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 ...

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?

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.

Underlying the shift to blended and student-centered environments is the transition from marking seat time to tracking learning. In competency-based environments, students show what they know and they ...

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 ...

In New Hampshire, the shift away from an educational system based on "seat time" is well underway. Here's what educators there have learned. The education community felt a jolt in August 2013, when ...

In Thomas County, Georgia, students who have struggled in the mainstream have found a home in Bishop Hall Charter School. At Bishop Hall, students master skills at their own speed. Principal Chris ...

Burgeoning college costs and constrained public budgets have engendered a national conversation on higher education innovation in the US. Competency-based education (CBE), where students earn credit ...

Coined in the 1970s, competency-based learning is gaining converts and building enthusiasm in our K-12 education system, taking the focus off grades and seat time—and replacing it with an emphasis on ...

The rigors of an interconnected, global society have changed the way in which schools need to approach student success. In previous generations, the “organize and sort” method, typified by an A-F ...

Western Governors University is pioneering a new, fast-growing model of education: Competency-based learning. In traditional classrooms, time is fixed and student learning varies. Schools operate ...