Competency-based education (CBE) is making waves throughout the nation in K-12 and post-secondary discussions.
While CBE is not new, its rise in popularity in unprecedented. This meteoric surge has not come about by chance. The current regulatory, economic and cultural environments are all working together to propel the CBE movement. Consequently, schools are under great pressure from all fronts to improve access, affordability and the quality of their outcomes. Competency-based education has emerged as the model with the greatest potential to address all three issues.
However, many higher education administrators await a more standardized, well-defined accreditation and Title IV approval process before diving into CBE. There is, meanwhile, a small contingency of programs and leaders who refuse to let regulatory burdens prevent them from using Competency-based education to improve accessibility, affordability and quality at their institutions. These innovators have built competency-based programs that provide students with the benefits of CBE without the same degree of regulatory burdens. The slides found
here highlight one such institution that has implemented four competency-based programs in the past year.
