Designing a Competency Based Educational Innovation in Partnership with the School District of Philadelphia

Abstract

This capstone analyzes the efforts of Building 21, an external educational change agency, to introduce and implement competency-based education (CBE) as an innovation within the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Specifically, CBE is examined through the development of a competency map, one aspect of the design and launch of a new high school opening in September 2014. CBE describes a current wave of secondary school reform that requires reengineering of structures, such as time and age groupings, and reframing of the instructional core, that is, the relationship among teachers, students and content. Over the past sixty years, numerous secondary education efforts have resulted in little change to the structure of schooling and the instructional core. This finding is partly due to the fact that many large-scale reform efforts fail to take into account the dynamic relationship among the innovation, the process of innovating and the building of innovative capacity within organizations and systems. This is particularly true with the use of external change agents. Failure to consider these aspects of innovation can result in superficial adoption, poor quality implementation and lack of sustainability. As an organization externally driving innovation within the SDP, Building 21 is making an explicit effort to ensure both the quality implementation and sustainability of CBE. The Building 21 team and three SDP departments have invested the past eight months in the development of a competency map as a first step in supporting CBE. The competency map serves to provide organized and transparent identification of skill sets, knowledge and mindsets that students must master in order to graduate. Drawing on findings from diffusion of innovation and educational change literature, field experiences, and an analysis of the strategic project, this capstone analyzes reasons for persistent delays in reaching consensus regarding the competency map. Findings include: inadequate level of initial development of the innovation; lack of shared innovation narrative; limited capacity for learning and iteration; and lack of clear and strategic project leadership. The analysis concludes with recommendations for moving forward and a revised theory of action, including implications for personal leadership, SDP and Building 21, and the sector.