We employ a hybrid model that combines elements of competency-based education (CBE), mastery-based learning (MBL), outcomes-based education (OBE), and others.
As we examined our current instructional practices, we decided we were not yet where we wanted to be. As a staff, we created a vision for what would generally be true about instruction at ILHS in the future (below). We then created a roadmap of how to get there and are working toward these goals.
We believe learning goals should prioritize real world and interdisciplinary connections to academic and personal growth.
We believe pacing should be flexible and allow students to be self-paced within units or terms when appropriate.
We believe assessment should be primarily performance-based and focused on demonstration of skills, and that there should be multiple pathways and models to demonstrate competency.
We believe real-world tasks and skills should be incorporated into courses wherever possible.
We believe students should have flexible learning pathways within the constraints of the curriculum.
We believe the instructor’s role is largely to design learning experiences, manage student pacing, and provide live coaching.
We believe learner autonomy is important and that how and when students demonstrate their skills should remain flexible, as possible within the constraints of the curriculum.
During the planning phase for ILHS in 2019, a vision for opening the school without grades and traditional courses was created. Then, we set about creating the specific structures that would be necessary to implement such a vision at the start of 2020. When that process was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the vision became secondary to coping with the stress of the pandemic, lockdowns, and virtual learning. By the first day of school in the fall of 2020, we found ourselves teaching similarly to a traditional high school with additions of:
Strong community.
Elements of project-based learning.
An emphasis on teaching the "whole" student.
In the spring of 2021, we applied for and were awarded a grant to be part of Washington State's Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative. As part of this group, we regularly discussed "mastery-based learning" and its components. As a result, we would describe our style of teaching and learning as "mastery-based." We kept running across many other terms related to this work, such as competencies, outcomes, targets, standards, skills, and more. Our efforts to clearly define what we were doing in these terms was repeatedly confounded by inconsistent use of these terms. Finally, in the fall of 2024, we decided to describe our work as "competency-based education" instead. This was partly due to advice we received that CBE is the term most widely used ad recognized for this type of work and partly because our staff agreed that our work was more closely aligned to common definitions of CBE than MBL.
As a staff, we compared aspects of the different learning models and chose which strategies suit our program best. We made modifications as necessary. Strictly speaking, we not adhering to a single model, but rather are employing a hybrid of multiple models.
For additional information, see the history of ILHS.
Depending on who you talk to, mastery-based learning and competency-based education are similar strategies, exactly the same, or quite different.
Focus on students demonstrating a specific level of proficiency for learning outcomes
Flexible pacing is based on students' demonstration of proficiency
Student-centered classrooms
Teachers take on more traits of coaches and fewer traits of lecturers
Tends to focus on learning traditional course-specific academic content
Contained within the classroom
Students progress to the next unit of learning only upon demonstration of mastery
Focuses on learning transferable skills
Learning regularly takes place and is assessed outside of the classroom
Students progress is often nonlinear and unique the learner
These are generally school- or system-wide structures which require significant philosophical shifts of all members of the learning community.
Focused on learning skills needed for a specific task or job
Usually not concerned with academic foundations or transferable skills, except insofar as they are required to execute the specific task
Typical for vocational or employment-based education
Most similar to mastery-based learning
Focuses on learning traditional course-specific academic content, usually based on externally-defined standards
Contained within the classroom
Students are expected to come back and demonstrate proficiency on every standard during the course
Strategies for teaching and assessing the standards vary as widely as within a traditional structure
Most similar to competency-based learning
Focuses on learners' demonstration of their skills
Puts the focus of evaluating educational effectiveness on the outcome of instruction (how many learners achieved the stated outcome), while other learning structures tend to focus on how much progress each learner has made
As a result, OBE is often more structured than other innovative learning structures
These are generally classroom-specific strategies, some of which may be employed variably on a unit-by-unit or even day-by-day basis.
Learning takes place by working on the project
Not to be confused with project-based assessment, which just replaces tests with projects as summative assessments
Private company D2L claims that CBL is MBL in a distance-learning format
Educational-innovation organization Aurora Institute suggests that "standards-based, mastery-based, performance-based, or proficiency-based" are all different terms for competency-based learning.
The U.S. Department of Education provides guidance to post-secondary institutions which describes competency-based education as "an innovative approach in higher education that organizes academic content according to competencies — what a student knows and can do — rather than following a more traditional scheme, such as by course." This description leads to a description of a typically asynchronous approach to a mastery-based education.
The Competency-Based Education Network describes CBE as allowing "learners who have not been well-served by traditional models of education and training" "at all levels to progress at their own pace" "by emphasizing career-relevant knowledge, skills, and behaviors that link to skills-based hiring."
In 1968, Benjamin Bloom laid the foundation for mastery-based learning in Learning for Mastery (internal link), where he focused mastery-based learning on students' abilities to learn course-specific content.
Private company Enriching Students provided a comparison between CBE and OBE with concrete descriptions and examples.