Inquiry, innovation, and impact are the three tenets of The Mount Vernon School. Our goal is to prepare students to become engaged citizen leaders who are eager to make their impact on the world. Using human-centered design thinking as a guide, Mount Vernon fosters a learner-centered culture where students are encouraged to ask questions, find unique solutions to problems, and take agency over their learning.

Provoking a paradigm shift in school culture and teaching practices is no easy feat: it’s an uphill journey with many obstacles along the way. Leading a team of dedicated educators up the path towards innovative, sustainable change places significant demand on teachers, students, and parents. As leaders, how might we remove the barriers, remnants of an older paradigm, to make competency-based education (CBE) a successful practice where students’ learning is empowering, personalized, and accurately measured?

A provocation, such as this, recalls for me Gleicher’s formula for change: there has to be dissatisfaction with the status quo, along with a clearly communicated vision, followed by actionable, accessible steps for getting there. Otherwise, the resistance will always be greater than the momentum. We must do more than communicate the vision. We…