Steel Dynamics Inc., a local manufacturing company, wanted student help recruiting young women and candidates from different ethnic groups that don鈥檛 often seek manufacturing jobs.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e kind of expanding their outreach,鈥� Gebhard told a classroom of juniors and seniors, all deciding between eight business and non-profit project challenges to spend the spring working on. They鈥檙e kind of rebuilding recruitment from the ground up鈥o your job is to create some marketing around that.鈥�

But Gebhard wanted students to consider another level, a more personal one, as they made their choice, telling them to carefully pick the project that fits a passion or teaches them a key skill toward a career goal. 

That鈥檚 the overall mission of Amp Lab, after all. Still in its infancy, the school launched in 2022 with a very different goal from a typical high school: 

Developing an entrepreneurial mindset that applies across multiple careers or businesses, especially companies they might start themselves. 

Though many high schools boast of creating good work opportunities for students, few have overcome the schedule and transportation hurdles to place students in internships, even when companies want them. Only about 6% of high school students nationally have the chance to do an internship or apprenticeship, the best available estimates show.

Amp Lab鈥檚 model is built around giving every student the opportunity to work with local businesses, going beyond even some of the more ambitious schools in the country. The school also focuses on building mastery of personal skills 鈥� including insight, persistence, problem solving, turning problems into opportunities 鈥� alongside broad business skills such as financial management, legal analysis, marketing, sales and operations.

鈥淎lways think of it this way: How does this matter to you 10 years from now?鈥� Gebhard told students. 鈥淟ike, what is this going to do for you 10 years from now?鈥�

Amp Lab doesn鈥檛 look or feel like a typical high school. For starters, its full name is Amp Lab at , referring to the massive 38-acre factory complex that was a General Electric motor plant for decades before being renovated and re-opening as home to the school and several area businesses in 2022.

Open to high school juniors and seniors from across the Ft. Wayne Community Schools 鈥� half of its 400 students coming in the morning and half coming in the afternoon 鈥� Amp Lab is officially a career technical school. But it doesn鈥檛 teach the auto repair, construction and plumbing skills offered at typical career training centers.

Its only focus is entrepreneurship. 

鈥淚n most traditional CTE centers, you’ve got a bunch of individual programs that are all separate,鈥� said founding Principal Riley Johnson. 鈥淲hat we chose to do here was kind of flip that equation. Every kid that comes to Amp Lab is in the entrepreneurship pathway, and their connection to industry skill is across all potential career clusters.鈥�

鈥淲e look at entrepreneurship as a mindset and a tool set that a kid can apply, whether they’re in banking or veterinary science or cosmetology.鈥�

Work-based learning is a key part of the model. so Amp Lab has students engage with businesses in the spring and in the fall using three different methods:

• Every junior takes on at least one group project for a local business, such as the one Gebhart described, that they do mostly at school with some visits to the company.
• Students can choose to start their own business by developing a product and a marketing plan. They either make it themselves or hire a company to make it, and then sell it.
• About half do a traditional internship working at a local company about 10 to 15 hours a week.

鈥淥ur goal is that, in some form or fashion, every kid gets an external experience, but we’re not there yet,鈥� Riley said.

Regardless of the approach, teachers evaluate how student skills are growing and weigh the growth of students鈥� mindset as much as teachers in traditional high schools weigh progress in math and English. That progress is all reported to students, parents and colleges on an innovative but still-developing supplement to traditional report cards called a Mastery Learning Record that shows how well students are moving toward mastering a skill, rather than just giving them an A-F grade at the end of a quarter.

Amp Lab is one of 40 schools nationally testing the Learning Record as it is refined.

How the Learning Record works with those schools will help inform an effort by six states and others to test, measure and report student progress on so-called 鈥渄urable skills,鈥� the first being collaboration, communication and critical thinking. Amp Lab is just one data point as new report cards are developed, but the school was recently highlighted by the non-profit XQ Institute for embracing an innovation it wants high schools to adopt nationally.

鈥淭hese competencies aren鈥檛 easy to convey in a conventional report card or transcript,鈥� XQ wrote in its recent report, The Future Is High School, calling the learning record 鈥渇ar more detailed and nuanced.鈥�

鈥淭he Amp Lab record documents exactly which competencies students have mastered, such as intuitive agility, collaborative intelligence, and 鈥� yes 鈥� entrepreneurial spirit,鈥� XQ added.

The work-based 鈥渃hallenges,鈥� as the school calls them, can look different for every student.

