The perceived value of postsecondary education to economic competitiveness and individual success is driving innovation in higher education. Competency-based education (CBE) is the latest disruption that seeks to respond to the growing sense of national urgency to boost education attainment. The target audience generally includes those adult…

Western Governors University Texas (WGU Texas), where the author is chancellor, is not an easy institution to describe. It just does not fit the profile of most traditional universities, even the newer for-profit and online ones. It brings the work of a national, online, nonprofit university into a state, and it embraces a competency-based…

Never before have more children lived away from their home countries. Given the unique social, emotional, and academic needs of children who have migrated, school psychologists must be well prepared to meet these growing demands. Consequently, school psychology training programs must invest in the preparation of culturally competent future school…

This instructional module is intended to train adult educators in integrating competency-based education (CBE) and state-of-the-art instructional technology in their adult basic education (ABE) classrooms. It is divided into seven instructional units. The following topics are covered in the individual units: the tenets of CBE and its role in ABE,…

This document outlines the model that was jointly developed by representatives of the Texas Education Agency and University of Texas at Austin (UTA) to inject the state's existing health science technology education (HSTE) program with tech prep components and Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) competencies. Presented…

This handbook was developed to provide adult educators in Texas with sufficient background in assessment models to ensure confidence in recognizing and/or selecting appropriate measurement techniques and in using evaluation results to individualize and improve instruction for adult students. The handbook is based on information derived from a…

The extent to which competency-based instruction (CBI) has been implemented in postsecondary-level vocational-technical education programs and courses throughout Texas was assessed. Questionnaires were mailed to the occupational education deans/directors of 69 public community and technical college campuses. Each dean/director distributed the…

A statewide assessment process was designed and pilot tested to determine the extent to which competency-based instruction (CBI) has been implemented in vocational-technical education programs and courses in all public community and technical colleges in Texas. The final report consists of two volumes. Volume I contains the rationale…

The University of Texas Pilot Program was operated in five sites in Texas (Abilene, Brownsville, El Paso, Houston, and Temple) to demonstrate the utility of competency-based high school diplomas for Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) clients. Included among the program features common to all five sites were the following: (1) the…

This project was conducted to develop a course of study in health occupations in grades 9 and 10 for a county-wide comprehensive health careers high school. The course was to include related skills development in health occupations, support materials for an academic course of study, and broad outlines of curriculum for grades 11 and 12. The High…

Three project objectives were (1) to identify the competencies required for entry into the professional role of the teacher of vocational agriculture (exclusive of the technical competencies of scientific agriculture), (2) to validate the competencies identified, and (3) to initiate procedures for incorporating the validated competencies into the…