Personalized, Competency-Based Learning (PCBL)
Overview
What is Personalized, Competency-Based Learning (PCBL)?
In a personalized, competency-based learning system, the following principles influence the daily actions of the educational community:
- Students are empowered daily to make important decisions about their learning experiences, how they will create and apply knowledge, and how they will demonstrate their learning.
- Assessment is a meaningful, positive, and empowering learning experience for students that yields timely, relevant, and actionable evidence.
- Students receive timely, differentiated support based on their individual learning needs.
- Students progress based on evidence of mastery, not seat time.
- Students learn actively using different pathways and varied pacing.
- Strategies to ensure equity for all students are embedded in the culture, structure, and pedagogy of schools and education systems.
- Rigorous, common expectations for learning (knowledge, skills, and dispositions) are explicit, transparent, measurable, and transferable.
The Utah State Board of Education is continuing the innovation for PCBL with the release of the Utah’s PCBL Framework and continuation of the PCBL Grant Programs. PCBL moves the focus of the classroom from teaching to learning based on fixed and well-defined targets for all students. It provides equitable access for each student to demonstrate core knowledge and skills in personalized and differentiated ways and can also empower students to engage in opportunities for deeper learning. PCBL moves instruction beyond information dissemination to a focus on transferable skills necessary for success in the modern world.
Review Committee
Nathan Auck
Advisory Committee Facilitator
Utah State Board of Education
Blaine Edman
Current Local Education Agency (LEA) Administrator
Alpine School District
Rajathi Noel
Current Teacher
Weber School District
Matthew Winters
Former Teacher
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Bryan Bowles
Former School District Superintendent
Utah Charter School Board
Christina Guevara
Expert, Blended Learning
Spectrum Academy
Luke Rasmussen
Current Superintendent
Ogden School District
Sonia Woodbury
Expert, STEM Education
City Academy
Royd Darrington
Former Local Education Agency (LEA) Administrator
Juab School District
Ryan Hagge
Current Charter School Administrator
American Academy of Innovation
Logan Toone
Expert, Assessment In Student Learning
Davis School District
Utah’s PCBL Framework and Related Initiatives
Utah's Personalized, Competency-Based Learning (PCBL) Framework is the bridge between Utah's Portrait of a Graduate to the work of Utah’s educators, students, and families to achieve the learning outcomes as described in Utah’s Core Standards and the P-20 Competencies.
To achieve this, the PCBL framework leverages five essential components necessary to create a personalized, competency based learning approach. The six essential components are:
- Culture of Learning
- Learner Agency
- Demonstrated Competency and Assessment
- Customized Supports
- Social and Emotional Learning
When these elements are used in concert with one another they set the learning conditions to support schools and districts in achieving the ideals of PCBL. Furthermore, the PCBL Framework provides clear indicators and promising practices for educators, students, and families needed to cultivate student learning aligned with Utah’s Portrait of a Graduate.
Related Initiatives
Grant Programs
Planning Grant Program
Fiscal Year 2025
Grant Application Cohort F
Award Window
July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025
Cohort F PCBL Planning Grant Application (FY 2024 Application - FY 2025 Award)
Google Docs
Note: Create a copy of this document and rename appropriately for your LEA before starting your work on this application.
Fiscal Year 2020
Grants Awarded (Cohort A)
American Academy of Innovation
Davis School District
Duchesne School District
Iron County School District
Juab School District
Logan City School District
Murray District
Fiscal Year 2021
Grants Awarded (Cohort B)
Alpine School District
City Academy
Ogden City School District
Spectrum Academy
Washington County School District
Weber School District
Fiscal Year 2022
Grants Awarded (Cohort C)
Canyons School District
Freedom Preparatory Academy
Granite School District
Jordan School District
North Sanpete School District
Walden School
Fiscal Year 2023Grants Awarded (Cohort D)Odyssey Charter School |
Fiscal Year 2024Grants Awarded (Cohort E)South Sanpete School District |
Grant Technical Support
Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC)
Susie Bell
bell@mastery.org
The New Teacher Project (TNTP)
Erin Ashley
erin.ashley@tntp.org
Implementation Grant Program
Overview
The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) is releasing a competitive Implementation grant for Fiscal Years 2023-2024 to support Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in their Implementation of Competency-Based Education.
Fiscal Year 2024-2026
Grant Application Cohort E
Award Window
July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2026
Cohort E PCBL Implementation Grant Application (FY 2024 Application - FY 2025 Award)
Google Docs
Expansion Grant
Overview
The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) is releasing a competitive Expansion grant for Fiscal Years 2023-2024 to support Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in their Implementation of Personalized, Competency-Based Education.
Fiscal Years 2025-2026
Grant Application Cohort C
Award Window
July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2026
Cohort C PCBL Implementation Grant Application (FY 2024 Application - FY 2025 Award)
Google Docs
Extended Learning Resources
Coming Soon!