Teaching in a Competency-Based Elementary School

“Teaching in a Competency-Based Elementary School is a lavish resource for educators who want to move away from a traditional model of teaching toward the direction of a competency-based environment. The organization of the four overarching domains (feedback, content, context, and self-regulation) allows you to focus on components you would like to prioritize in your district, school, or classroom and then move to other sections at your own pace. After implementing these competency-based system concepts in your educational setting you will be able to confidently say, ‘I’ve got this now!’ and see the positive results firsthand.”

“Building on decades of work translating research and theory into effective practice, Marzano and Abbott have created a valuable resource for educators interested in verified applications of competency-based education. Avoiding the cacophony of separate and often disparate programs that often befalls schools and educational systems, this resource provides systematic planning for each element in a competency-based model, illustrating how to meld the components together to build a resilient and successful composite. Based on the Marzano Academies model, this work provides a meaningful proficiency scale that captures the progression of learning and supports consistency across educators and subject matter. One of the attractions of this model is that it not only provides a road map for strengthening academic repertoires, but also includes guidelines and examples for the explicit teaching of cognitive and metacognitive skills—those essential for critical thinking, decision making, and life. Social-emotional competencies are fortified through the school environment the model helps shape and through instructional practices associated with excellent teaching. Useful for both novices to competency-based, proficiency based, or mastery learning, and educators and administrators well versed in the practice, this resource provides an extremely useful and practical guide for anyone interested in building and sustaining a successful competency-based program.”

“Teaching in a Competency-Based Elementary School presents flexible structures with adaptable tools to support goal setting, assessment design, and instruction to foster student-centered and engaged learning in a competency-based model—or really any model. As the saying goes, good teaching is good teaching. This book offers detailed guides founded in neuroscience and research-based practice for teaching and learning that fully embrace the messiness of learning and teaching that any educator could implement to align curriculum, assessment, and instruction and maintain a stimulating and welcoming learning environment. This book provides needed insight on how to shift from traditional learning models to competency-based approaches that meet student needs and hold students to high expectations.”