After spending last week in Washington, D.C., I was struck by how nervous folks in education circles are about whether states will stick with the Common Core state standards once the Common Core ...

The idea couldn't be simpler: Instead of awarding college degrees based on the accumulation of credit hours — essentially "seat time" in the classroom — make the foundation of a degree a set of ...

The traditional approach to formal education ties students to classrooms. Degrees are earned based on accumulated credits, a system developed in 1906 as an attempt to measure how much time a student ...

Do high schools use competency-based education—judging student progress by mastery, not seat time—as a dropout prevention strategy? The answer, according to a survey by the U.S. Department of ...

What would the testing experience be like if schools allowed students to show what they know whenever they’re ready, in a variety of ways that suit them, and in ways that are instructionally useful?

This article is part of the collection: Real Life Learning: An Up Close Look at Competency-Based Education. In Thomas County, Georgia, students who have struggled in the mainstream have found a home ...

A new initiative aims at giving Nevada students more flexibility to move through classes at their own pace. The “Nevada Future of Learning Network” focuses on competency-based learning. The goal is to ...

Windsor Locks Public Schools began by giving competency-based grades in kindergarten through fifth grade. “When this class hit sixth grade, it continued,” said Windsor Locks Principal Steve Swensen.

Twenty-year-old Asmaa is an example of how constant change and upheaval were hallmarks of the previous school year. A student of mine in an accelerated program for new arrivals to the U.S., in just ...

In a suburb just outside of Denver, Principal Sarah Gould stands outside a fifth-grade classroom at Hodgkins Elementary School watching students work. This classroom, she explains, is for students ...

Melrose, a cozy suburb north of Boston, is home to an idyllic New England downtown and schools good enough to draw young families in droves. Students perform well above the U.S. average and do better ...