The traditional approach to formal education ties students to classrooms. Degrees are earned based on accumulated credits, a system developed in 1906 as an attempt to measure how much time a student ...

This article is part of the collection: Real Life Learning: An Up Close Look at Competency-Based Education. In Thomas County, Georgia, students who have struggled in the mainstream have found a home ...

Competency-based education is slowly catching on, with the help of policies that give permission for schools in every state to adopt it. But the learning model—a series of non-traditional approaches ...

Western Governors University is pioneering a new, fast-growing model of education: Competency-based learning. In traditional classrooms, time is fixed and student learning varies. Schools operate ...

The Hechinger Report covers one topic: education. Sign up for our newsletters to have stories delivered to your inbox. Consider becoming a member to support our nonprofit journalism. A ...

What would the testing experience be like if schools allowed students to show what they know whenever they’re ready, in a variety of ways that suit them, and in ways that are instructionally useful?

And competency-based learning is a step in the right direction. However, we must coordinate our jump to competency-based learning with a movement that takes advantage of the freedom afforded and ...

Twenty-year-old Asmaa is an example of how constant change and upheaval were hallmarks of the previous school year. A student of mine in an accelerated program for new arrivals to the U.S., in just ...

Melrose, a cozy suburb north of Boston, is home to an idyllic New England downtown and schools good enough to draw young families in droves. Students perform well above the U.S. average and do better ...

In a suburb just outside of Denver, Principal Sarah Gould stands outside a fifth-grade classroom at Hodgkins Elementary School watching students work. This classroom, she explains, is for students ...