Brittany Rollins is hanging out a lot at the local animal shelter this year. Delving into the issue of pet euthanasia and writing about it will help her earn English/language arts credits toward graduation.
The 17-year-old senior at Newfound Regional High School, in the rural central New Hampshire town of Bristol, is part of one of the most aggressive statewide efforts in the country to embrace competency-based learning. In New Hampshire, this means saying that accomplishment doesn鈥檛 depend on how long students are in their seats, but whether they can demonstrate that they know their stuff.
It means letting students learn academic content in new ways. It means agreeing on what constitutes mastery, and holding all students to it, instead of letting some earn diplomas with weak skills. It means figuring out multifaceted ways for students to show what they know, and, ideally, it means letting them progress toward mastery at their own pace.
鈥淣ewfound is a school that is really pushing ahead on this,鈥� said Chris Sturgis, the founder of MetisNet, a Santa Fe, N.M.-based organization that consults with foundations nationally on education issues, including competency-based learning.
Embracing that approach fully, however, can be tough because it challenges such basic systems as testing and grading. Brittany Rollins鈥� experience at Newfound Regional illustrates both how far New Hampshire has come in shaking off traditional conceptions of time-based learning, and also how far it still has to go.
鈥楢nytime, Anywhere鈥�
Brittany鈥檚 off-campus work in an 鈥渆xtended learning opportunity鈥� reflects the state鈥檚 emphasis on three related ideas: 鈥渁nytime, anywhere鈥� learning, which includes out-of-school and virtual programs; personalized education, which strives to tailor studies to students鈥� needs and interests; and competency-based learning.
New Hampshire began by piloting competency-based approaches a decade ago. But in 2005, the state gave districts a deadline: By the 2008-09 school year, high schools would have to award credit based not on seat time, but on demonstrated mastery of course-level 鈥渃ompetencies"鈥攖he bundles of skills and knowledge that districts specify to reflect state curriculum frameworks.
New Hampshire has gone further than most states in forging the policies to enable such an approach. For instance, a few states allow districts the option of awarding credit for demonstrated proficiency rather than seat time. New Hampshire is the only state that requires districts to do so, though some districts have yet to make that change.
In Brittany鈥檚 case, she鈥檒l be able to demonstrate mastery of her subject matter on her own timetable. She鈥檒l prove her knowledge and skills piece by piece, in a variety of ways, as she masters them.
She says the obligation to demonstrate proficiency in new ways has unleashed an enthusiasm she doesn鈥檛 often experience in classrooms.
鈥淚鈥檓 good at creative writing, but not as good when it comes to getting the facts, so this project is a challenge,鈥� Brittany said. 鈥淏ut I like setting it all up myself. And I鈥檓 so interested in this subject that I can write more easily about it. It鈥檚 much better for me than having a teacher stand in front of me and tell me what to do.鈥�
Brittany has to conduct in-depth research, produce articles and papers, keep a journal documenting her process, and present her work to a panel of educators and community members this spring. It鈥檚 part of New Hampshire鈥檚 move toward performance assessments that gauge not only content knowledge but crosscutting skills such as building an argument and making oral presentations.
The fact that Brittany is parceling out pieces of the English/language arts assessment as the weeks unfold shows the state鈥檚 time-flexible approach. She meets often with her journalism teacher, Dave Harlow, and the school鈥檚 extended learning opportunity coordinator, Elizabeth Colby, to discuss her progress on the eight English/language arts competencies she has targeted for completion this year. They include knowing how to write for multiple purposes and audiences; how to speak 鈥減urposefully and articulately鈥� and listen 鈥渁ttentively and critically"; and how to gather, organize, and evaluate information.
A Work in Progress
While the 425-student Newfound Regional High has made big strides with extended-learning opportunities and performance assessment, other key aspects of a competency-based system have been more elusive for the school, which is part of the Newfound Regional School District.
Its report cards, for instance, are a work in progress. Ideally, a competency-based report card would have nothing but A鈥檚 and B鈥檚, and would feature a narrative description of where students are in their journey toward those designations of mastery, said Newfound鈥檚 principal, Michael O鈥橫alley. But now, the school鈥檚 progress reports still carry A-to-F letter grades, with a sentence or two describing students鈥� work habits.
The school has taken steps, though, toward the report cards it ultimately envisions: Students are rated separately for attitude and effort, so that letter grades reflect only content mastery. Next year, there will be no D鈥檚 or F鈥檚, said Ms. Colby.
