Imagine you are a 39-year-old single parent and early childhood educator of 20 years. One day, you learn that you lack the proper credentials. Even though you have all the skills necessary to perform your work, without it, you are in danger of losing your career. Despite hundreds of satisfied customers, deep knowledge of your field, and your two decades in business, you’re back to square one.
Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of spending years and tens of thousands of dollars in school, you could point to all the learning you had done, all the skills you had acquired, and all the knowledge you had gained and it would count toward your credential? Competency-based learning does just that: counts all quality learning, focusing on what you know instead of where you learned it.
Incorporating a competency-based learning model into higher education systems would increase transparency, flexibility, and affordability––and especially benefit working adult students and people of color. That is just what California needs to close its racial equity gaps and meet upcoming workforce demands, remain the fifth largest economy in the world, and begin a successful recovery from COVID-19.
To make competency-based learning a reality, we recommend policymakers and other stakeholders consider a number of policy considerations:
- State funding to encourage competency-based learning and ensure all learning counts
- State financial aid programs that support competency-based learning and prior learning assessment
- Tuition policies to support students in flexible educational structures
- Transfer policies that allow students to transfer all learning between institutions and do not limit what students can transfer
Competency-based learning can help California close racial and equity gaps, It’s time we considered #competencybasedlearning in #cahighered and recognize the hard-earned knowledge gained on the job or in our everyday lives. #CaliforniansDeserveCredit https://ctt.ac/bbQsM+
