Our Team

Ellysa Hermanson, Founder

Ellysa Hermanson began her career in education in 2014 as a Social Studies teacher. She has taught subjects such as Global Studies, American Government, AP Government, AP World History, Economics, Psychology, Current Issues, and Criminal Studies among others. She has also created many of the curriculums for the aforementioned courses.

While teaching at Huntley High School, Ellysa worked with three other teachers to create a Competency-Based program called Vanguard Vision. She attended a CompetencyWorks conference in 2016 and there met Rose Colby, her future mentor. Huntley's program launched with great success in the fall of 2018.

As part of her experience with Vanguard, Ellysa mentored and coached a number of other teachers and school personnel in the foundations of competency learning and assessment. She is microcredentialed by the State of Illinois for Performance-Based Assessments.

In 2020, Ellysa became the Assistant Principal at South Beloit Junior High School and left the following year in order to pursue her passion for innovative education and curriculum development.

Ellysa fell in love with competency-education and assessment during her time creating and working in Vanguard Vision and has extenisve experience working with districts and teachers to create, or fine tune, their own CBE program. Ellysa works closely with, and is endorsed by, Rose Colby--a nationally recognized Competency-Based Learning and Assessment Specialist.

Further CBE Experiences

  • Coached teachers in core disciplines throughout the creation of the Huntley Competency program in the following areas:

    • Philosophy and school definition of competency education

    • Performance Assessment literacy

    • Course creation

    • Competency and Performance Indicator creation

    • Rubric scale creation and grade norming

    • Creation of interdisciplinary lessons, units, and Performance Assessments

    • Instruction based on Competencies and Performance Indicators

    • Time, place, and pace of instruction

    • Differentiation of instruction based on student need and understanding

    • Inclusion of students with IEPs and 504s

  • Coached teachers in all four core disciplines, Physical Education, and various electives as an Assistant Principal at South Beloit in the following areas:

    • Breaking down standards into primary (assessed) and secondary (instructional) standards

    • Using standards to create curriculum

    • Using standards to create questions and drive instruction

  • Micro-credentialed in Performance Assessments by the State of Illinois, trained by education specialist Karin Hess

  • Attended the CompetencyWorks conference in New Hampshire

  • Program and school assisted in writing the Illinois State definition for competency

  • Created a grade book for tracking competency progress

  • Mentored by education specialist Rose Colby during the competency building process at Huntley High School

  • Administration internship focused on the scaling of the Competency-Based Education Program at Huntley High School

    • Included community outreach, branding, longitudinal plan, further curriculum creation, grade book selection, and staff recruitment.

    • Master’s Thesis explored the positive relationship between a competency-based environment focused on standards and student performance

  • Created the Social Studies competencies and program mapping based on C3 Standards

  • Co-created the Science competencies and program mapping based on NGSS

  • Created the curriculum for three Social Studies courses within the Competency-Based Education Program including Global Studies, Government, and Economics; co-created the US History Curriculum

  • Co-created the curriculum for Biology, and Physics, and assisted in the creation of English I, Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II

    • Shifted the Science courses to an inquiry-based model for teaching and learning

  • Co-created the HOWLLs (Habits of Work and Learning for Life)

  • Co-created holistic rubrics for both the HOWLLs and individual classes

  • Created multiple Performance Assessments for multiple disciplines

  • Recruited and selected teachers for the program

  • Built the framework and structure for the competency-program in order to function as a ‘school-within-a-school’

Other Education-Related Experiences

  • Implemented curricular changes at District 320 (South Beloit), including the use of C3, NGSS, and Common Core standards within instruction and curriculum maps

  • Selected as a member of the Social Studies Curriculum Review Team for District 158 (Spring 2017-2020)

  • Selected as a member of the ESL Curriculum and Program Review Team for District 158 (Fall 2016)

  • Developed the online course curriculum and the regular American Government summer curriculum (2016)

  • Led Professional Development for the Canvas LMS (2016)