SpacesEDU’s Competency Framework

With many districts planning, building, or fully implementing graduate profiles to serve as their “North Star,” they have laid a great foundation for students to thrive in school and well beyond graduation. However, their “why” often faces roadblocks with the “how.” This is where SpacesEDU’s Competency Framework comes in. 

Contents:

1. Building Your Framework
2. Single-Level Framework
3. Dual-Level Framework
4. Getting Started: Advance Setup for District Administrators
5. Next Steps: Enabling and Configuring Competency Framework
6. Access for Students and Teachers

Why a Competency Framework Matters

A Competency Framework bridges the gap between a high-level vision and actionable learning and demonstration. It breaks-down broad competencies into specific, observable skill sets and includes a continuum of expectations that clearly articulate how skills can be developed and achieved over time. 

Districts are implementing Competency Frameworks to achieve goals across their learning community:

• District Leadership Teams: A shared language for success and data insights to track the effectiveness of state, provincial, or district graduate profiles.
• Teachers: Equity in assessment by providing a clear rubric to measure competencies and durable skills, and visibility for targeted support.
• Students: Increased buy-in and awareness of expectations to foster agency and pride while showcasing growth.

Why is SpacesEDU’s Competency Framework the Right Solution for your District? 

By embedding your framework into SpacesEDU’s Portfolio Templates, students go beyond curating evidence of learning; they can self-assess with clear understanding on how to progress. This added visibility informs teaching practices and assessment. 

Building your Framework 

There are two ways to structure your framework in SpacesEDU, a single-level framework or a dual-level framework.

Both frameworks support:

• Student self-assessment of posts using a customized district proficiency-scale.
• Student self-assessment can be toggled ON/OFF in the Portfolio Template.
• Shared teacher assessment of Portfolio Sections using the customized district proficiency-scale.
• Teacher assessment of Portfolio Sections can be toggled ON/OFF in the Portfolio Template.
• Grade Bands (optional) to customize the language used for competency/skill descriptions and proficiency levels at different grade levels.

Single-Level Framework

Students create posts in their Portfolio and identify Competencies (e.g., "Critical Thinking") that their posts demonstrate. If student self-assessment is enabled, they can apply proficiency to selected competencies. 

What does the single-level framework look like in SpacesEDU?

While creating a post (or when accessing a tab for ‘Unassessed Posts’), students first identify applicable competencies and then self-assess each competency by applying proficiency. 

On the published post, both students and teachers can view student self-assessment of competencies. Teachers can apply proficiency to each Portfolio Section within the Portfolio Template. 

Dual-Level Framework

For deeper insights, you can tie specific Skills to each Competency (e.g., "Collaboration" under "Communication"), allowing students to identify and self-assess skills and apply proficiency to selected skills. 

What does the dual-level framework look like in SpacesEDU?

While creating a post (or when accessing a tab of ‘Unassessed Posts’), students first select a competency which activates associated skills. Students can then choose and self-assess skills by applying a proficiency level.

Getting Started: Advance Setup for District Administrators

Adding a Competency Framework to SpacesEDU is a collaborative partnership between District Admin and the SpacesEDU Success team.

1. Template: You and your Success Specialist collaborate on creating a Competency Framework template based on your Competency Framework’s competencies, skills, and proficiency continuum. 
2. Activation: Your Success Specialist then converts your template into a format that we can import in your District Settings. 
3. Customize in Portfolio Templates: You and your Success Specialist can then collaborate to activate your Competency Framework in select Portfolio Templates. This step can also be done on your own by following the directions below, but you know we like to help!

This Competency Framework slide-deck is a great reference while planning how to implement your Competency Framework in SpacesEDU. 

Important Guidelines for Planning

1. A single Competency Framework can be uploaded to your District Settings
2. The SpacesEDU Competency Framework supports a maximum of 7 Competencies 
3. The SpacesEDU Competency Framework supports a customized Proficiency Scale (1-5 levels)
4. This can be a separate scale than what is used in SpacesEDU Classes or your Portfolio Templates that are not associated with your Competency Framework 
5. The same Proficiency Scale must be used throughout your Competency Framework (naming convention, number of levels)
6. A Proficiency Scale is not required. Students can still identify a Competency/Skills without applying proficiency when creating a Post
7. If unsure of future direction, proficiency application can be toggled on/off in each Portfolio Template for teachers and for students 
8. Assessment can be toggled ON/OFF in Portfolio Templates for both teachers and students 
9. The SpacesEDU Competency Framework supports Grade Bands, but Grade Bands are optional. Grade Bands help customize the description and hover text that appears for each Competency, Skill, and proficiency level
10. While it is recommended to include descriptive text for students and teachers, it is not required; descriptive text can be applied to none, some, or all Competencies, Skills, and Proficiency Levels

Next Steps: Enabling and Configuring Competency Framework

The options available for the Competency Framework vary by account type. Once the initial setup of the framework for a district has been completed, district administrators control the structure and behavior of the framework through Portfolio Templates.

