On Monday, February 27, 2017, I moderated the #EdChatME Twitter chat all on the topic of "Defining Proficiency." #EdChatME is a group of Maine-based educators who are focused and committed to sharing practices and ideas, collaborative problem-solving, and connecting educators in and beyond our great state.  Maine has been deep in the throes of designing educational systems around the principles of proficiency-based learning for several years, yet many districts still don't actually have a clear definition of what "Proficiency" is.  This chat sought to help that issue.

For the last five years, I've been working with the teachers and administrators at AOS #94 to develop an innovative and student-centered approach to learning.  In listening to conversations with them, hearing their concerns, desires, and frustrations with how learning was happening in our district, we decided to tackle the issue of "defining proficiency" straight on.  Much of the feedback that I heard about students can be summarized  as follows:

• Students don't retain information year to year
• Students aren't invested in their own education