PBL and College

'...University of Vermont’s Moses Murphy, senior director of Undergraduate Admissions, said one of his jobs is assuring school boards and families that the university receives transcripts from all over the country and the world from educational systems with a wide variety of formats, including 100-point, weighted and proficiency-based grading (PBG).

“Whenever I talk to families or school boards, it’s always my desire that this shift to PBG is not going to negatively impact (college acceptance rates),” Murphy said. “We have a system in place. ... What I’ve seen so far this year, schools are producing transcripts that are not that difficult to decipher and translate.” (Rutland Herald, 11/4/19, Rutland Herald Story)'

'Sam Prouty at Middlebury College said while proficiency-based grading may be new to Vermont high schools, it's not new to college admissions offices.

"Anybody who has done college admissions for a long time will tell you that schools use all kinds of different transcripts," Prouty said. "They use all kinds of different grading systems and scales. Some of them use A, B, C. Some of them use 80, 90, 100. Some of them don't give grades at all. Some of them weight their grades, some of them don't. Some of them rank, some of them don't. ... Bottom line is we know what we're looking at." (VPR, 11/4/19, VPR Story)'

New England Board of Higher Education Report, 2016 detailing how colleges and universities evaluate proficiency-based transcripts: NEBHA Paper

Great Schools Partnership - College Admission -84 New England Institutions of Higher Education State that Proficiency-Based Diplomas Do Not Disadvantage Applicants

PBL College Admissions Responses- Results from a local VT high school's survey given to multiple college admission departments that included these five questions:

1. Will a student educated in a proficiency-based system be disadvantaged in their college application process, as opposed to one educated in a traditional manner?
2. If the school provides a clear transcript with a GPA on a 1-5 scale, as well as a clear school profile, will you be able to accurately assess our students’ academic abilities and performance levels?
3. Do you feel that a student educated in a proficiency system will be able to compete for merit-based scholarships?
4. Will standardized test scores matter more for students in a proficiency system?
5. Are classroom grades assessed on a 1-5 scale as understandable as A-F grades, if there is a clear school profile explaining the system?

Vermont AOE Memo to Parents -Proficiency-Based Learning: Responding to Parent and Community Concerns