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New Hampshire tries credits for competence

January 28, 2013 by

New Hampshire schools have moved away from “seat time” to “competency-based learning,” advancing students when they have mastered course content. Strengthening High School Teaching and Learning in New Hampshire’s Competency-Based System, a report from the Alliance for Excellent Education, looks at how this is working at two high schools.

“When people are buying a new car, they don’t ask how long it took to build,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “Instead, they ask how well it performs.”

Sanborn Regional High School and Spaulding High School have replaced A-F grades with ratings that include “not yet competent” and “insufficient work submitted.” Students who haven’t achieved mastery can use online tools, one-on-one tutoring and student collaboration to improve.

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Carnegie eyes replacing Carnegie unit

December 6, 2012 by

The Carnegie Unit, which measures learning based on time in class rather than actual learning, may be on the way out. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which developed the measure in 1906, will study ways to measure competency.

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Competency vs. the credit hour

October 10, 2012 by

Instead of earning credits for “seat time,” colleges are offering degrees based on showing competency – usually by doing well on a test. Southern New Hampshire University is partnering with employers on a $5,000 online, competency-based associate degree.

Connecticut’s community college presidents are worried about a new state law that lets unprepared students skip remediation and take college-level classes. Those who resist — or all 12 presidents, depending on who you believe —  have been told to apply for “expedited termination” by the end of the month.

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Colleges design self-paced, ‘competency’ courses

September 28, 2012 by

Community colleges are designing self-paced courses that will give credits for demonstrated competence — not “seat time.”

Also on Community College Spotlight: A bridge to trade skills.

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Give credit for learning, not time

September 6, 2012 by

Give credit for learning, not seat time, argues a new report. As more students learn online at their own pace, the credit hour’s day is ending.

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Public won’t buy ‘trust us, we’re experts’

March 2, 2011 by

“Trust us, we’re experts” isn’t a persuasive argument for academics, writes Community College Dean in response to professors who reject measuring college students’ learning.

Also on Community College Spotlight:  The U.S. Education Department’s proposed definition of a credit hour measures “seat time” rather than learning, charges the American Council on Education.

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Digital learning: Quality is critical

December 6, 2010 by

Digital Learning Now, led by two former governors, Republican Jeb Bush of Florida and Democrat Bob Wise of West Virginia, has come out with 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning (pdf).  Recommendations in the “road map” include “abolishing seat-time requirements, linking teacher pay to student success, and overhauling public school funding models,” reports Education Week.

Last month, the International Society for K-12 Online Learning, or iNACOL, released a paper suggesting a move away from seat-time requirements to competency-based pathways that let students advance at their own pace after mastering concepts. Meanwhile, seizing on the budget challenges facing almost all districts in the current climate, the theme for the Consortium for School Networking’s annual conference this upcoming March is “Mastering the Moment,” referring to the opportunity for technology-driven reform fueled by the need to cut costs.

Will digital learning increase “high-quality education” choices? On The Quick and the Ed,  Bill Tucker warns that innovation can go astray.

They suggest, for example, that states evaluate “the quality of content and courses predominately based on student learning data,” yet provide few details on how to accomplish this difficult task. Likewise, recommendations for “Quality Providers” focus heavily on the removal of barriers to competition, but offer little discussion of how to enact the recommendation for “a strong system of oversight and quality control.” Too often, the recommendations assume that quality will naturally result from regulatory relief.

Virtual education is in a time of rapid growth as school districts, for-profit providers, and nonprofit start-ups all move into the online learning world. But without rigorous oversight, a thousand flowers blooming will also yield a lot of weeds.

The report recommends terminating contracts with providers and programs that don’t perform well. Easier said than done, writes Tucker.

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Time to drop seat time?

June 29, 2010 by

On Community College Spotlight: It’s time to drop “seat time” as the way to award credits, writes a community college dean. Virtual education changes the equation.

Also, at City College of San Francisco, where the majority of classes are remedial, a trustee pushes for an intensive remediation track.  Fewer than 10 percent of entry-level remedial English students go on to pass any college-level English course.

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Virtual quality

June 23, 2010 by

We need better ways to ensure quality virtual learning, writes Bill Tucker on The Quick and the Ed.

Accreditation has proven to be too weak, he writes. His solution is to give public funding only to education providers that show results.

Let new providers into the system — at the course level — but pay them on a performance basis, instead of attendance (this is how publicly-run Florida Virtual School, the country’s largest program, is funded). You only get public funds when a student succeeds and passes the course. As an incentive to serve all students, funding is weighted for disadvantaged and special needs students. And, since providers are putting their funds at risk and no longer getting a guaranteed amount of funding based on enrollment, the amount offered is slightly larger.

To stop providers from passing students who haven’t learned anything, Tucker suggests end-of-course tests offered frequently and using online formats. “Where possible, especially in math, use data systems to track how students do in the next course sequence.”

If there’s no exam or course sequence, require providers to “digitally capture and store student work, discussions, products, and actual test performances. Providers would be subject to periodic audits, with severe penalties imposed if there was a mismatch between student work/performance and course passage.”

Finally, here’s my favorite idea, and it hits on one of the most pressing barriers to college completion: remediation. If higher education wants to play, start in the bridge and transition courses, particularly in math, that are the gateways out of remediation. If a student passes your courses, then that means something — the school or ideally, system, must certify him/her eligible for credit-bearing work. Moreover, the higher education institution must keep data and demonstrate that those students perform on par in the next credit-bearing course sequence.

Community College Dean calls for an end to granting credits based on seat time. He also writes about the mutability of pass rates.

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Online credit recovery is booming

June 22, 2010 by

To boost graduation rates, urban school districts are letting students pick up missing credits online, reports Education Week. The good news: That means waiving rules that require “seat time” in a classroom instead of  mastery of a subject.  The bad news: There’s no evidence that online programs work for struggling students. Can kids who failed to focus in a classroom stick with an online course? Are the standards for “mastery” high enough?

New York City, Chicago and Boston are turning to online credit recovery.  Policies differ on whether students can take online courses at home or must go to a school, but districts typically require tests to take place in a supervised setting.

Some 36 states let students to earn high school credits based on proficiency, which may include passing a test or an online course, according to Education Commission for the States. But many districts have stuck with seat-time rules. Capable students might pass out of enough courses to graduate a year or two early.

Seat-time rules are obsolete, says Carmeta P. Vaughan of America’s Promise Alliance, which works to improve graduation rates.

“The notion that students should have to sit in a chair for a certain amount of time when it’s only a certain aspect of algebra they didn’t get baffles me,” Ms. Vaughan said.

Chicago is targeting ninth graders who finish the year short of the normal six credits. Experience shows that students who fall behind in ninth grade are far less likely to graduate.

Boston is using online credit recovery for non-graduating seniors who prefer working at home to attending a traditional summer school.

New York City will introduce online credit-recovery options in 10 schools. The district has approved Apex Learning, Aventa Learning, the Florida Virtual School, CompassLearning and K12 Inc. to provide the courses.  Unlike Chicago and Boston, New York City will require students to sit in classroom computer labs with certified teachers in the room.

When I was reporting for Our School, San Jose was pushing credit-recovery alternative schools based on filling out worksheets. Students were told they could earn double the normal number of credits and get caught up. But very few stuck with it. I’m sure online classes are a lot better, but students who’ve failed classes tend not to be motivated, organized, self-directed learners. I see the potential for a game of let’s pretend: Students pretend they’ve learned, online providers pretend they’ve taught and schools pretend all their graduates have a high school education.

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