Advancing Postsecondary Competency-Based Education Pathways via Next-Generation Outcomes Research & Data
Postsecondary competency-based education (CBE) programs are growing nationally, with colleges and universities engaging in significant innovation to develop and implement programs that serve learners well.
But the field still has limited information about who enrolls in these programs and what their outcomes are—in terms of attaining degrees, their post-completion outcomes in the workforce, whether they attained their goals, and more.
Improving Knowledge and Research About Postsecondary CBE
With funding from the Ascendium Education Group, AIR is partnering with the postsecondary CBE community nationally to improve the information available about these programs in two ways:
- First, AIR will collect and share descriptive outcomes, which will involve collecting basic descriptive metrics from CBE programs about their enrollment and outcomes. This effort aims to collect information from the majority of postsecondary CBE programs in the U.S., allowing us to characterize the field.
- Second, AIR anticipates engaging in a more detailed and more rigorous outcomes study with a smaller subset of CBE programs and a traditional program counterpart. In this second phase, AIR will conduct a quasi-experimental study to isolate the impact of CBE on student outcomes, including exploring whether certain program designs matter for certain learners.
Alongside the ongoing outcomes evaluation, AIR also conducted implementation research to better understand how CBE programs are designed and implemented across program contexts and provide essential context for understanding and interpreting student outcomes in CBE programs.
Research Brief
Implementing Postsecondary Competency-Based Education: Lessons Learned From Five Institutions’ Implementation Journeys presents findings from a qualitative study of five postsecondary institutions implementing CBE programs, focusing on common implementation experiences, decisions about program design, and cross-institutional lessons learned.
Mini-Brief
Change Management in CBE Implementation: Lessons From the Field, a companion to the research brief, offers a focused look at the change management strategies, including perspectives on leadership, collaboration, and staff development, that support CBE implementation at five postsecondary institutions.
Supporting State Agencies with a Community of Practice
AIR also is partnering with the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) to launch a Community of Practice (CoP) for state agency staff, designed to support state agencies as they aim to collect, use, and standardize data on CBE programs operating in their states.
The CoP will convene five to eight states that are committed to improving their CBE data infrastructure and to building shared approaches for monitoring program quality and learner outcomes. Participants will engage in quarterly virtual convenings and receive tailored technical assistance focused on improving data definitions, ability to disaggregate data on CBE students, reporting processes, and cross agency coordination.
The CoP will also serve as a collaborative learning opportunity where state agency staff can identify common challenges, exchange strategies, and co develop tools that support sustainable CBE data practices. Insights emerging from these efforts will inform the development of a shared framework and practical guide for other states seeking to strengthen their own CBE data systems.