When Amp Lab launched, the school had to seek out businesses willing to work with students. on these projects. Now, it has more applications than it needs, and can tell businesses to refine them and apply again later. The goal isn鈥檛 just to invent a project for students, but have them work on a problem the business is truly facing and have the work matter.

This spring, students are picking from eight businesses and non-profits, including: the Steel Dynamics project; designing and testing a part for another manufacturer; helping a local nonprofit spread messages aimed at improving maternal health; designing a plan to encourage vegetable gardening in a low-income neighborhood; or designing and creating murals to promote a historic arena in the city.

Sometimes the projects line up well with student interests. Senior Tyreece Menifee Jr., who wants to be both a barber and fashion designer, worked last year designing costumes and marketing for a production of A Christmas Carol by the Ft. Wayne Youth Theater.

He then created his own mini business by designing a hooded sweatshirt 鈥� picking the fabric, background design and the lettering for it 鈥� and ordering a batch of 20 from a Pakistani company online. He鈥檚 now selling the hoodies for $90 on a website he created.

鈥淚’ve learned a lot of stuff here, just being here,鈥� Menifee said. 鈥淚 feel like the environment changes your mindset. You get focused on what you need to do.鈥�

Senior Ruby Campbell-Carpenter used her interest in animals to create a pet food business called Tailored Bites. She talked with a veterinary clinic, the county health department and a meat company that school staff helped her connect with, to create a chicken based dog food 鈥� one that passed taste tests of several dogs 鈥� that she and a classmate then sold at a farmers market.

She also interned at a veterinary office through the school last spring, which turned into a part-time job last summer and helped confirm her plans to become a vet.

鈥淎mp Lab is very growth oriented,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey grade you based on if you’re growing, if you’re learning,鈥� she said. 鈥淎mp Lab also has so many connections, compared to your typical high school. They honestly have connections to pretty much every business.鈥�

Sometimes the school finds internships with businesses or nonprofits right at the Electric Works complex, letting students work without needing transportation from the school.

Those include a health clinic, an advertising agency, a manufacturer of steel decking and the nonprofit REFINERY 鈥� Robotics Education, Fabrication and Innovation Nexus: Entrepreneurship for Rising Youth 鈥� a giant open maker space that robotics teams from local high schools can use as a workshop. It also serves as a central bulk purchaser for those teams.

Interns like senior Alfy Krider, a member of the robotics team of Northrop High School where she goes to class every morning, spends her afternoon Amp Lab time organizing equipment and the space for teams to test their robots, even 3D printing parts or ordering parts for them.聽

She doesn鈥檛 mind helping competitors as his job.

鈥淩obotics really promotes gracious professionalism, which is helping out other teams as much as you can,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t’s just so much of a culture of helping everyone out, because when you need help, they’ll be there for you.鈥�

Along with letting Krider immerse herself in the business of robotics, the company benefits hugely from student help.

鈥淭hey’ve been instrumental in getting everything, honestly, built up,鈥� said Briana Smedberg, vice president of BioNanomics, the nonprofit in charge of the space, before rattling off a list of jobs interns accomplished. 鈥淭he students built all of this鈥�

Johnson said internships like this 鈥� that let students interact with others and fill a professional role 鈥� matter as much as any class or credential.

鈥淭he resume portfolio is as powerful of a tool as anything,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e found having something like this as a door opener and as a networking tool is just as valuable as as any other currency.鈥�

For any district, it鈥檚 difficult keeping students engaged all school year. However, when those students are spread out in 48 schools across an area the size of West Virginia, the challenge of ensuring continuity of learning feels even more overwhelming.

During the 2021-22 school year, half of the students in my district, Alaska鈥檚 Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District were chronically absent, requiring educators to jump into action so students could remain connected and on track to a successful future. By thinking creatively and merging policy changes with innovative ed tech solutions, educators can confidently help every student succeed, no matter where and how they learn.

First, we realized we had to stop the blame game and keep an open mind. The reasons behind attendance problems are as diverse as the students the district serves, and because of its location, Mat-Su has its own, unique issues. For instance, Alaska鈥檚 vast geography means that student athletes may be away at games three or four days out of the school week, and families often travel, hunt or camp for a week or two at a time. In addition, transportation constraints are an ongoing problem, as are inclement conditions ranging from snowstorms to earthquakes.

Until the pandemic, the district operated with the same attendance policy that had been on the books since the 1990s: Students with 10 unexcused absences a semester were immediately unenrolled. This essentially closed the doors on the young people who needed support the most 鈥� those with learning difficulties, instability at home and social, emotional and mental health concerns.

