Definition of Key Terms

These are a set of grading reforms that seek to improve the traditional grading system and include practices such as eliminating the zero, removing behavior from the grade, more flexible retake policies and weighing more recent summative assessments over formative practice such as homework or simply averaging all assessments over time. These practices are beneficial for creating more consistency, transparency and equity in grading practices. However, they still operate in a traditional grading paradigm. 

This Playbook is anchored on a new paradigm of assessment, grading and reporting that is Competency-Based. In this paradigm learners receive proficiency level scores on learning outcomes, instead of points on assignments. Assessment is the opportunity for evidence towards learning outcomes. Grading, in this paradigm, is providing a proficiency score on those learning outcomes. Reporting is the summary of those scores on some form of Progress Report, Report Card or Transcript that supports learners, families and future educators to document progress over time. Specifically when referring to competencies, these are a higher grain size than standards and include both interdisciplinary, whole-learner outcomes and discipline specific outcomes but are defined using progressions that show proficiency levels over time. Competency-Based Reports show learners’ progress and growth over time on the progression’s levels for the same competencies year after year.

This term was coined by Jonathan Martin in his book Reinventing Crediting for Competency-Based Education and is defined as “demonstrated mastery/competency, not conventional course completion, is what is credited in school, and these competencies are recorded on transcripts and communicated in comprehensive and carefully delineated ways” (Martin, 2019, p. 12). In this Playbook, we have expanded on the definition of Competency-Based Crediting to recognize any system that is moving away from crediting based solely on seat-time to acknowledging proficiency in competencies as a mode for promotion to the next level, graduation and credentialing or crediting for transcripts. 

Competency-Based Education as defined by the Aurora Institute is: 

• 1. Learners are empowered daily to make important decisions about their learning experiences, how they will create and apply knowledge, and how they will demonstrate their learning.

  2. Assessment is a meaningful, positive, and empowering learning experience for learners that yields timely, relevant, and actionable evidence.

  3. Learners receive timely, differentiated support based on their individual learning needs.

  4. Learners progress based on evidence of mastery, not seat time.

  5. Learners learn actively using different pathways and varied pacing.

  6. Strategies to ensure equity for all learners are embedded in the culture, structure, and pedagogy of schools and education systems.

  7. Rigorous, common expectations for learning (knowledge, skills, and dispositions) are explicit, transparent, measurable, and transferable.

At Learner-Centered Collaborative, we believe this describes learner-centered learning or learner-centered education, which we define as learning experiences that are equitable and inclusive, authentic, personalized and competency-based. Specifically, when referring to Competency-Based learning, we refer to the classroom practices that educators leverage to focus on assessment for learning, design backwards and make assessment more authentic. These include practices such as checks for understanding, effective feedback protocols, developing rubrics with learners, adjusting instruction based on assessment data, designing performance-based assessments and supporting learners in curating portfolios. All of these practices, just like most of the elements of Aurora Institute’s definition of Competency-Based Education, can exist and be incredibly impactful in a traditionally graded classroom or system. This Playbook will focus on Competency-Based assessment, grading and reporting as a structural paradigm shift in how we report the learning. To be clear, these Competency-Based learning and education practices still need to be in place in this new paradigm, but they can also exist in a traditionally graded paradigm which is the key distinction. 

This term is used to describe the scale a system uses to mark progress on the learning outcomes. Some systems use a progressions or continuum approach, others use proficiency scales. Some call these scoring scales. They can range from 2-8 levels and be numerical or descriptive. Proficiency scales and progressions (or continua) are two approaches to defining levels of proficiency. 

These are the learning goals or objectives that a system is assessing. In this Playbook we share details for two types of outcomes that a system can develop:

• 1. Grade level and content-area, subject or course specific standards that live at a smaller grain size. These standards are expected to be met by the end of that grade level. 

  2. Interdisciplinary and discipline-specific competencies that live at a larger grain size and are multi-level so they are assessed over time and expectations are agnostic of grade level.

These are built in a Standards-Based approach to assessment, grading and reporting. They define the levels of proficiency, typically 1-4, by defining the steps a learner will take in a learning progression to meet the defined proficiency (usually level 3) of a single standard. 

These are built in a Competency-Based approach to assessment, grading and reporting. They define the levels of proficiency on outcomes over time on multiple levels of development over time. These may be grade band levels (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12) or systems may choose to define these levels as grade agnostic.  

These are formal reports published by a system for families and typically placed in a child’s record that demonstrate their current proficiency levels and/or progress on the learning outcomes. This record is a summary of assessment and lives at a higher level than day-to-day assessment and scoring. These will sometimes include narratives or comments from teachers and/or learners. 

This type of reporting fits within the umbrella of Competency-Based assessment, grading and reporting with many similarities. The distinction is that in a Standards-Based approach the outcomes are discrete grade-level and content-area or course-specific standards that live at a small grain size and are intended to be met within that grade level. Reporting then shares the learner’s current proficiency level, using proficiency scales, on those grade level standards. 

These include a wide range of practices that share progress towards whole-learner outcomes or competencies that supplement a traditional Progress Report or Transcript with grades or one that reports only on standards. This can include addendums, portfolios and badges. 

Awarding points (8/10 for example) or a percentage (77%) on individual assignments including homework, classwork, quizzes, tests, projects and participation and then averaging those points or percentages into a final letter grade. Traditional grading also includes practices such as awarding extra credit and weighted averages. This is a completely different paradigm from Competency-Based and Standards-Based assessment, grading and reporting. 

A formal document used with outside institutions such as higher education institutions or employers to summarize a student's achievement over their education career. Typically these report letter grades and a GPA on courses or subjects and include multiple years of records. Credits are typically given on these traditional transcripts for completing a course with a specific number of days at a minimum grade. This Playbook will share 3 examples of alternative forms of transcripts that share progress towards competencies and credit for more than just seat time.