Tech Thursday: Career Pathways Meet Competency Based Pathways

Just released a day or so ago,  an article describing how Achieve, Inc (a huge part of the CCSS Machine) and the NASDCTEc (National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium) joined forces to complete their look at how the progress between Career and Technical Education and Competency Based Pathways was coming along.

According to the article, each state has BOTH a CTE arm AND a CBP arm. If you’ve followed my blog long, you know we’ve delved into the CTE side of Common Core quite a bit. Today, we’ll look at the CBP side of Common Core. Below is the screen shot from the NC CBP documents sharing webspace.

The Article: 

From “Getting Smart”, a pro CCSS/CTE site, http://gettingsmart.com/2015/08/ctecbe/

Here’s one short statement directly from the article that we need to have in fighting to save our educational systems and all who are involved in them.
“One system that has often been overlooked in conversations about competency based pathways has been that of career technical education (CTE).”

From NC’s CBP (Competency Based Pathways) Information:

From what I can tell, this particular NC webspace of information, is from 2013. If you cannot access the screen shot, here’s the website address: https://sites.google.com/site/competencybasedpathways/home/policy-frameworks/state-policy/state-policy-resources

This particular framework gives lots of great anti Common Core warrior information. You can see which pro CCSS groups are involved in reshaping what education is really accomplishing; you’ll see the states not embracing a big push to complete their CBP (Competency Based Pathways) strategies; you’ll see the states in the throes of completing their CBP designs; you’ll learn which states are ‘racing ahead’ in their CBP grasp on our students.

Here’s the basic idea about state policies in education, at least in the CBP Way:
a) ‘good’ policy moves include using students outcome to drive precedents.
b) ‘guarding’ those high quality academic standards
c) ‘create’ a community wide education effort (ie: must include ALL ‘stakeholders’)
d) offer incentives to help force certain outcomes and remove any rules or regulations not encouraging ‘more ways to learn/earn’

Some other great information you can use to fight the CCSS Machine’s grasp on local education:
“seat time waivers”
CBP exploratory task forces
CBP pilot programs
Flexible credit awards (means there’s more than one way to earn that degree)
Expanding educational offerings so the entire K-12 system, the community, is not only involved in CBP, but thriving in it.
Elimination of certain educational parameters that have serve our communities for long periods of time.
Aligning ALL K-12 students with CBP choices.

These items AND others are being used to re-arrange education infrastructure right under our noses!

What do I mean? Here’s the excerpt from NC’s CBP information for an Advanced CBP state:
“A few states are racing ahead, designing policies that boldly advance competency-based learning. They provide excellent building blocks in the nascent field of competency-based systems for designing comprehensive state policy frameworks. Drawing upon the lessons learned from the most advanced states, an initial starting point for aligning the policy infrastructure include: 

• Eliminate seat-time and redefine awarding credits based on competencies.
  
• Require districts to offer competency-based credits so that students have competency-based options.
  
• Provide support mechanisms including technical assistance providers to create competencies, train teachers, and establish information management systems.
  
• Establish quality-control mechanisms to safeguard equity and to ensure that higher expectations for student learning are not compromised. 
• Expand learning options in the community, after school, and in online courses.
• Align higher education with K–12 competency-based efforts. Teacher training, college admissions, and streamlining budgets to support accelerated learning are all critical elements to creating a sustainable competency-based approach.
• Design balanced assessment systems and accountability systems that provide valuable information for improving student learning and school performance. “To read more, be sure to access the website for NC’s information given above. Below is a screen shot of just one of the other CBP resources available from this webspace.

iNACOL’s part of the CCSS Machine as well, my Warriors! See: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/06/08/monday-musings-ccss-tech-schedule/ (This recent article, June 2015, shares how iNACOL is helping communities become ‘blended learners’)
Then, see this one: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/10/24/fom-friday-knowledgeworks-or-knowledge-quirks/
(This article from 2014, shares how iNACOL has partnered with KnowledgeWorks, the CCSSO (Chief Council of State School Officers), and others to bring about not only competency based education, but entire aligned cities and towns to the CCSS Machine’s agenda.
Achieve, Inc.’s Part of the CCSS Machine?

While many of us anti CCSS Warriors/researchers/writers have shared plenty of proof for Achieve, Inc. and CCSS, almost everything I’ve written about them is from the CTE, higher education, and/or Career Pathways side of education. I’m including only the MOST relevant articles about Achieve’s OTHER aspirations for aligning all the CCSS/CTE, CP, and now CBP it can.
See: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/03/13/fom-achieving-cc-aligned-competencies/
(This is from March 2015 and gives you the report of transforming high school transcripts to become just like the post=secondary ones..full of CBPs! It also lays out the ties to the New England Secondary Education Consortium’s ties to Bill Gates)
Then: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/11/13/tech-thursday-collegecareer-readiness-success-and-common-core/
(This article from 2014, is a virtual snake pit of CCSS Machine groups, Achieve, Inc. being only one of them, with not only the plan for CCSS, College and Career Readiness Standards to meet and assimilate into Competency Based Learning, but the states already divided up!)
Finally, to see Achieve, Inc.’s latest report, as mentioned in the “Getting Smart” article,
http://www.achieve.org/CBP
NASDCTEc’s Part in the CCSS Machine:

This group is no stranger to me due to all my research. While I’ve written about them several times, again, I’m only giving you the MOST relevant articles. Use all the documents, links, etc. you can in this to share with those in your realms of influence who don’t see the dots connecting yet! We must!
See: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/11/16/rmt-vp-unions-career-tech-and-common-core/
(This is from November 2014 and gives you how the Vice President, Career and Technical Education, Perkins Funding, and NASDCTEc’s in unison to transform education into workforce training.)
Then: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/03/12/tech-thursday-difference-between-careers/
(This one, from March 2015, gives you not only the NASDCTEc’s portion of the CCSS Machine, but the ACTE’s (Association for Career Technical Education) portion, too! You’ll also get to find out how Harvard University is related to all this; how the Gates Foundation helped fund ACTE for the EXPRESS purpose of aligning CCSS and CTE.)
To see the August 3rd, 2015 NASDCTEc/Achieve, Inc. joint report on strengthening the ties between competencies and your students, http://www.achieve.org/CTECBPConnections

Lastly, you’ll need the “Imperative” report for state leaders from Achieve’s ‘related’ resources for all the competency based pathways and their policies to be set into stone.
http://www.achieve.org/imperative-state-leadership