Today, online learning platforms offer the district a holistic view of each student’s grades, behavior and attendance, allowing school staff to easily identify red flags in attendance and use the data to prompt discussions with families and caregivers. Building these relationships has allowed the district to analyze the root causes of absenteeism and intervene with personalized solutions attuned to each student’s needs. 

Whether connecting families to wraparound resources that address mental health, transportation or trauma-related issues or working with staff and teachers to create a hybrid environment that allows students to learn both virtually and in person, the district strives to prevent a few absences from evolving into a chronic problem. We also no longer unenroll a student after 10 absences, but instead bring the family and stakeholders together to coordinate care in the event of a crisis.

Second, in its mission to ensure no student falls through the cracks, the district has taken a collaborative approach, developed by teachers, support staff and administrators, to clearly define learning standards and construct relationship-centered educational environments. This brings everyone together so we’re all on the same page.

Since the pandemic, the district has shifted away from the Carnegie Unit, which conflates time and learning, toward a more personalized, adaptive and mastery-based, standards-based system. While credits and grades are still identifiers of student progress, they鈥檙e no longer the primary criteria for evaluation. Educators have established standards in all subjects to ensure students’ mastery of knowledge and skills before they can progress to the next lesson. Through a combination of one-on-one instruction and virtual learning, teachers can help students revisit and hit learning targets they may have missed. As technology evolves, educators are working in sync to provide students with the academic support they need.

In addition, every high school student is enrolled in the district鈥檚 , which helps support their Credit, Career, College and Community Goals. Students are assigned an adult mentor who works with their teachers, counselors and families to help foster their success and growth. They also participate in weekly goal-setting and spend class each week working on reading, writing and mathematical skills. Because connectedness is a driver of regular school attendance, these relationships have been critical in engaging students in their schools.

Third, the district is integrating to align education with how and where a student learns best and to make sure that those learning from home because of transportation issues, illness or injury will receive the same enriching experiences as their peers in the classroom. 

All 19,000 students in pre-K through 12th grade receive Chromebooks loaded with educational tools that build on what they鈥檙e learning during the school day. In addition, the district has helped close learning gaps through guided online tutorials and the program, which assists with credit recovery for juniors and seniors. Taking full advantage of technology has been especially beneficial for rural schools that often have a smaller staff, fewer courses and higher absenteeism than their suburban and urban counterparts closer to the Anchorage metropolitan area.

Watching chronic absenteeism rates soar across the U.S. is incredibly disheartening for educators who want nothing more than to see students thrive. Until there鈥檚 a miracle solution that fixes every transportation issue, controls the weather and cures all illnesses, students will always be absent. It鈥檚 up to districts to move from penalizing students for missing school for reasons beyond their control to mitigating the impact of chronic absenteeism on their academic success. 

One day he was chatting with an 8th-grade student, who he described as a 鈥渟uperstar,鈥� and asked if she had studied for that day鈥檚 exam. He was shocked to hear she hadn鈥檛.

鈥淲ell Mr. Guskey,鈥� he remembers her saying, a quizzical look on her face, 鈥淚 worked it out. I only need a 50.2 to get an A [in the class]. I don鈥檛 need to study for a 50.2.鈥�

This was a moment of realization for him. 鈥淭his 8th grader had worked it out to the tenth decimal place what she needed to do to get an A in my class,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd she was surprised I didn鈥檛 get it. And I thought, 鈥榃ow. What have I done?鈥欌�� 

For this student 鈥� and so many others 鈥� school was not about learning. It was about getting a good grade. And with flawed traditional grading systems, those two outcomes didn鈥檛 always coincide.

Every time Guskey tells this story to other teachers, he said they shake their heads and share similar anecdotes of their own. Other experts in the field echo these sentiments, noting that schools have spent far too long grading students based on whether or not they turned in a pile of work or showed up to class on time, rather than focusing on if a student has learned academic content. This can ultimately lead to final grades that inaccurately reflect and communicate what kids actually know. 

Today, as schools combat post-pandemic learning gaps, it鈥檚 become even clearer that traditional grades are not precise communicators of learning. In some cases, this leads parents to believe their kids are performing at grade level, when in reality they鈥檙e falling behind. 

As educators push for more clarity and transparency, a number of schools and districts are turning to what’s known as standards-based grading, a system and communication tool that separates academic mastery from behavioral factors. When done correctly, it should more accurately reflect what students know and correct for both inflating 鈥� and deflating 鈥� grades. 

But a misunderstanding of standards-based grading’s true principles, a lack of proper training for educators and a rush to quickly adopt a complex new system often leads to messy implementation, various experts told 社区黑料. And, they warn, districts looking for support are turning to grading consultants, a number of whom aren鈥檛 qualified in the field.

鈥淪o many districts are getting into this and they鈥檙e failing miserably,鈥� said Guskey, the grading and assessment expert and professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky College of Education. 鈥淪chools are jumping into this without a clear notion of what they鈥檙e doing and what the prerequisites are to being standards based,鈥� he continued. 鈥淎nd then when problems arise, they have no recourse except to abandon [it] completely.鈥�

As schools look for an effective fix to learning gaps, 鈥渟tandards-based grading is one that seems like it can be a quickly adopted effort. But it could backfire and does backfire very easily,鈥� said Laura Link, associate professor of teaching and leadership at the University of North Dakota.

In a she and Guskey wrote, 鈥渁lthough many schools today are initiating SBG reforms, there鈥檚 little consensus on what 鈥榮tandards-based grading鈥� actually means. As a result, SBG implementation is widely inconsistent.鈥� This creates uncertainty, confusion, frustration 鈥� and resistance, which can ultimately lead to it being tossed aside, the authors said.

The many meanings of a 鈥淐鈥�

Standards-based grading is not new. While it鈥檚 challenging to pin down just how many schools are currently using it, post-pandemic interest in a system that鈥檚 seen as more accurate and equitable appears to be growing. 

Link is now working with the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania school district on implementation. It can also be found in at least one school district in the San Francisco Bay Area and is particularly prevalent in schools in Wyoming, New Hampshire, Maine and Wisconsin, with more cropping up in Connecticut, New Mexico, and Oregon, in November.

Another expert, Cathy Vatterott, who wrote Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning and is professor emeritus of education at the University of Missouri鈥揝t. Louis, said: 鈥淎fter we got through COVID, all of a sudden I started getting offers to come and speak to people about standards-based grading.鈥� 

Regardless of what model teachers practice, they typically grade using three different criteria: what academic skills students have learned and are able to do, such as solving for 鈥渪鈥� in an algebraic equation; what behaviors they bring that enable learning, such as attendance and turning in work on time; and how much they鈥檝e grown and improved.

In traditional models, teachers combine these three, muddling them together and assigning a single mark for an assignment 鈥� often a letter grade or a percentage. At the end of a semester, these assignment scores get averaged into a final grade that goes onto a transcript or report card. Proponents of standards-based grading argue that this presents an unclear and inaccurate picture to parents, students and colleges. 

鈥淚t makes the grade impossible to interpret,鈥� according to Guskey. For example, a 鈥淐鈥� on a paper could mean the student really only understood the material at a 鈥淐鈥� level or it could mean they turned in an excellent paper but two weeks late. Further adding to the confusion: what goes into a grade is inconsistent from teacher to teacher and school to school.

Traditional grading not only presents accuracy concerns but also equity ones, according to Matt Townsley, assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of Northern Iowa. 鈥淔or example, if we award points for assignments that are completed on a daily basis 鈥� called homework 鈥� outside of class, you can imagine a scenario where some families are more privileged in their ability to do it,鈥� he said. 

Some students have access to a quiet place to work, tutors, parents who can help them with assignments, and other key resources, while others work after-school jobs or take care of younger siblings. When teachers grade homework, experts like Townsley argue, they are grading for these factors, rather than what students have actually learned. 

To combat this, standards-based grading does it differently. Rather than lumping together academic, behavioral and improvement grades, it separates them and reports them out individually in what Link calls a 鈥渄ashboard of information.鈥� 

Too often, she said, consultants and other self-proclaimed experts, who are not researchers, will push to throw away behavioral grades altogether. But she warned 鈥渢hat becomes problematic very, very quickly. We shouldn’t be using our gradebooks to punish and control. But those factors 鈥� those behavioral factors 鈥� are academic enablers, and we know that to be true as well.鈥�

Reporting it out separately makes students recognize that these other components still count and, in some ways, it makes them each count more because they can no longer be disguised by other factors, like extra credit, according to Guskey.

It鈥檚 important for schools to decide upfront what behaviors they want to prioritize 鈥� whether that鈥檚 attendance, work ethic, responsibility鈥� and then build a guide on how teachers will score for them. 鈥淏y giving these kinds of dashboards of information, it helps colleges, trade schools, etc. have a deeper understanding of what kind of students they鈥檙e accepting into the programs and what kind of support they will need in college,鈥� Link said. 

The academic grades should be based on grade-level standards and learning objectives, like the ability to find strong evidence to support a claim if a student is writing a paper or answering a test question.

A second key criteria is moving away from handing out percentage grades based on 100 to using a much smaller measurement scale, like 0 to 4. On each standard, students could also be graded as “exceeding,”, “meeting,” “almost” or “not yet.” Guskey noted that while this all may sound novel and unusual, other countries around the world, including Canada, have been using these practices for decades.

A third component 鈥� providing students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and mastery of a standard 鈥� is often where the greatest controversy crops up and things are most likely to go awry. Some educators argue that students should receive limitless opportunities to redo specific assignments. Researchers such as Link, though, argue that while students need multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding, that does not necessarily mean redoing the same assignment. 

鈥淭his is where a lot of non-academic proponents encourage that standards-based grading means you give as many retakes as it takes for mastery. Not true. Not true. That鈥檚 an assessment issue. That鈥檚 not a grading issue.鈥�

So, while a second chance at one assignment is perhaps the fair thing to do, it is not inherent to the ethos of standards-based grading. She emphasized that if schools do implement retake policies, the process needs to be purposeful: If a student doesn鈥檛 get it the first time, they need to get corrective feedback and instruction. But 鈥渋f they don鈥檛 get it on the second chance, you鈥檙e going to record their grade and move on,鈥� she said. 

There is no empirical evidence supporting the benefits of endless retakes and, she added, such practices can be a time-consuming and unrealistic ask of teachers. 

Because many of the people who write about and consult on testing don鈥檛 fully understand what鈥檚 behind assessing students more than once, Guskey said, their recommendations on how best to do it are often untested and can鈥檛 be supported in practice. Their inconsistent advice, he said, can lead teachers and administrators to forsake efforts to reform grading. 

While it鈥檚 important to understand what standards-based grading is, it鈥檚 also essential to debunk what it鈥檚 not. At its core, experts say, it鈥檚 purely a communication tool. It doesn鈥檛 tell educators how to create assessments, build curriculum or manage behavior. It can make space for teachers to provide more individualized feedback and for students to move through the skills and knowledge they need to master at their own pace. But these things aren鈥檛 inherently a part of it. 

鈥淏asically everything is just to pass.鈥�

When Kenny Rodrequez became superintendent of the Grandview school district a decade ago, he knew the grading system needed to change. He was concerned that as it stood, the traditional grading model they relied on wasn鈥檛 communicating students鈥� progress to their parents accurately. Leaders in the district, located just outside of Kansas City, ultimately decided to shift to standards-based grading for kindergarten through 6th grade. 

Now, in his eighth year as superintendent and ninth year overseeing the transition, he feels good about what they鈥檝e accomplished. One key factor of the successful implementation, he said, was 鈥渘ot trying to do it all at once.鈥� It can be tempting to 鈥渏ust say, 鈥楲et’s bite the bullet and let’s just roll it all out at the same time,鈥欌�� he added. It was important, though, to fight this urge and instead find a balance that allowed for deliberate policy shifts that still didn鈥檛 take an inordinate amount of time to implement.

Another key factor: making sure there was strong teacher and parent buy-in. The first year in particular, staff was nervous to explain this new system to parents before they even fully understood it themselves. Rodrequez said they created talking points for teachers and gave them the resources they needed. 

In the future, the district plans to bring standards-based grading to 7th-12th grade classrooms, but he anticipates at the high school level this will be trickier. 鈥淥ur challenge 鈥� is nationally we still have a system that’s still pretty based upon our letter grades. And that system鈥檚 been around for so long and never was designed to do what we’re trying to get it to do right now.鈥� Demands for GPAs and class rankings, in particular, are incongruous with the standards-based model but often necessary for college applications.

These very challenges have played out in one New York City high school, according to parent Talia Matz. When her stepson started 9th grade at Future High School in Manhattan, the school had orientation sessions to explain to parents how their standards-based grading system works. Still, she and her husband were skeptical. And over the past three years, they鈥檝e only become more concerned, she told 社区黑料. 

Some of the major assignments that the school uses instead of statewide Regents exams 鈥渁re a bit of a joke,鈥� she said, and students are not held accountable. 鈥淏asically everything is just to pass. It doesn’t matter how well you do,鈥� she said, adding, 鈥渋t doesn’t seem like there’s any love of learning. It’s just kind of to get it done.鈥� 

Contrary to best practices, on his report card there are no separated out comments or grades about behaviors. All standards are scored on a 0-4 scale, and parents and students can see grades on an online platform called JumpRope. But, the school then converts this scale into a traditional percentage grade, which is ultimately sent to colleges 鈥� another big no-no, according to experts. (According to the , schools may choose from a number of grading scales, including A-F, but it appears that regardless of what they select, all grades are ultimately converted into percentages.)

