Competency Based Learning, Online Education and Lamar Alexander’s ESEA Revisions
By Morna McDermott
(A special thanks to Allison McDowell for provoking me to this research and to an amazing blog by Emily Talmage that had mad amounts of information on this subject)
This has been over a decade in the making. In 2000 Business Week listed the companies benefiting from the new boon in online education stating, “Dozens of new companies are springing up to serve the emerging K-12 market for digital learning. Investors have poured nearly $1 billion into these companies since the beginning of 1999, estimates Merrill Lynch.”
Begin with ALEC Model Legislation called Resolution Adopting the 10 Elements of High-Quality Digital Learning for K-12
One element which states, “Advancement: Students progress based on demonstrated competency.”
This resolution was adopted in 2011 following a proposal crafted by Bob Wise and Jeb Bush. Tom Vander Ark, also proclaims himself an “architect of Digital Learning Now’s 10 Elements of Digital Learning”
Tom Vander Ark was the first business executive to serve as a public school superintendent and was the first executive director for education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr. Vander Ark is chairman of theBoard of Directors for iNACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. You can see his blog.
Bob Wise and Jeb Bush along with Bill Gates were central to the development of the Common Core State Competency Based Learning, Online Education and Lamar Alexander’s ESEA Revisions - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform: