ALN: Foundations of Competency-Based Education

Presenter: Virgel Hammonds

Virgel Hammonds is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of FullScale, the national nonprofit formed by the merger of the Aurora Institute and The Learning Accelerator (TLA). Virgel, a nationally recognized leader in education innovation, originally joined the Aurora Institute as CEO in 2024 with over two decades of experience working alongside young people, educators, communities, districts, and policymakers as they endeavor to become more learner-centered. Having previously served as Chief Learning Officer at KnowledgeWorks, Virgel has forged partnerships with national policymakers and local learning communities across the country to redesign learning systems to become more learner-centered. Prior to his time at KnowledgeWorks, Virgel served as superintendent of the RSU 2 school district in Maine, where he collaborated with five communities to develop and implement a curriculum designed to ensure mastery of standards by all students. Before serving as superintendent, Virgel was a high school principal at Lindsay Unified School District in California. There, Virgel helped implement a personalized learning model where learners didn’t earn letter grades, but rather are awarded mastery for subjects in which they’ve proven to be proficient.