Students have a number of opportunities to redo assignments and no clear consequences for late work, Matz said. Rather than getting grades on daily assignments, he gets a 鈥淲ork Habits/Independent Practice鈥� score, which his stepmom said never appears on a transcript. This, she said, provides no incentive to turn assignments in on time or get them right the first time.

School administrators did not respond to requests for comment. The school鈥檚 website contests this point: Their official policy states that the 鈥淲ork Habits/Independent Practice鈥� score becomes 10% of a student鈥檚 final grade. Never reporting the behavior grade or averaging it into a single final grade would both go against standards-based grading best practices. 

Matz fears all this lends itself to lowered standards, which will leave her son unprepared for college. In the fall, he鈥檒l enroll at SUNY Buffalo, 鈥渂ut we’re concerned because there’s going to be different expectations 鈥� You have to study on your own, you don’t necessarily get second or third chances.鈥�

The , which opened its doors in 2020 鈥� during the height of the pandemic 鈥� is the nation鈥檚 only high school focused on the integration of cyber technology and engineering into all academic disciplines. It is located in Huntsville, home to the Army Aviation and Missile Command and several major defense contractors.

A publicly funded commuter and residential 9-12 magnet school serving students from around the state, the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering offers free tuition for a diverse student body that is about 30% African American and 37% female. Some 120 of the 333 students live in the school’s dormitory. Students are charged only for the cost of food, which they split with the state. Local contractors help sponsor the school through donations.

The school is both college preparatory and vocational 鈥� aimed at readying students for well-paying careers upon graduation in high-demand, science-based fields, with the Department of Defense and with military contractors.

Underpinning the school鈥檚 focus is the urgent need for more American citizens to enter the national security workforce, because the country is falling behind technologically in several areas and U.S. citizenship is required to receive a security clearance.

The need is substantial. While China has four times the U.S. population, it has eight times as many STEM grads, and Russia has almost four times more engineers than the United States. And the problem will only get more pronounced as the need grows for a workforce that can develop new and increasingly complicated technologies that will be essential for national security.

鈥淢any of the proposed advanced manufacturing and technology solutions to workforce shortages (particularly automation) and manufacturing issues (including additive manufacturing, hybrid manufacturing and digitalization) require a higher level of baseline skills. To implement these solutions, individuals must be trained and able to work in teams that combine deep engineering expertise with data analytics and policy knowledge to enable innovation and transform the manufacturing space,鈥� the Department of Defense wrote in its on U.S. industrial capabilities.

STEM curricula focused on technical careers 鈥渕ust also be expanded into middle and high school education to attract and prepare candidates for advanced manufacturing at all levels 鈥� from engineering to the factory floor,鈥� the report said.

That鈥檚 exactly what the Alabama school is accomplishing.

During its first year, in 2020, the school had 70 students set up in classroom space at a local university. By the following year, enrollment had doubled. When the current school year started in August, the headcount was 333 students, with more expected in successive years as word spreads about the school鈥檚 focus and unique approach to education.

No formal entrance exam is required. Prospective students provide three years’ worth of academic transcripts, attendance sheets and disciplinary records, as well as recommendations from a current STEM teacher and another from a guidance counselor. They submit letters of interest from themselves and their parent.

Applicants from home schools or private schools additionally must provide results from a standardized assessment, such as the SSAT. But there is no minimum qualifying score for admission. Scores are one of many evaluation criteria and are meant to provide insight into the academic potential of incoming applicants. Students who advance in the application process also undergo a personal interview.

Once admitted, students are not allowed to fail their classes. Rather, they must master concepts to advance; they must repeat the class until they achieve proficiency. Proficiency is particularly important because higher-level math and science classes, with their keen focus on cyber technology and engineering, build on concepts from earlier courses. The school doesn鈥檛 use a traditional grading system; rather, teachers rate students on a continuum reflecting various levels of mastery of concepts, then correlate those to a 4.0 grade-point scale.

Students receive four years of instruction in math, science, language arts and social studies, but with cyber and engineering curriculum woven throughout. So, for example, in the first year of social studies, students are taught the history of engineering and technology. The second year is the history of cryptography taught through the lens of world events, such as World Wars I and II. By the third year, students are taught civics and economics, touching on cyber-related concepts like cryptocurrency and blockchain.

They engage in real-world learning through internships with defense companies such as Raytheon, a major corporate sponsor, which accepted 16 students from the school as interns this year.

