How do you balance feedback and grading in a competency-based education system?

I have taught both 16-18 year old learners as well as 19+ mature learners and in my experience using rubrics and grade banding only works when the language is simple to follow and clearly outlines what outcome/skill the learner has achieved. It is important to ensure that the terms learners will find in the competencies referred to are included in the feedback provided. In addition to clearly explaining to the learner where they will need to develop in order to reach the next grade band.

I would add that competencies and criteria are ultimately about clarity. Bolstering the competencies & criteria with examples/exemplars can go a long way in providing clarity for learners. Many times, learners are left wondering "Yeah, but what does that actually look like? Exemplars provide a visible reference for learners as they engage in the task. Visible and referenceable exemplars can be the difference between learners feeling "stuck" vs growing their agency to figure it out along the way. In my experience, the drawback to providing examples can be that they sometimes stifle the creativity or imagination of the learner if the assignment is a project or one that is highly reliant on originality or imagination.

In my experience this is highly effective in primary and allows children the opportunity to talk about their learning and next steps in a structured way with their teacher. Pupil conferencing is a powerful tool to support children at all levels to engage with their learning in a nurturing environment.

This requires careful thought and planning. A competency is the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. Competencies are demonstrated in performance. In order to be competent at a complex task, a person must be fluent in some knowledge, skills and attitudes. Rubrics that try to capture all of these at once are very nebulous and can be confusing--not to mention difficult to describe clearly. I recommend focusing on a single aspect of the competency (knowledge, skill, or disposition)when providing a rubric and give comments on that single component. Yes, that does mean you will need more than one feedback pass, but it will help your learners navigate the task and give you a clearer picture at where to target support.

In my current educational setting, we provide a balance of feedback and grading through the development of topic pages with clear 'I can' statements and also a 'two page spread' as an end of assessment for each history/geography topic in KS1 & KS2. All pupils self assess against the 'I can' statements during their learning of the topic. These statements are 'closed' and provide opportunities to measure progress while the 'two page spread' is an 'open ended task.' These tasks are self led and allow pupils to demonstrate what they have retained and what they can apply to different contexts and link to previous learning. Both are used for feedback and grading through the use of moderation rather than by providing a level.

In my experience formative assessment should be immediate and ongoing. The most powerful impact of feedback occurs when feedback is immediate and empowering. For example in my teaching I carefully plan each activity to ensure students are given opportunities to review their learning, (either independently or with their peers), and link their learning to their lesson outcomes/ units/ qualifications/ work experience or wider life experiences. When this is done on a continuous basis learners begin to grow confident and gradually gain a deeper understanding of what they are learning and how theory can be applied to practice.

I agree. I would warn that formative assessments become useless if they are not: 1) aligned to competencies and standards created at the beginning 2) analyzed and used to inform instructional decisions. Since the purpose of formative assessment is to check progress along the way, failing to examine and analyze the evidence/data to determine where students see success and struggle effectively turns formative assessments into summative assessments, which does not improve instructional outcomes.

To allow learners as many opportunities as possible to demonstrate competency, consider designing formative and summative assessments that have a low floor and high ceiling. What this means is that they are accessible to all learners to be successful (low floor), while at the same time offering opportunities for learners to demonstrate exceptional knowledge, skills, or understandings (high ceilings). This may mean that your design of assessments will need to become less rigid and more flexible than traditional ways your organization may be accustomed to designing. With practice, formative assessments can offer learners multiple ways to demonstrate understanding so that when summative assessments present themselves, learners feel empowered.

One thing I've found helpful is to differentiate some assessments by giving students a choice of how the final product is presented (ex.poster, comic strip, etc) and using a rubric to measure their mastery of the content. It's more time consuming, but this provides a greater understanding of their skills and learning gaps.

One way to align assessments with learning outcomes is to approach each learning outcome as a type of target. For each target, what kind of target is it? Is it knowledge? skill? attitude? understanding? After identifying the type, consider how the assessment method will match. For example, one outcome in volleyball is to "hit the ball over the net," a skill. The best method of assessment to show this skill will be a performance. However, a mismatched assessment method for this skill might be a written response. A learner who can describe in writing how to hit the ball over the net may not be able to actually do so. Ensuring assessment methods match learning target types is one way to focus feedback necessary for competency-based learning.

I totally agree with this statement. When learners are able to confidently link what they are doing to what they are learning they become more resilient, engaged and in most cases ready to learn more. This is where the teacher can encourage learners to ask questions and seek different perspectives to their learning topic. This in turn enables the learner to further develop their critical thinking skills as they consider the impact of their 'new knowledge' on what they are learning.

An example of this is pre assessment or adaptive teaching within lessons. It’s imperative that we as teachers know where our Childrens gaps in learning are. If not how can we teach effectively to equip them with the skills they need to build future learning on. Assessment takes place in many forms and it is the ability to dip into the toolkit as a practitioner that allows us to support individuals at their pace and in an effective way.

I agree with the fourth step in the CBE approach, however an important thing to remember that any actionable feedback given also needs to be adaptable to the learning level/need of the learner. Written feedback may not always work for some learners. Consider adding different methods of feedback such as audio feedback to ensure learners who may not be receptive to one feedback format due to eg: a learning need, will still have the opportunity to receive their feedback in an alternative format. My concern is that without caution this could become a prescriptive approach if a 'one size fits all' approach is engineered, which may then hinder the progress of those learners who may have additional needs.

In my experience when learners are included in the assessment process they are more likely to achieve positive results. For example when assessing group presentations, providing my learners with the same assessment sheet I was using to assess their peers presentations enabled them to have a deeper understanding on what they had to do to pass their assessments and what their teacher (me!) would be looking for when grading their work.

I would put this step much earlier in this article. Involving learners in the assessment process is crucial to managing feedback in competency-based learning. Learners can be involved at the outset, when defining criteria and competencies. This makes the process of learning more authentic. It also facilitates positive peer-feedback loops, which are another approach to feedback in competency-based learning. If learners have not been involved from the beginning, it will be difficult for them to feel ownership over giving and receiving feedback.

Consider technology as a part of your feedback loops only for formative assessment and data analytics of formative and summative assessment. Tools and platforms often dehumanize the learning process and used without intention, can become an obstacle to relationship-building that is so necessary to learning. Learners appreciate technology-enhanced feedback when the outcomes are purely quantitative (think of Khan Academy as an example). But for conceptual, process, or abstract learning, conversation and community will be key to learners' success. Use technology to support assessment in intentional, careful, and humanizing ways to support feedback and grading.

Consider how traditional methods of grading and assessment do not serve learners in the margins of your organization. For equitable access to learning, examine your organization's systems carefully. Consider collecting what Shane Safir & Jamila Dugan call "Street Data." Use this kind of granular, qualitative data to unearth ways your organization can give feedback for learning to be equitable and just for all. Feedback and grading is not just about numbers; in fact that is just the starting point, not the ending point.