Last week, iNACOL and CompetencyWorks released “Progress and Proficiency: Redesigning Grading for Competency Education,” a paper that offers valuable insights into alternative grading systems that support mastery-based school models. The paper details the limitations of traditional grading systems, and shares lessons from the field around how to effectively implement and communicate mastery-based grading in a classroom, school, and community context.

The paper highlights an observation that resonates with Springpoint’s work to support districts and networks in designing and launching new high schools aligned to the 10 integrated school design principles: implementing mastery-based grading is intimately connected to a host of other practices, and, as the paper aptly states, “when you pull on one thread, you find yourself pulling on many.” Schools and systems cannot implement mastery in a vacuum. A mastery system is deeply interwoven with schedules, transcripts, human capital management systems, and personalized learning supports, among other elements of a school’s model.

For those wanting to dive straight into the paper’s key takeaways, the Executive Summary is available here. You can also explore other research and case studies about designing schools to support mastery of rigorous standards in the resources section of our website.