Tailoring the education for high-tech industries and ensuring proficiency in concepts all along the way ensures that students are math and science literate but also well-rounded. Thus far, the results are impressive. Some students are receiving job offers upon graduation, while others have been accepted at top-notch schools like Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, the University of Texas, Georgetown University, American University and the University of Southern California.

The nation is facing a sweeping talent gap in STEM that is a national security vulnerability. Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering offers one powerful model for closing that gap while driving student achievement.

鈥淭he single biggest barrier to adoption of the mastery transcript is that it’s perceived as risky, and kind of unfamiliar,鈥� said Mike Flanagan, CEO of the Mastery Transcript Consortium, a national group that wants students to learn at their own pace and be rated continually on their progress, not just by snapshots when the calendar says a grading period ends.

Schools keep joining the consortium because they back the concept in theory, but few have been ready to throw out traditional transcripts and pin students鈥� college acceptance chances on a strange new transcript with no grades or grade point averages.

So the consortium has created a half step that it is piloting this school year 鈥� a Mastery Learning Record that can be sent to colleges along with traditional transcripts in college applications but still offers some of the depth and nuance of the mastery transcript.

鈥淚t can be used as a bridge or an on-ramp,鈥� Flanagan said.

Eight-five high school seniors at nine schools used the new Learning Record in college applications this year, including seniors applying to state schools at Park City High School in Utah.

Principal Roger Arbabi said making the full shift to mastery grading right away 鈥渨ouldn鈥檛 go well, even though Utah embraced the mastery concept and is encouraging schools and colleges to train staff in how it works.

鈥淎s a traditional public high school, we have a long way to go to be able to offer the full Mastery Transcript Consortium transcript,鈥� Arbabi said. 鈥淥ur stakeholders have not been educated on the model, but The Learning Record will allow us to 鈥� do a soft rollout.鈥�

The mastery learning movement, and the transcript and learning record coming out of it, calls for schools to recognize that all students don鈥檛 learn academic and other skills on the same timeline. While some students might grasp a math concept quickly, for example, others might take longer and even until the next grading period or school year to master it. 

On a standard report card, that could result in a poor grade even though a student is on the way to mastering a skill later. The new mastery transcript instead shows how far a student has progressed toward learning that skill, instead of assigning a low grade at a calendar-based cutoff.

The mastery report card also breaks from tradition by rating students in more than just a course or broad subject, but by many specific skills. Math, for example, includes evaluation of students鈥� statistical reasoning and scientific experimental design skills.

And the mastery report card includes broad, multi-disciplinary skills like 鈥渟elf-direction鈥�, 鈥済enerating solutions鈥� or 鈥渟ynthesizing information.鈥�

The Mastery Transcript Consortium keeps adding schools and districts as members, more than doubling from less than 200 schools in 2018 to more than 400 today. Some are using mastery approaches to help students recover from pandemic school closures. But most are just endorsing the concept or still learning it: Only 30 have made the full leap to the new style transcript. Almost 250 seniors at those schools applied to college this school year using it in place of the traditional transcript.

Flanagan said he鈥檚 seeing pushback from members about moving too fast and possibly jeopardizing student chances.

鈥�(They鈥檙e) saying, 鈥業 don’t know that we’re ready for that kind of change. I don’t know if it’s worth it. Why don’t we just sort of play by the rules, because that’s what we need to do to get kids into Stanford?鈥� he said.

The Learning Record is a scaled down version that skips listing courses and credits, but uses the same model of showing progress toward mastery of skills like cultural competency, critical thinking and academic mindsets. The Learning Record is also useful, Flanagan said, to show what students have learned in non-course programs, like after school or summer sessions, workshops or capstone projects.

The ability to show a well-rounded look at students is what drew John Clements and Mary Anne Moran, co-principals at Nipmuc Regional High School in Upton, Mass., to the transcript, then later the Learning Record. The school has six non-course goals for all graduates like being a 鈥渟olution seeker,鈥� 鈥渟kilful collaborator鈥� and 鈥渆ffective communicator,鈥� that the Mastery Transcript can capture.

鈥淭he idea that an A in English 10 can only tell you so much about a student really resonates with us,鈥� Clements said. 鈥淭hey have a larger story to tell than can be told simply through traditional metrics.鈥�

The school gives traditional grades for its courses, they said, but 10 students were willing to help build a full mastery transcript this year for their applications. But the Learning Record avoided that need and six ended up using it along with their traditional grades.

鈥淲ithout any negative consequences for our kids鈥� it only provided a value-added additional look into who they were, as learners, community members and individuals,鈥� he said.

Whether the full transcript is helping or hurting student chances is still unclear. The consortium says 285 colleges have accepted at least one mastery transcript application so far, including Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke.