Newfound Regional has revised its grading policy accordingly. Its teachers are to give no student work less than a 50 percent score, to offset the downward pull of a bad score or two in averaging for an overall grade. Not all teachers abide by that policy, however, Mr. O鈥橫alley acknowledged. But the idea behind it is to move toward the view that grades are fluid rather than fixed, only a momentary glimpse of where students are at a given time.
It鈥檚 hard to imagine dropping letter grades altogether, said Mr. O鈥橫alley, when parents expect them and college admissions rely on grade point averages. 鈥淭hat untethering from a 200-year-old system is really rugged,鈥� he said.
Another key revision at Newfound has been to allow students who haven鈥檛 performed well on a test to retake it after teachers 鈥渞eteach鈥� the content. This rejection of a 鈥渙ne-shot-and-you鈥檙e-out鈥� approach to testing, Mr. O鈥橫alley said, reflects the idea that mastering the concepts, regardless of when that happens, is the goal.
But the unfortunate fallout, he said, is that some students have been gaming the new system by putting only halfhearted effort into tests because they know they can retake them. School officials are now discussing how to deal with the issue, he said.
Teaching itself has had to adapt to the state鈥檚 new vision. The staff at Newfound Regional is working with a 鈥渃ulture change鈥� team from the Center for Secondary School Redesign, which is overseeing a federal Investing in Innovation, or i3, grant to 13 New England high schools working on student-led learning and performance-based assessment.
Teachers must learn to become 鈥渇acilitators鈥� instead of imparters of knowledge as students take a bigger role in shaping their own learning, and must acquire new ways of evaluating their students鈥� work, said Joe DiMartino, the president of the Warwick, R.I.-based center.
鈥淢ost teachers didn鈥檛 sign up to be facilitators,鈥� he said, 鈥渟o it鈥檚 not a small thing to change.鈥�
A good part of the work the center is doing with Newfound Regional, Mr. DiMartino said, is on 鈥渋nter-rater reliability,鈥� or making sure that every adult who takes part in evaluating students鈥� work鈥攖eachers, guidance counselors, administrators, community members serving as mentors鈥攄oes so with a shared rubric and concept of rigor.
The Pace of Change
Even as Brittany earns some of her credits with out-of-school projects and performance assessments, she is earning others in traditional classrooms, with rows of chairs and desks, and taking multiple-choice and essay exams. Only about 15 percent of Newfound Regional鈥檚 students are engaged in nontraditional coursework such as extended-learning opportunities or online courses, Mr. O鈥橫alley said.
And whatever the competencies they鈥檝e already mastered, students in New Hampshire must still take the statewide standardized tests in literacy and math every year in grades 3-8 and 11.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e really in a proficiency-based system, you want to be able to take the assessment that matters around the time you engage with the material. So the systems aren鈥檛 perfectly aligned,鈥� said Nicholas C. Donohue, who oversaw the early competency-based pilots as New Hampshire鈥檚 commissioner of education from 2000 to 2005 and is now the president of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, of Quincy, Mass. The foundation is overseeing similar work in five New England states.
鈥淭he federal accountability system is based on a 20th-century model, and our state expectations are based on this new model,鈥� said Paul K. Leather, the state鈥檚 deputy commissioner of education. He expressed hope, however, that new assessments being designed for the Common Core State Standards will help bridge those two models. Plans for those tests include some performance-based tasks.
Online learning can play a part in competency-based approaches, in part because of its potential to let students pace their coursework as they like. Students at Newfound Regional High can use New Hampshire鈥檚 Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, or VLACS, to take coursework online. In this rural community, where dial-up Internet service is not uncommon, students can do VLACS coursework at Newfound鈥檚 computer lab, or from home if technology permits.
But while online learning facilitates the 鈥渕ove-on-when-ready鈥� approach that is ideal for competency-based learning, it鈥檚 not a complete solution if a state鈥檚 educational vision includes real-world learning, Ms. Sturgis said.
鈥淭he ability to let kids move forward in courses and credits has to be an application of their skills, not just moving to another level of a software program or connecting with a teacher online,鈥� she said.
The idea that students can move on when they are ready鈥攆rom course to course or grade to grade鈥攊s a piece of competency-based learning that is especially hard to put into practice, advocates of the approach say. A few districts, such as Colorado鈥檚 Adams County School District 50, near Denver, allow students to do so. But almost everywhere else, that isn鈥檛 the case.
At Newfound, students still move from one grade to the next only when they have accumulated enough credits.
鈥淭hese are the 鈥榤essy middles鈥� of the work we鈥檙e doing,鈥� said James LeBaron, Newfound Regional鈥檚 school redesign coordinator. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in the thick of it, and we鈥檝e come a long way. But we鈥檙e also not as far along as we鈥檇 like to be.鈥�
