Using a Competency Development Process Model in Higher Education | A Practical Guide

What if educational programs designed curriculum with the end in mind, teaching and assessing only the knowledge and skills necessary for success in the workplace and broader life applications? Competency-Based Education (CBE) provides an answer to questions such as this one that key stakeholders such as employers, learners, parents, and educators are asking. In this book, the authors offer a Competency Development Process Model (CDPM) with unique features that emphasize the interdependence of competencies, assessments, and a robust learning journey within a fully developed career pathway. Two case examples are used throughout the book to contextualize the CDPM. There are seven steps of the model:

• Step 1: Define the Problem
• Step 2: Establish the CompetencyFramework
• Step 3: Draft theCompetency Statements
• Step 4: EstablishCompetency Measurability
• Step 5: Develop CompetencyAssessments
• Step 6: Adopt and ImplementCompetencies in Learning Journey and Credentialing Systems
• Step 7: Evaluate Impact OverTime

The model addresses the importance of situating competencies within a professional learning context using a backward design approach. In doing so, the model aims to elevate the work of designing competencies from merely developing a list of expectations to in-depth analysis and design, with the goal of developing competencies that can be readily used for assessment and career pathway development.

Each step in the CDPM is treated as a chapter, and each chapter identifies the central question that must be answered, provides an overview of the tasks in the step, and illustrates the steps in action through the two case examples. Each chapter concludes with “Your Turn”―guiding questions for the reader to apply the step to their own context.

Dr. Stephanie Bernoteit serves as Executive Deputy Director at the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE). She oversees the agency’s regulatory and consumer protection work with approximately 450 postsecondary institutions and is responsible for the agency’s initiatives to promote postsecondary student success. Stephanie collaboratively leads a statewide effort to enact a competency-based system of educator preparation, professional development, and credentialing in the field of early childhood education in Illinois. She is co-author and editor of publications on the subject, including, Advancing the Illinois Early Childhood Education Workforce: A Model College and Career Pathway (Bernoteit, Holt, & Kirchhoff, 2017) and Voices from the Field: Collaborative Innovations in Early Childhood Educator Preparation (Bernoteit, Darragh Ernst, & Latham, 2016).  Dr. Bernoteit serves on the board of directors of the Competency-Based Education Network.

Prior to joining the IBHE, Stephanie Bernoteit worked at Illinois State University as executive director for alumni relations and co-director of the School of Education’s National Board Resource Center. A National Board Certified Teacher in Early Childhood from 1996-2016, Stephanie spent several years at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards as staff liaison to higher education. She also worked as an early childhood and elementary classroom teacher in the West Des Moines Community School District. Stephanie holds a doctorate in education from Illinois State University, a graduate certificate in non-profit leadership from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in education from Drake University, and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with an emphasis in early childhood from Northwest Missouri State University.

Dr. Johnna Darragh Ernst is a Distinguished Professor of Early Childhood Education at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. For the past several years, her work has focused on collaboratively developing competency-based pathways supporting early childhood practitioners in Illinois and serving as a lead consultant in developing the Illinois ECE Competency-Based Assessment System. Together with Dr. Nancy Latham, Dr. Darragh Ernst coordinated the movement of seven Illinois credentials to a competency-based system. In addition to publishing numerous articles, she has authored two early childhood textbooks focusing on inclusion and family engagement. She co-authored and edited Voices from the Field: Collaborative Innovations in Early Childhood Educator Preparation (Bernoteit, Darragh Ernst, & Latham, 2016), which focuses on the Illinois effort to develop a competency-based model of early childhood educator preparation.

Her current external leadership relating to competency-based education includes serving as a tri-chair on the Illinois Professional Development Advisory Council and as a member of the Illinois State Competency Leadership Team. She is on the Steering Committee for the Illinois State Board of Education’s project, which serves to move state teaching standards to competencies. She has also worked to support the development and implementation of Walden University’s innovative Tempo Learning competency-based education program. Within Heartland, Dr. Darragh Ernst has created several competency-based learning pathways designed to maximize student access, decrease student cost, and minimize time to credential and degree.

Dr. Nancy Latham currently serves as the Executive Director of the Council of Teacher Education and a Research Associate Professor in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). For the past ten years she has served as a lead consultant on state-wide early childhood employment pathway efforts in Illinois and teacher preparation pathway competency development and implementation. Dr. Latham has published and presented extensively on teacher attrition, specifically the impacts of teacher preparation model on teacher persistence in the field and co-authored and edited Voices from the Field: Collaborative Innovations in Early Childhood Educator Preparation (Bernoteit, Darragh Ernst, & Latham, 2016) which overviews the state-wide experience of competency implementation for early childhood credentialing in Illinois.

Prior to joining UIUC she served as an administrator and Early Childhood Professor at Illinois State University. In addition, she was a tenured community college professor and a public-school teacher and administrator. Her external leadership has included serving as President of the Illinois Association of Early Childhood Teacher Education and representing the public university colleges of education on the Illinois State Educator Professional Licensure Board (SEPLB). She is currently leading an Illinois State Board of Education project to revise the state teaching standards to a competency-based system. Her research interests focus on teacher employment pathways and trends, teacher persistence in the field, and the impacts of teacher preparation models and practices on teacher retention and attrition.

Bradford R. White is an education researcher who studies workforce development and human resources management issues throughout the P-20 spectrum. His worked focuses on state-level education policy issues and educator preparation and evaluation. From 2004 through 2018, Brad was part of the Illinois Education Research Council (IERC) at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, which served as the research arm of the state’s education agencies. At the IERC, he led an evaluation of the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s Early Childhood Educator Preparation Program Innovation grants, as well as studies of the state’s teacher and principal workforces. He also served on the Illinois State Board of Education’s Partnership for Educator Preparation, the Illinois Education and Workforce Data Task Group, the Illinois Longitudinal Data System Data Advisory Committee, and the Teacher and Leader Excellence Committee of the Illinois P-20 Council. He is currently a data analyst in the Office of Institutional Research at Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois.

Dr. Tiffany Freeze has extensive experience building CBE programs in higher education and work-based settings. She currently serves as the Chief Assessment Officer of The QuILTSS Institute in which she leads the design and build of competency-based education (CBE) programs. Additionally, she serves as a principal consultant with the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), working with institutions nationwide to design CBE programs. She is an experienced and credentialed leader of assessment centers and virtually delivered behavior-based assessment using the latest technologies. Tiffany co-directs C-BEN’s Competency-Based Assessment Collaboratory project, in partnership with 20+ institutional leaders, working to release new assessment resources. Freeze also served as the 2020 President for the Tennessee Association for Behavior Analysis. In this role, Freeze led the organization alongside the Executive Committee to hold regional and state-level meetings, advocate for members, provide workshops, inform legislation, among other priorities in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis.

Prior to her current role, Freeze served as Assistant Dean in the College of Professional Studies at Lipscomb University where she led the Curriculum and Academic Team to the launch of PACE, Lipscomb’s 126-credit hour competency-based program. She also served as an assistant professor, administrator of Lipscomb’s CORE Assessment Center, and engaged multiple employer partnerships. She spent six years studying at The University of Memphis earning the Master of Arts and Education Specialist degrees in School Psychology, and the Doctor of Education degree in Applied Behavior Analysis. She is recognized as a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and Board-Certified Behavior Analyst with doctoral designation.