Evidence of the Journey

School Consortium Proposes a Better Transcript | Getting Smart by Tom Vander Ark
www.gettingsmart.com, September 14, 2017

Do Student Projects Have a Role in College Admissions? by Catherine Gewertz
Education Week, Vol. 37, Issue 19, Page 7, February 7, 2018

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Sparked by organizations of public and private school practitioners and researchers, several initiatives aimed at reshaping college admissions to put more emphasis on learning and student attributes are underway. Tom Vander Ark describes a movement in the private school sector, where leaders of 137 schools have organized The Mastery Transcript Consortium. The Consortium is advocating changing the high school transcript from a document that lists courses and grades to one that provides evidence of accomplishment through work products of authentic learning. The purpose is to inspire meaningful learning that focuses on demonstrated mastery of knowledge, skills, and habits of mind rather than course listings and grades achieved through memorization and tests. The Mastery Transcript is organized around performance areas, not content courses, and mastery standards are defined by the crediting high school. With the absence of grades, the Consortium is committed to developing software that college admissions officers can access easily to read Mastery Transcripts. In the public sector, as Gerwitz describes, a newly formed group of researchers called Reimagining College Access, led by the Learning Policy Institute and EducationCounsel, similarly advocates using performance assessments in college admissions to better gauge student learning and for course placement. The group is organized into three task forces: one is focused on creating a process colleges can use to quickly judge the quality of portfolios and other work students submit; a second aims to identify states, districts, and higher education institutions that use performance assessments to serve as models of the approach; and a third hopes to create software to hold and access student work. With other groups making similar requests, colleges will be challenged to alter their practices in ways that are feasible and affordable. Practitioners need to participate in finding a solution.