The Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) hopes to change the relationship between preparation for college and college admissions for the betterment of students.

A Broken Tool

The high school transcript aims to assess student progress and performance, but it is a broken instrument that underserves students, teachers or the world outside our school walls.

How is the traditional transcript broken?

“The Mind, Brain, and Education science field considers teaching and learning from a transdisciplinary aninclusive understanding of how humans reach mastery.”

– Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Educational researcher and instructor at the Harvard University Extension School.

School Shouldn’t Hurt

The stress is real. Colleges are sounding the alarm about the number of students who arrive at their campus with mental health issues ranging from depression, anxiety, eating disorders and more. While the current high school assessment model is not the lone factor in creating unhealthy stress, it is certainly a significant contributor, and we can do better.

“A new transcript that truly reflects student mastery can be a key factor in helping to reduce student stress and overload without reducing rigor. I am excited to see so many schools working together in this consortium to create a product that can greatly improve student health and engagement with learning.”

– Denise Pope, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Education and Co-Founder, Challenge Success and co-author: Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids.

College students reported the following within the last 12 months

American College Health Association: National College Health Assessment 2010

95,712 College Students Responding from 139 Colleges

“Too many students, perhaps after a year or two spent using college as a treadmill to nowwhere, wake up in crisis, not knowing why they have worked so hard.”

– Harry R. Lewis, Former dean of Harvard College

Apprenticeship Works

High school students will inherit a world that demands their creativity, collaboration, and resilience and that requires them to apply what they know to situations they cannot predict. Shouldn’t we prepare them for their world instead of testing them on how they navigate ours?

Nature’s Best Teaching Method

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“Were all instructors to realize that the qualityof mental process, not the production of correct answers, is the measure of educative growth, something hardly less than a revolution in teaching would be worked.”

– John Dewey

CORE PRINCIPLES.

While the transcript is still forming, the MTC has agreed on three core principles that the new transcript will reflect:

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No Required Standardization of Mastery Credits

The performance areas, credit standards (rubrics, etc.) and credits are specific only to the individual crediting school, and will never be standardized across schools.

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No Grades

Letter grading (or numerical equivalent) will not be used.

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Consistent Transcript Format

Transcript has to be readable by college admission officers (once trained) in less than two minutes. Therefore, the transcript format has to be reasonably consistent across MTC schools.

IMAGINE A TRANSCRIPT

The MTC model is substantively different from the traditional model of assessment that is typically organized around content oriented courses, Carnegie units for credit and A to F letter grades.

The design below captures our best thinking for now. The transcript’s design has not been finalized. That’s part of what the MTC will do.

Each Mastery Credit applied to a transcript signifies complete mastery of a specific skill, knowledge block or habit of mind as defined by the crediting high school.

The MTC schools will be supported by a technology platform that allows the complete record of a student’s credits, institutional standards and performance evidence to be submitted to college admission offices for evaluation.

This electronic Mastery Transcript will allow college admission officers to dive deep within a transcript to see the specific standards of the sending high school and actual evidence of student work and mastery, thus giving depth and transparency to the student’s work record.

There is a quiet buzz going on in the education world and it surrounds the new proposed Mastery Transcript (MT) for high schools. So why is there not more of a buzz? Because it is still under creation, but what the MT proposes to do is turn the idea of grades and expectations upside down.

Let’s start from the beginning. Why is there even a conversation about a change to how schools determine grades in the first place? First of all grades are an antiquated system based on memorization and repetition, focusing student learning on acquiring information but not necessarily on making meaning from what they learn. Second, grades are based on what a teacher believes is worthy of an A, B, C etc.… Third, grades imply that academic performance is extrinsic rather than internal motivation. In other words, students seek validation from a grade rather than being internally motivated to learn and apply. Finally, grades do not mirror what happens in the real world. Bosses don’t give grades, but do give performance reviews based on skills that relate to tasks related to that particular job.

So what does the MT hope to do? As an example one school might determine skill attainment in eight (8) different proposed areas of Available Credit:

Analytical and Creative Thinking

Complex Communication

Leadership and Teamwork

Digital and Quantitative Literacy

Global Perspective

Adaptability, Initiative and Risk Taking

Integrity and Ethical Decision Making

Habits of Mind

Each of the eight areas has sub-criteria detailing the evidence needed to prove competency in each. As example, under Leadership and Teamwork some of the criteria are to initiate new ideas, lead through influence or build trust, resolve conflict etc… Under Habits of Mind – contentiousness, creativity, love of learning would be some examples.  As students show competency in each sub area or area, they Earn Credit, adding to their score in that specific area.

Further along the development of the MT is an online electronic transcript whereby a college or university could not only see the attainment, but dive deep into the area, see what standards the school has set where and how a student has performed based on specific evidence.

Yes, I know this all sounds complex and confusing. At the moment there are 18 schools that founded the Mastery Transcript Consortium and another 140 schools who are members. A number of schools are piloting the MT and looking at further developing and enhancing the platform. Some of the top independent schools in the US have signed on, from Choate, Latin School of Chicago, to Brooks, Milton, Phillips Andover, Phillips Exeter and Thacher. Internationally, Singapore American School, The American School of Sao Paulo and King’s Academy sit on the list. Schools that are piloting the program are allowing students and their families the choice of a traditional A, B, C transcript or the MT.

What is the bottom line? This is actually a very exciting turn to what makes education interesting. Schools will still teach, but how they teach will help students be better prepared for their future. It will de-stress the learning process as students become more focused on mastery skill attainment rather than grades. It changes the role of teacher to coach as a student moves forward, and interactions between students and teachers become more positive. It allows for individual pacing and incremental success rather than win or lose. It will give credence to project and experiential based learning but be grounded in skills needed in future careers. Most importantly it brings real world expectations into the classroom.