1. To enable the Competency Framework, first open the Portfolio Templates section of your Admin account, then either click Add Template to create a new portfolio, or click the menu button (three dots) to the right of an existing portfolio, then Edit Portfolio Template.
2. Toggle the Competency Framework ON at the right-hand side.
3. Select the Grade Band you'd like to use - this is required, and each portfolio can only be linked with one grade band.
4. Enter a Learn More URL (optional), if you'd like to direct students to a link with more information about your district's framework.
5. In the Measurement & Assessment section below, you can turn Student Self-Assessment and Teacher Assessment on or off.
6. Student Self-Assessment: With this option OFF, students will only see the option to tag portfolio posts with a competency. With this option ON, students will have the ability to apply a proficiency level to the competencies they select.
7. Teacher Assessment: With this option OFF, teachers will only see the competencies and proficiencies assigned by students. With this option ON, teachers will have the ability to apply a proficiency level to each section, based on the competency assigned to that section.
8. The last step is in configuring the Sections at the bottom of the page. You can edit, add/remove, and reorder the section details as needed, then click the Link a Competency button to select a competency to link with this section.

Some considerations to keep in mind when configuring the competencies by section:

• Within each Portfolio Template, each competency can only be linked with one section. Once it's linked with a section, it's removed from the list of available options for others.
• The competency for each section will be pre-selected as the default when students are posting to that section. Students can select other active competencies in addition to the default, which will automatically add the post to the corresponding section(s).
• Only the competencies linked with sections in that portfolio will appear as options for students to select when posting. Any competencies from the framework that are not linked with a portfolio section will not be visible for students.

Tagging and Self-Assessment for Students

To begin using the Competency Framework once it's been configured and enabled for a portfolio, students simply need to start posting.

Below the post description, they'll see a panel showing the competencies and/or skills associated with the portfolio. This also includes the **Learn more **link, if a URL has been defined in the portfolio settings.

• Tagging and Selection: Students can click to select Competencies or Skills (sub-competencies) that their work demonstrates.
• If a post is created within a portfolio section linked to a competency, it is automatically pre-selected to streamline the process.
• Conversely, if a student selects a competency associated with a section, it will automatically add the post to that section. Selecting multiple competencies will add the same post to multiple sections of the portfolio.
• Self-Assessment: If enabled by the district, students can apply a proficiency level to their own work.
• In a 1-Level Framework, they apply proficiency to the Competencies themselves
• In a 2-Level Framework, they apply proficiency to the specific Skills / Sub-competencies they've selected
• "Unassessed Posts" Filter: To manage their workload, if student self-assessment is enabled, students can click the menu button (three dots) at the top right of the portfolio to access an "Unassessed Posts" filter to view content they have tagged but not yet self-assessed.
• Contextual Help: Students see age-appropriate "I Can" statements and descriptors after selecting a competency or skill, as defined in the configuration for their portfolio

Teacher Access

Once enabled, Competency Framework provides new functionality in Portfolios for teachers. The options available depend on whether teacher assessment has been enabled in a given portfolio by administrators for the district.

• Regardless of whether assessment is enabled, teachers will always see teacher-specific descriptors (help text) when viewing competencies, which may differ from the language displayed to students.
• Teachers also cannot tag competencies or select proficiency levels when creating a portfolio post on behalf of a student, even if teacher assessment is enabled.

With Teacher Assessment Enabled:

• Teachers can apply a proficiency level to a specific Portfolio Section (folder) that has been linked to a Competency.
• Note: Teachers assess the overall evidence in that folder (the Section), not individual posts.
• A "Section Measurement" panel appears in the portfolio sidebar, allowing teachers to select levels (e.g., Emerging, Proficient) for each section. Teachers can click within the section measurement panel to edit the proficiencies for all sections on a single screen.

With Teacher Assessment Disabled:

• Teachers can see the "Student Self-Assessment" badge on individual posts. This is a read-only view for teachers, allowing them to expand the badge to see which Competencies or Skills the student selected and how the student rated their own proficiency.
• The "Section Measurement" panel is not visible.

We are hard at work on future enhancements to assessment within Portfolios. If you have any suggestions or questions, don't hesitate to reach out with the messaging option in the corner of your screen, or by emailing hello@spacesedu.com !

Updated on: 17/02/2026