Does CBE Destroy Our Special Education System?

As I continue to think about competency-based education and the structural changes that go along with fully supporting it, I am concerned about its impact on the current special educational system.  For students to receive special education services, they must have a disability - medical or learning.  If a student is to be designated as having a learning disability, then the student must demonstrate discrepancy from his/her peers.  As we work through the suspected disability process, the team must look at exclusionary factors, such as lack of instruction.

I am concerned that in a competency-based system ("anytime, anyplace, any how, any pace") where each student could be involved in different learning experiences, there will no longer be any peer comparisons.  If students no longer are accessing the same academic content at the same time, I do not think that special education can make any peer academic comparisons.

And if there cannot be any peer comparisons, what happens to special education?  Do those students who do have at least some difficulty in understanding the material no longer have access to support services?  Do those support services take on a different focus and expectation?  And for district leaders, what happens to the weighted funding that supports those services?

Competency-based education provides a new paradigm for student learning, teacher effectiveness, and district leadership; as such, many current systems, such as special education, will clearly be changed by its implementation.  I believe we need to strongly consider the system structures we currently have in place and how competency-based education may change them, so we can be mindful of the implications.

(Thanks to Josh Griffith, Collins-Maxwell 6-12 Principal, and Jen Sigrist, Van Meter Director of Teaching and Learning, for the conversation that inspired these thoughts.)

Course Time to Competencies - What's the Conversion Ratio?

In Iowa House File 2380, the section on competency-based education states, "the rules shall allow a school district or an accredited nonpublic school to award high school credit to a student upon the demonstration of required competencies for a course or content area, as approved by an appropriately licensed teacher.  The school district or accredited nonpublic school shall determine the assessment methods by which a student demonstrates sufficient evidence of the required competencies."

The Iowa Senate education reform bill offers similar language.  It is a bold and appreciated step in moving the educational system in Iowa forward.  I just have a few questions as we move from a time-based to a competency-based system.

We no longer need the CBE "credit" waivers, correct?  That's an easy one.  But . . .

How do we determine how much credit to award a course, if it is no longer measured in time?  This is a critical question to me.  If teachers and districts are allowed to create credit-bearing courses based on competencies, how will the DE track and monitor the number of courses?  This poses a concern for the annual curriculum accreditation process, as a district could 'inflate' the number of courses offered by reducing the number of competencies within each course.

It also opens up new opportunities, as we might be able to introduce new courses or mini-course for our students.  In a competency-based system, I am excited that we can open up new opportunities of learning for our students.  But the issue remains.  Until there is a common definition of "competency" and a common process to create courses based on competencies, has the Iowa Legislature opened up a Pandora's box for the Iowa Department of Education?

I trust we can solve this problem.  I just hope others are recognizing it.