Competency-Based Education: A New Architecture for K-12 Schooling

Competency-Based Education introduces educators to a new model for anytime, anywhere schooling and provides tools and curriculum resources for redesigning the traditional structures of K–12 schools.

Based on pioneering work across multiple states, the book shows how educators can design central elements of competency-based education—including performance tasks, personal learning plans, and grading systems—to meet the needs and interests of all students. Rose L. Colby provides critical tools for creating these elements in collaborative teams and engaging stakeholders such as educators, parents, and community members. The book incorporates case studies and voices from the field, and examines the variety of competency models that schools have adopted, highlighting the benefits for students.

Competency-Based Education provides a much-needed resource at a time when states, districts, and schools are working to implement competency-based models and experimenting with new accountability systems that include evidence of learning beyond standardized tests.

Rose L. Colby is currently a competency-based learning and assessment specialist, assisting schools in designing high-quality competency, assessment, and grading reform systems in many states. She is a Talent Cloud Fellow for 2Revolutions, an education design firm. She is a member of the national Advisory Board Company and a contributor to Competency Works, the national clearinghouse and resource for innovative practices in competency-based education. She has served as competency education consultant for the New Hampshire Department of Education for several years, providing outreach to New Hampshire schools districts in developing competency education as well as supporting districts in the development of the New Hampshire Performance Assessment for Competency Education (NH PACE).

Ms. Colby is a motivational speaker and presenter in the areas of competency-based learning, digital learning, differentiation, and school leadership. She has been a partner in the Nellie Mae Education Foundation–funded project centered on student success through extended learning opportunities in partnership with the QED Foundation, the nonprofit Plus Time NH, and the New Hampshire Department of Education.

Prior to 2006, Ms. Colby was the principal of Mountain View Middle School, which was awarded the New Hampshire Department of Education Excellence Award (School of the Year) in 1996 and 2001. While on sabbatical in 2002, she served as principal in residence for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s New Hampshire School Administrators Leading with Technology project.

Ms. Colby currently teaches in the Educational Leadership Program at Plymouth State University. She is the recipient of the university’s 2015 Dennise Maslakowski Memorial Award in Education.