Competency-based education (CBE) enjoys popularity among some policymakers and advocates for its potential to address challenges related to access, quality, success, and cost in postsecondary education. But the field lacks a robust understanding of the extent of CBE adoption nationwide―comprehensive and reliable data on how many postsecondary CBE programs exist, at what kinds of institutions, and with what characteristics are not represented in existing collections.
To understand the current scale of CBE and track its growth over time, AIR is conducting a National Survey of Postsecondary Competency-Based Education (NSPCBE). The NSPCBE is an annual, web-based survey of postsecondary institutions in the United States, geared toward identifying the state of the CBE field, including both institutions that are interested in adopting CBE and those already on the adoption pathway. The survey will be administered in 3 consecutive years (2018-2020) to provide important information about the early development of the field to policymakers and practitioners, and data from the First Annual Survey will be available in Fall 2018. Survey questions will include (but are not limited to):
- How many postsecondary CBE programs are there in the US?
- What different CBE program models are being used in the US?
- How many students are enrolled in CBE programs in the US?
- How many students have received a CBE credential in the US?
- What are the accelerators and barriers to adopting a CBE program?