Visual Guide to CBE

Educators are recognizing the urgent need to modernize outdated learning models, meet students where they are, and prepare them for an increasingly fast-paced and evolving world.

Rooted in historic educational movements, competency-based education (CBE) offers a transformative approach to addressing these needs by focusing on students’ mastery of skills and knowledge at their own pace. Ready to learn more and see if it might be time to take the next steps with CBE?

This guide offers a comprehensive primer along with the essential tools to help you determine if this approach is right for your school.

What is Competency-Based Education?

Let’s start by getting on the same page about some common terms and ideas you’ll hear often in CBE.

Competency-Based Education (CBE) is an educational approach where learning objectives are clearly defined, and success is determined by demonstrated mastery, regardless of time. CBE ensures that students achieve a high level of understanding and proficiency before progressing to new material.

CBE requires a mindset shift for everyone in the school community, including administrators, teachers, students, and families. In a CBE school, learning and teaching are ongoing, collaborative experiments. Our goal as educators is to remain curious about what is worth learning and how each student learns best.

What are competencies?

Competencies are defined as the specific skills, knowledge, and abilities that students are expected to develop and demonstrate through their learning. Competencies go beyond memorization, focusing on the application of knowledge in real-world scenarios, critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. They represent what students can do with what they’ve learned, often measured by their ability to perform tasks or demonstrate mastery in various subjects or domains.

Here’s an example of a transdisciplinary competency organized by levels. A student demonstrates mastery when they consistently exhibit Level 4 behaviors independently and in new contexts.

What do we mean by mastery?

The goal of CBE is for students to successfully transfer what they’ve learned beyond the school setting.

So what does it look like in the classroom? The assessment process in CBE classrooms typically follows a similar flow:

Teachers determine which competency to focus on and design an initial assessment to find out students’ current level of understanding. This data is used to create personalized learning goals providing the necessary enrichment and support students need.

Throughout the unit, there is a shift toward ongoing, formative assessment. Students consistently check in to show their progress towards goals and their developing mastery of competencies. Students stay in this stage as long as necessary until they demonstrate consistent competence.

After consistently demonstrating competency, students engage in the performance task. This task engages students in real world problem solving and transferring their learning.

One central aspect of CBE is that learning pathways are personalized. Rather than being time-bound, students move through content by showing increasing competence, and eventually, mastery.

After collecting data about students’ current knowledge, understanding, and skills, each learner progresses along their own unique learning pathway toward mastery at their own pace. Their path is informed by ongoing assessment, reflection, and feedback. Teachers provide support and enrichment as necessary. Once students demonstrate consistent mastery, they engage in a performance task.

Now that we’ve aligned behind what CBE is, let’s explore the major shifts in belief and practice that happen when schools make the switch from traditional models and towards competency.

CBE: A mindset shift

The beauty of CBE lies in its flexibility. Based on the needs and culture of your school, you might choose to adjust the model you use.

In CBE, there are no “right answers” to these questions. Teaching is a process of trial and error to see what works best for your learners.

The entire learning community can be part of shaping what teaching and learning look like. Here are some belief statements you could discuss with your team to determine if CBE might be a good fit for your school:

Think CBE might be a good fit for your school? The final section explores the first steps you might take towards implementing this approach.

Getting started with CBE

One of the first steps in transitioning to a Competency-Based Education (CBE) model is aligning the school community around a central question:

A Portrait of a Graduate clearly describes the dispositions a school values and aims to develop in its students. The goal of this work is to take a high-level view of the type of graduates the school aspires to develop. This portrait serves as a guiding star for decision-making within the school.

Many researchers and organizations have created versions of a portrait of the graduate. In 2002, Dr. Ron Ritchhart conducted a review of these existing sets of dispositions and identified six broad characteristics that were common:

Thinking of creating your own Portrait of a Graduate? Follow these 3 steps from the Power of Making Thinking Visible.

Another great routine you can use to think through the next steps for your team is a pre-mortem. This is an excellent activity to do both individually and with other decision-makers.

Make a list of the challenges or barriers you might face if your school decides to move forward with CBE. This process is sometimes called a pre-mortem.

Getting started with CBE might feel like choosing your own adventure. By starting with a clear picture of success (your Portrait of the Graduate) as well as the likely barriers you will encounter, you can begin working with your team to choose the best path moving forward.

Competency-Based Education (CBE) offers a fundamental shift in how we approach learning, centering on mastery, personalized pathways, and real-world application. As your school looks to the future, now is the time to explore how CBE can transform your students’ experience. Ready to take the next step? Engage your team, start the conversation, and begin creating a learning environment that truly prepares students for what’s ahead.

Cindy Blackburn

Cindy has a Masters of Education in Teacher Leadership and has worked as an PYP educator and coordinator internationally for the past ten years. She currently works as the Director of learning and engagement at Toddle and specializes in developing resources to support teachers and leaders in honing their practice and understandings, to make the PYP simple, actionable, and above all else, joyous.

Disclaimer : The ideas and resources presented in this blog have been developed independently from and are not endorsed by the International Baccalaureate (IB)

Visual Guide to CBE

What is Competency-Based Education?

What are competencies?

What do we mean by mastery?

CBE: A mindset shift

Getting started with CBE

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