PBL: Our Year in Review

As we come to the close of another year and it seems like everywhere I look I am seeing the best-of lists. Spotify is full of year in review playlist and Instagram is flooded with decade challenge posts. We are surrounded by messages pointing us in the direction of reflecting on growth and looking towards the future. Turning the calendar to 2020 has even greater significance for Vermont schools. 2020 is the year we have been thinking about since the passing of Act 77 in 2013 and we have been in the change process working to build systems to support personalization, flexible pathways, and proficiency-based learning.

On our next webinar, we will be focused on proficiency-based learning and reflecting specifically on our best of’s. The things that excite us, the places where we have seen students engaged in meaningful and personalized learning and the practices that have been implemented that have resulted in growth. We will also be spending some time thinking about the future, what are the next steps for us on this journey, what are some things that don’t quite feel right yet, and where does it feel like we are stretching too far.

Building a proficiency-based learning system requires a commitment to equity as schools and communities are working through a process of designing systems rooted in developing student agency to ensure the success and identify the potential of all. As schools are on this journey, it is important to examine closely the systems that are being created: are they working with the intentions of the design?

To guide us in our reflection and conversation this week, we will be using the Equity Principals Framework from the white paper Quality and Equity by Design: Charting the Course for the Next Phase of Competency-Based Education that was published in October of 2017 by CompetencyWorks and iNACOL. We hope that you will join us in our conversation about Proficiency-Based Learning on Thursday, December 12 at 3:30.