This growing library features data points that describe the impacts and outcomes of student-centered and competency-based approaches to teaching and learning. The data is sourced from research studies, evaluation reports and journal articles, as well as evidence collected directly by classroom, school, district and state leaders using student-centered and personalized learning approaches.
Results of a 2022 national survey of educators showed, though summative assessments increased from 2021, teachers are adopting a more balanced approach to assessment. 81% of surveyed teachers used formative assessments in 2022, a 5% increase from 2021, and 78% used benchmark/interim assessments, a 20% increase.
Looking at 20 studies on project-based learning, researchers found a positive effect on student learning in Social Studies and Science, and to a smaller degree, math and literacy.
In a study investigating the student-level impacts of high quality project-based activities 62% of students performed proficient or higher on a performance assessment requiring them to transfer knowledge to a new situation.
Performance in schools with accountability systems that focused on state grade-level proficiency grew 7 percentile points, while those that operated under accountability systems that rewarded student growth (and prioritized individual student needs) grew 38 percentile points.
On average, third graders in project-based classrooms performed eight percentage points better on the science assessment as compared with students in the control group classrooms.
Findings from the first year of the Knowledge in Action project-based learning approach revealed an increase in the likelihood of earning a score of three or higher on the AP U.S. Government or AP Environmental Science test by about eight percentage points.
Implementing the student-centered instruction and assessment strategies of lesson study practices led to significant and positive shifts in Black students’ perceptions of themselves as “math people.”
After teachers engaged in empathy interviews and guided lesson study practices as part of the networked improvement community study of student-centered instruction and assessment strategies, Black and Latinx students were more likely to believe they could succeed in math class.
Over the course of the networked improvement community study of student-centered instruction and assessment strategies, Latinx students, both male and female, made significant improvements in math proficiency.
Several student learning capacities (e.g., intrinsic motivation, utility of math/ELA; locus of control, self-management and preparation for courses) were perceived by educators as positively impacted by increased clarity of learning targets in a competency-based system.
In an analysis of schools in three states, some competency-based education practices (e.g., clarity and required attainment of learning targets; use of multiple assessment types) were perceived as increasing students’ intrinsic motivation.
Students who started in the bottom quartile from Next Generation Learning Challenge schools demonstrated greater gains than students in a matched comparison group on the NWEA MAP English Language Arts and Math interim assessments after two years.
