Education Next – Jon Marcus
“Unlike conventional colleges and universities, Western Governors doesn’t require students to spend a set number of hours in a classroom, average out their performance on assignments and tests, then hand out letter grades and credits. Using a complex system of assessments developed over the two decades the university has been operating, WGU’s method is competency-based, requiring that students prove they’ve mastered all the skills and knowledge offered in a given subject area. Until they do, they don’t advance. “You have to pass. You have to meet the criteria. There’s no [grading] curve,” says Fann, a high-school science teacher who earned her undergraduate degree from Barnard College. “It does actually test whether I know this stuff or not.” Fann not only likes this approach, she also thinks it could be applied to her 9th-grade physics students.”(more)