Equity is at the center of this work. Equity needs to both be embedded in all that we do and to be pursued as an explicit intention of our work with its own learning agenda. Among the 100 attendees at the summit, specific attention was paid to racial diversity with 41% people of color participating. Equity was the center of the learning agenda for the Competency-Based Education Summit.

Designing for equity and from the student experience are inseparable from attaining a quality competency education system. If we want competency education to have different results than our existing sort and rank system, we need to pay attention to racial justice as a key element of equity. In our definitions of success for our students and graduates, we need to explore what it means to be a citizen of a democracy and a global world. Beyond college and career ready, we want every child to be ready for a fulfilling life and to thrive in a multicultural world. That being said, anti-racist education should be included as we redesign and redefine curriculum. Repeating the mantra “all children” is not enough. Colorblind doesn’t work.

Performance assessment is an integral part of effective competency education. Performance assessment is a powerful entry point to rethink teaching and learning and to rethink systems for how students demonstrate what they know and can do. Performance assessment is a key process for producing and documenting both formative and summative evidence of student learning in a competency education system. While performance assessment can be implemented within a traditional system, as practice deepens and performance assessment is used with fidelity (e.g., with capstone and portfolio systems), the process naturally leads to rethinking traditional approaches to curriculum, promotion and graduation, and reporting. Performance assessment and competency-based principles are aligned. They are working together to shift teaching practices, school culture, and systems as seen in the NH Performance Assessment for Competency Education (PACE) work.

Communication matters deeply. As one of many organizations working in the competency education field, we need to share our work and understand how others are approaching the same elements of quality. Educators cannot transform the system alone. The more we coordinate, the more likely we will be able to create the multiple pathways that schools, districts,and states need to create high quality personalized, competency-based systems that produce different results – that are equitable and fair. With the public as well, clear messaging about how competency education can shift us away from student ranking and towards a world where every person reaches their full potential in their own way.

One lesson coming out of VUE 46 and the National Summit is this: It’s time to apply what we know from work to date to implement fully and build momentum for positive change towards competency education and its essential corollary, performance assessment.