The Hechinger Report – Lillian Mongeau
“Known as proficiency-based education, Yarmouth’s recent changes to their curriculum and teaching methods were inspired by the 2012 state law that will require all students to graduate with a proficiency-based diploma, beginning with the Class of 2021. The law requires that every district determine standards for proficiency in eight subject areas and then base the awarding of diplomas on student mastery of those subjects. But the exact details of what the state will count as proficiency are unclear, as are the consequences for not hitting that undefined target. The result is that districts are charting their own course. And Yarmouth’s chosen path, a gradual shift rather than a 180-degree turn, may well be the most likely way forward for most of the state.”(more)