We’re excited to release “Inside Mastery Based High Schools: Profiles and Conversations,” a new set of resources drawn from our visits to six mastery-based high schools last year. We began this project to address a need for concrete examples of mastery-based learning in practice. Given the novelty of this work, we realized that many new school designers know the theory behind mastery-based learning but would benefit from a deeper understanding of its day-to-day practicalities. To give designers a glimpse of what this work looks and feels like, we visited six mastery-based high schools, gathering artifacts (schedules, transcripts, curriculum materials) and speaking with their leaders about the realities of implementation. The six mastery-based high schools we visited are:

• Boston Day & Evening Academy, Boston’s first evening high school to grant mastery-based diplomas
• Casco Bay High School, a mastery-based high school in Portland, Maine
• Parker Charter Essential School, a project-based, mastery-based school in Devens, Massachusetts
• Making Community Connections Charter School, a middle/high school that puts student agency at the center of its design. It was founded by the QED Foundation.
• Next Charter School, a mastery-based, personalized model in rural New Hampshire
• Maine’s Regional School Unit 2, a mastery-based and student-centered community of schools in rural Maine

For each school, you’ll find:

1. a brief profile, giving an overview of the model
2. a transcript of our interview with the school’s leader(s)
3. relevant artifacts including student schedules, competency frameworks, sample mastery-based student transcripts, graduation checklists, and goal setting protocols

The interviews with school leaders are especially useful, as each leader was very candid with us about the challenges they faced and adjustments made in implementing mastery-based learning. Throughout, you’ll find useful recommendations and insights about developing competencies, tracking student progress, awarding credit, translating mastery-based achievement into a transcript for college admission, hiring, and staff development. We’re grateful to the leaders and staff of these schools for sharing their time and expertise so generously.

Of course, this is only a small sample of mastery implementation across the country. The schools we’ve profiled here vary significantly in their use of technology, time, and human capital, but they are only a small piece of a much larger picture. We hope these resources spark a conversation among school designers inside and outside of our network, opening up new possibilities for the implementation of mastery-based learning, and encouraging them to seek out additional resources.

If these resources spur further questions, or if you’re looking for additional information you don’t see here, feel free to reach out to us at info@springpointschools.org