St. James R-1 School District is beginning a five-year plan to shift toward competency-based education (CBE). 

CBE is an instructional system that focuses on real-world experiences and full mastery of skills. It aims to make learning more personalized to each individual and encourages students to take control of their learning. Assistant Superintendent April Williams said the shift will help all students be more prepared to enter the real world after graduation. 

Williams emphasized that the district is already ahead of the game when it comes to implementing CBE. The model will build upon the district’s already established efforts to empower students to make decisions about their learning, use assessment data to drive instruction, and promote real-world experiences.

Williams said she met with all of the teachers in each building to discuss what CBE could look like in the district. The shift will take place over the course of five years, each with its own goals. The current school year is considered year zero.

2025-26: Educate

2026-27: Design

2027-28: Adapt

2028-29: Integrate

2029-30: Embed

2030-31: Diploma+

Year zero is focused on ensuring all educators in the district understand what it will mean to implement CBE. Year one will begin the process of designing what CBE will look like within the district.

“This isn’t something, as I told the teachers, it’s not something that’s my vision, it’s not something that’s even the administrators’ vision,” Williams said. “It’s something that we have to hear from everybody to design.”

By year five, the district is aiming for all of its graduates to be leaving with an internship or apprenticeship, college credit, industry-recognized credentials, entrepreneurial experiences or client-connected projects.

“Instead of students watching videos from Bill Nye or Dave Ramsey or somebody of that nature, they’re actually going to get out into the workforce,” Williams said. “They’re going to work with accountants. They’re going to work with a scientist. They’re going to have internships, they’re going to have externships, they’re going to have opportunities to make connections with their community through rural world learning experiences.”

“I love the idea,” President Jon Rapp said. “I think the biggest overhang over the top of public schools right now is, ‘I was not prepared for the real world when I left as a high school graduate.’ ‘I didn’t know how to file a tax return.’ ‘I didn’t know what a W-4 was.’ ‘I didn’t know if I should claim myself as single,’ or ‘I didn’t know that I could stay on my parents’ insurance until I was 26,’ so the real world stuff that we’re introducing them to is great.”

The board discussed concerns over being able to get enough involvement from the community in order to support students in these real world experiences as more graduates head straight into the workforce.

“It is exciting that we have the county having those conversations, saying, ‘we want to keep our kids in the county, and we want to have jobs,’” Superintendent Tim Webster said.

Williams clarified that the new model will not change the grading scale or how students progress through each grade level.

“I don’t believe that our district is feeling that’s where we are at,” Williams said. “I feel like what we are saying is that we are going to intentionally design purposeful opportunities for our kids to have some competency-based education experiences.”