The Measuring PCBL Toolkit: How to Measure Personalized, Competency-based Learning

We can’t measure what we haven’t clearly defined. That was the challenge we faced early on in our multi-year pilot to support personalized, competency-based learning (PCBL) in South Carolina. The field had a set of guiding principles, but not a concrete set of practices. So, we defined them.

I worked closely with my dear former colleagues at reDesign, Melissa Slater–dream instructional coach!–and Vicky Kim–dream designer!–to create a simple logic for our Measuring PCBL Toolkit. That was step one. Here’s how we did it.

Develop a PCBL Logic Model

First, what are the “inputs” that we believe are distinctly related to PCBL implementation? We called these inputs core instructional practices that are the “signature” of PCBL instruction. We defined nine core practices, drawing on the research on learning, and then organized them into the following four categories:

• Crafting and Framing Learning Goals
• Cultivating a Culture of Care and Learning
• Teaching & Reteaching Explicitly
• Facilitating Meaningful Practice

Next, we identified a set of outcomes–what we believed the impact would be on learners if these instructional practices were implemented with a high level of quality and consistency among learners. Our outcomes were organized into thre categories:

• Learner Growth: Are students demonstrating growth in academic and other future-ready life skills?
• Learner Beliefs: How confident are learners in their own ability to learn and grow (efficacy), and to what extent are they demonstrating a genuine interest and investment in their learning (mastery orientation), versus playing the performative game of school?
• Learner Experience: How is the learning experience supporting their sense of engagement, support, belonging, and agency?

Once the logic model or research framework was locked in, we could thinking about and planning for step 2, designing PCBL interventions.

Design PCBL Interventions

What are the learning experiences going to look like that will actually move the needle on student learning? That was our core question for PCBL intervention design.

This was all done in partnership with classroom teachers who had their own awesome ideas for how to incorporate the PSCG competencies into their practice. Each intervention was planned and supported with high-touch supports from an amazing team of instructional coaches. It followed this kind of structure:

• What are our specific goals/outcomes? Namely, what are the specific changes or outcomes we want to see among our students? For example: Growth on the skill progression, or increases in students engagement.
• Which inputs are most directly in support of this goal/outcome? For a goal like growth on a skill progression, we focused on inputs like Learning Goals, Explicit Skill Instruction, Feedback & Conferencing, and quality Formative Assessments.
• What is the learning experience we can plan for to support these outcomes, while integrating these inputs? Our instructional coaches would co-plan the lesson with teachers, help prepare materials to ensure alignment, and set up the data collection instruments for the intervention.
• What do the data show? After the intervention–whether a series of lessons, or something that spanned a longer timeframe–data were gathered using the pre-planned instruments (e.g., survey, interview protocol) or formative assessments, and we’d review and analyze the data to see what insights emerged from the intervention.

Much of these insights, and the artifacts from classroom-based action research, are available in the South Carolina Impact Report, recently published by reDesign and made possible by the South Carolina Department of Education. Check it out to learn more about the broader state strategy for advancing personalized learning in South Carolina under the leadership of amazing education leaders like Stephanie DiStasio and Kristen Logan.

Reflections on the Journey

The Measuring PCBL Toolkit is one of those pieces of work that I remain so excited about. My hope for our field is that we find a way to collectively articulate–just as is done in other professional sectors–a set of “Common Practices” that are research-informed and that truly create learning environments in which all young people can grow and thrive. And that they are ubiquitous among educators, sturdy, and gradually fine-tuned as we continue to learn in our field.

The growing movement of competency-based education is the right one for this moment, and the work of redefining student success–such as through future-ready competencies–and clarifying the instructional practices that will truly move the needle on student learning, is essential.

You can learn more about the Measuring PCBL Toolkit here or listen to the podcast episode here, hosted by the SCDE Personalized Learning Team, where I had the chance to share more about the Measuring PCBL Toolkit at the time of its launch. Ultimately, our goal was to help provide clarity to educators about PCBL practices, and provide the tools to measure their impact on the journey towards making learning more personal for students in South Carolina and beyond.