Competency-based education – West Wind Education Policy

Equity in Personalized Learning

Posted on November 10, 2017April 9, 2020 by Mandi Bozarth

Reading Time: 2 minutes

This summer the International Association for Online Learning (iNACOL) and CompetencyWorks invited me to the 2017 National Summit on K-12 Competency-based Education to explore personalized learning and CBE. The Summit brought together experts and leaders from across the country to focus on 4 key areas: 1) quality, 2) equity, 3) meeting students where they are, and 4) systems and policies. Continue reading “Equity in Personalized Learning”

Why Personalized Learning? A Parent’s Perspective

Posted on February 13, 2015May 19, 2020 by Mandi Bozarth

Reading Time: 4 minutes

This is the first in a series of blogs to explore personalized learning. In the first installment, I share my own journey as a parent to understand why personalized learning should be a goal of PK-12 systems and how I came to believe that. The “evidence” for my parental belief is almost purely anecdotal and formed from supporting my own children in school. The next blogs will focus more on the evidence and data that convince me as a professional working in education policy that this shift is necessary. In subsequent blogs I plan to explore several education initiatives and programs aimed at personalized learning, such as Genius Hour, competency-based education practices, and project-based learning practices. Continue reading “Why Personalized Learning? A Parent’s Perspective”

“College- and Career-Readiness” Calls for High School Transformation

Posted on April 7, 2012May 26, 2020 by Circe Stumbo

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“College- and career-readiness” has become a “new” goal for education reformers nationally. (I put “new” in quotation marks, because this is not a particularly new idea or debate, though certainly the term “college- and career-readiness” is new.) The aspiration of many reformers is that each and every young person will graduate high school prepared to enter some kind of post-secondary learning environment, as well as to enter a career, which would provide graduates with all sorts of very real opportunities. At West Wind, we are working with the National High School Center on several tools that will be available to state leaders working to make sense of the multitude of improvements needed to ensure college- and career-readiness for all students. Continue reading ““College- and Career-Readiness” Calls for High School Transformation”