The System Design Zone (SDZ) districts, in collaboration with DESE representatives, have been working hard this fall to design a Demonstration Project Waiver. This proposal is being developed so that SDZ districts have the opportunity to engage in INNOVATIVE pilots which promote Competency-Based Learning practices and learning-centered assessments.
Additionally, these districts would like to explore solutions for how to best display, share and use multiple sources of meaningful evidence connected to student learning. This includes developing ways to capture and report student mastery of important knowledge, skills and dispositions students need to be high school, college, career and workforce ready. Such data-systems promote student agency, teacher efficacy and parent understanding. All of this work is tightly connected to the proposed Theory of Action for Assessment.
The SRSN Demonstration Project proposal is currently going through refinement based on feedback from DESE and SDZ members. Marzano Research associates have been contracted to guide and support the research design for this work. The Demonstration Project Waiver will help inform how assessment, accountability, and professional learning can be designed to best support a personalized, competency-based learning mindset.