 500-student Collins-Maxwell Community School District, about 40 miles north of Des Moines, is one that has taken advantage of the change in policy.

“Competency-based education challenges some of the structures that we think may be there to support students, but may actually be limits,” says Jason Ellingson, the superintendent of the rural district, who also sits on the state’s task force on CBE.

Although the district has not rolled out a proficiency-based education system, it is taking steps to encourage organic growth of the model, officials say.

For instance, this school year, the district will be giving out iPads to all of its K-12 students. While elementary school students will leave the devices at school overnight, middle and high school students will be allowed to take the devices home with them.

“We feel that those tools are going to be pushing the idea of personalized learning, and we think that’s going to help the discussion around competency-based education,” says Ellingson.