CBL: From Time-Based to Performance-Based

One of the core elements of competency-based learning is that “students advance upon demonstrated mastery, not seat time.” Underlying this element is the essential promise of CBL to fight systemic inequities by meeting students where they are. In a CBL system, all students are truly known and provided the support they need to meet high expectations. Teachers don’t need to focus on coverage and moving students along in lockstep; instead, CBL frees teachers up to address the various learning needs of the diverse students they have.

Although this is designed for educators who may be in schools that have already embraced competency-based learning, the courses in this series are designed to be applicable to any CBL-inspired classrooms and curriculum. You do not need to be an educator in a “CBL school” to join these courses.

The shift from “time-based” to “performance-based” fundamentally entails rethinking time so that students can advance based on proficiency of a skill rather than seat time. How might you design opportunities for reassessment and differentiation? How might you create more opportunities for student practice and self-reflection?

In this course, you will:

• Dig into research around designing for equity and its implications for pace, performance, and progress in the classroom.
• Reflect to break down the time it takes to learn something new through an exercise designed to help you empathize with your students.
• Design for reassessment and differentiation.

The purpose of the Competency-Based Learning series is to guide educators in translating the theoretical underpinnings of CBL into sustainable classroom practices. Each course in this five course will prepare educators to take actions for competency-based learning in their own classrooms and schools.

Regardless of where you teach and the language your school uses for learning goals and grades, a CBL approach offers a mindset and a framework for supporting students in developing skills that transfer across subjects and contexts and that contribute to environments and systems that promote educational equity. You do not need to be an educator in a “CBL school” to join in this series; all five courses are designed to apply to any classroom and curriculum.

Each course is self-paced and includes a downloadable PDF workbook for design and reflection. Participants will leave with practical, tangible work products that can be applied directly to their practice, whether teaching in online, in-person, or in hybrid learning environments this year.

These five courses have relevance as both a series and as individual courses taken on their own. Participants will retain access to all courses to allow for ample time to revisit ideas, resources, and examples.