The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), together with the Region 10 Comprehensive Center (R10CC), conducted a survey of educators in Minnesota public schools to better understand which schools are implementing competency-based education (CBE) practices and to learn more about their goals, successes, and challenges. These insights will help others develop policies and practices that support learner-centered approaches in our schools.
KEY FINDINGS
- Minnesota is home to a motivated community of practitioners and a variety of school types implementing practices aligned with competency-based education (CBE).
- Respondents reported implementing the majority of identified CBE practices in a variety of grade levels and contexts.
- The implementation of CBE practices lacks coherence between and within schools and districts. There is a lack of alignment between some CBE practices and existing systems and structures.
- Barriers to effective implementation are mostly internal. Respondents cited teacher capacity and attitudes as the most common challenges they’ve had to overcome when implementing CBE practices.
