Tom Vander Ark, CEO for Getting Smart, provided excellent examples of how Missouri school districts are engaging in Real World Learning and described the regional network that has been established in the Kansas City area. This network has brought together educators and the business community to expand on the idea of the knowledge, skills and dispositions students need to be college and career ready under the umbrella of Market Value Assets (MVA). He makes connections to how RWL connects to Competency-Based Learning (CBL) including the three essential tenets necessary for building such a system. The video below captures Tom’s presentation. Also provided are his slides from the presentation and other RWL recommended resources.

Charles Pearson, SRSN Facilitator, next led the group to consider key learning from each of the Innovation Zone presenters, including: Bill Daggett, Mike Ruhl, and Tom Vander Ark. This activity allowed participants to look back at their notes and share collectively key learning from previous sessions. They were also asked to discuss their understanding of the 8 elements of a Competency-Based Learning mindset.

As Tom Vander Ark shared earlier in the session, there are key connections between RWL and CBL, some being very tightly connected and others being more centered on the direction and context of a school district. To effectively make these connections, Pam Hedgpeth, SRSN Facilitator, led participants through a process to consider how RWL and CBL connect and how that might look in a district learning system. Groups engaged in creating a Concept Map for how all of these elements work collectively.