COMPETENCY – BASED EDUCATION

Higher education in the United States is approaching a crisis in its ability to provide affordable and effective education for its citizens. Globalization and the technological advances have created a market for highly skilled and educated individuals throughout the world. With over 4000 degree-granting institutions in the U.S., a majority of students are taught by traditional methods that rely on standardized curriculum and assessment. This system is unfortunately creating students who are falling behind their international counterparts. In part, this is occurring because our traditional system produces individuals that earn degrees based on hours spent in class, yet are not required to demonstrate acquired skills necessary to succeed in today’s market.

Competency – Based Education (CBE) is an alternative model characterized by clear objectives that correlate with necessary competencies to be mastered before exiting the educational system as well as year-round open enrollment and a series of assessments, prior to the start of the program and throughout the program to determine mastered competencies. One challenge to expanding the use of CBE is a lack of understanding regarding which institutions in the US have implemented CBE programs and their overall impact on the educational and economic sectors. Without this information, a fair systemic analysis is not possible and the value of this alternative educational model can not be completely determined. Western Governors University (WGU) is one institution that is based on the competency model, and has shown sustained success since its inception in 1998. Without further data, it is difficult to determine whether WGU is a typical example of Competency-Based models or whether they are an exception to the norm.

APPROACH

Based on the success of Western Governors University and their CBE model, The Park City Center for Public Policy is initially interested in performing a comprehensive survey of degree-granting institutions in the US, in an effort to determine how prevalent CBE programming is in traditional institutions and to gain more quantitative data as it relates to this model. The Park City Center will approach education and/or economic associations who would be interested in partnering in this initial effort. Following the data collection and analysis of the results, additional projects may become evident, such as a series of local and regional meetings describing CBE efforts and best practices.

James Souby, President and Chief Executive Officer, Park City Center for Public Policy