Welcome to the world of Personalized Competency-Based Learning (PCBL) in the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom! Here, we believe that learning should be tailored to meet the unique needs and abilities of each student. By sharing resources, design strategies, and examples of successful implementation, the goal of this website is to empower educators and students to embrace this innovative approach to education. Join us as we explore the limitless possibilities of PCBL and discover how it can revolutionize the way ELA is taught and learned.

This past fall|the results from the “Nation’s Report Card,” the National Assessment of Educational Progress|painted a bleak picture of pandemic learning loss. And just before that news broke|survey data revealed that the downward trend in district enrollment has continued even since schools reopened their doors. With all this and more on their plates|it’s no wonder that many districts aren’t focusing on reinventing schools but instead are just seeking to get back to some semblance of normalcy. Efforts like personalizing learning for each student might feel superfluous or even like a distraction and headache. But the opposite is true. It’s never been more urgent for districts to begin personalizing learning for each child — to deliver every student the right learning at the right time to accelerate their progress.

Prior Ability and Achievement is based on the students’ previous learning experiences and how that learning influences, positively and negatively, upon new learning. The amount and quality of prior knowledge positively influences both knowledge acquisition and the ability to apply higher-order, problem solving skills.

This toolbox highlights thinking routines developed across a number of research projects at PZ. A thinking routine is a set of questions or a brief sequence of steps used to scaffold and support student thinking. PZ researchers designed thinking routines to deepen students' thinking and to help make that thinking “visible.”

Video tour and introduction of personalized competency based learning implementation under way at the Quest Academy Jr. High School in West Haven, Utah.

The stories we hear these days about education are largely focused either on the culture wars–what gets to be taught and what doesn’t–or how far students are “behind” in learning after nearly three pandemic school years. These stories are important, but what gets lost is the quiet revolution taking place across the nation–including in Kentucky–to modernize education for the future.

Self-directed learning is a strategy where the student takes charge of the learning, seeks out information and develops solutions with minimal or no aid by a teacher.

Self-Reported Grades allows students to assess their performance against predetermined standard criteria. This can include assessing their own work and coming to conclusions about the path toward improvement, progress, and achievement, and supporting other students in connecting their learning to meaningful strategies for growth.

Strong Classroom Cohesion promotes the sense that the teacher-to-student and student-to-student interactions are working toward positive learning goals. The class is perceived as fair, respectful and focuses on supporting all students in their learning.

Enhance student engagement and build a stronger community of learners by encouraging students to propose and lead their own clubs.

Success Criteria are the standards by which the task or project will be judged at the end to decide whether or not it has been successful. They are often brief, co-constructed with students, aim to remind students those aspects on which they need to focus, and can relate to the surface (content, ideas) and deep (relations, transfer) successes from the lesson(s).

Teacher Clarity relates to organization, explanation, examples and guided practice, and assessment of student learning. It can involve clearly communicating the intentions of the lessons and the success criteria. Clear learning intentions describe the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values that the student needs to learn.

Teacher Credibility is the student’s perception of their teacher. It is vital to learning, and students are very perceptive about knowing which teachers can make a difference. There are four key factors of credibility: trust, competence, dynamism and immediacy. Trust, as in believing in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of the teacher. Competence, being the teacher’s ability to teach successfully or efficiently. Dynamism, meaning the teacher is full of energy and excitement towards content and learning. And immediacy, regarding timely feedback and response to learner needs.

Teacher Estimates of Achievement are a teacher’s belief about the level a student is able to achieve based on past experiences. Teacher beliefs are influenced by past experiences such as responses to questions, observations, written work evidence such as assignments and tests, as well as how the student has reacted to increased challenges. These beliefs in turn affect the expectations teachers set for students, establishing next challenges for learning, informing placement and intervention choices, and influencing future instructional choices.

Teacher Expectations are demonstrated by the moment-to-moment interactions they have with the students they teach in thousands of almost invisible ways. Teachers give additional attention to provide more specific feedback and exhibit demonstrations of approval (for example, tone, nods, smiles) to students they expect to succeed. Teachers with high expectations have procedures in place that students manage themselves, communicate learning intentions and success criteria with the class, ask more open questions, manage behavior positively and proactively, make more positive statements and create a positive classroom climate, and set specific learning goals that are regularly reviewed with students.

Teacher-Student Relationships are effective when learners have healthy, sustained relationships with teachers that promote a sense of trust, belonging, safety and a sense that they matter.

Most educators agree that the traditional “sit and get” classroom will not help us achieve greater educational equity or promote the deeper learning skills our students need to succeed. In response, a growing number of schools, districts, and states are embracing approaches that are more equitable and learner-centered—where each student's unique profile of strengths, needs, interests, goals, family and cultural background, and experiences are nurtured and leveraged to enable them to succeed.

Labeling students happens when teachers use terms associated with the ability, potential or behavior of the learners. These labels can be positive or negative and can result in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Labeling is seen as a factor that could explain differential achievement in schools by ability, class, disability, ethnicity or gender.

For learning to be effective, students must be able to make a spontaneous, unprompted, and appropriate transfer of a learning or problem-solving strategy from one context to another. This can be near transfer to new problems similar to prior instruction, or far transfer to new situations and domains.