Colleges are gaining familiarity with them, but still view them as an alternate form of application, like those of students from overseas or at other alternative schools, said Michelle Sandlin, interim associate director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. But she said colleges know they will have to adapt as they gain popularity.

鈥淵es, the concern by high schools is real for now, but competency based records are already well known at the college level,鈥� Sandlin said. 鈥淭he universities will develop admission requirements appropriately as they always have.鈥�

Students’ learning needs are enormous, with showing they鈥檙e making gains, but not fast enough to close gaps associated with the pandemic in a timely way. And student well-being, which directly affects academics, is in crisis: More than 44% of high schoolers feeling persistently sad or hopeless over the past year.

The picture is bleak for teachers, too. Some schools face high levels of , meaning teachers will continue to have to cover other classes, staff bus lines and monitor lunchrooms rather than giving struggling students extra help and working on lesson plans. 

Given these extraordinary circumstances, a return to traditional methods of teaching and anything resembling a one-size-fits-all approach just won鈥檛 work for many school communities. Students who鈥檝e lost ground will stay behind, as will those who continue to miss class. 

While in-person teaching is essential, it needs a refresh. Kids no longer need to spend the bulk of their class time listening to teachers talk from the front of the room and passively taking notes or answering questions. Instead, teachers can more effectively use whole-group instruction, reserving it for things like rich class discussions, and can replace routine lectures with short video lessons they create and pair with assignments. Students can then work at their own pace, while teachers address kids’ needs individually and in small groups.

I made this change, toward differentiated, mastery-based learning, which more schools are trying, when I was a math teacher at Eastern Senior High School in Washington, D.C. Today, I聽train teachers to redesign their classrooms by replacing live lectures with their own instructional videos, letting students work at their own pace and assessing them based on mastery. It isn鈥檛 a model that is tied to a particular grade level, content area or curriculum; any teacher can do it anywhere.聽

The challenges I faced, though pre-pandemic, were somewhat similar to those that educators grapple with today. I was teaching traditionally, and students were tuned out. Some found my lectures too slow, while others couldn鈥檛 keep up. I had no time to work one-on-one with students and get to know them, and many kids missed class because of responsibilities and challenges outside of school. 

Thankfully I had a colleague who used innovative methods and helped me transform my instruction to respond to student needs. Today’s teachers are even more prepared than I was to try something like this. Schools have new technology tools, and students and teachers have new digital skills. Educators and school leaders are open to and excited about innovative approaches that personalize instruction and help students keep up when they are out of school. This can look a little different across subjects and grades. For example, young students should get more structure than older students, their videos should be shorter and they should spend less time working on their own.

In , students came to appreciate moving through the content, toward mastery, more independently. This approach freed me up to help them 鈥� a kind of personalized instruction I couldn鈥檛 offer before. If there were 10 lessons to complete over three weeks, students worked on them at a pace that was right for them. I could assess them and intervene when necessary. Struggling students always got extra support, while those moving at a quicker pace could deepen their learning and work on extension lessons, getting the kind of educational experience they deserved. 

All students could access the video-based lessons at any time, which was particularly helpful for those who were absent or wanted to press pause and rewind. Overall, my students were happier and felt more supported, and I was less stressed and found my passion for teaching again.

Changes I noticed immediately in my classroom included an improvement in attendance and engagement. One student who rarely came to class started showing up almost every day. He knew he could pick up where he left off without feeling embarrassed, but he also knew I wasn鈥檛 going to let him slip through the cracks. He approached me one afternoon and said, 鈥淢r. Farah, I can鈥檛 finesse your class anymore.鈥� 

More recently, I was visiting a sixth-grade English language arts teacher鈥檚 classroom, delivering training on this approach, and one boy, an emerging bilingual learner, whispered to me that it was the first time he was able to comfortably ask his teacher for help. 

It鈥檚 urgent that leaders and policymakers take this moment to listen to students and trust teachers to create new and better learning environments. In doing so, the nation just might emerge from this crisis with schools that meet the needs of diverse learners and empower all kids to reach their full potential. 

Not for one second did the pandemic slow the red-hot housing market in Austin, Texas. Indeed, as COVID-19 untethered white-collar workers from offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York and other places with stratospheric costs of living, the city鈥檚 population swelled.

In January 2021, the city experienced the largest net influx of residents of any major metropolitan area in the country, according to real estate brokerage Redfin.com, which reported that shoppers in other states conducted 45 percent of Austin home searches, up from 32.6 percent a year earlier.

Is this good news, or bad? 

In terms of traditional indicators, it means the economy was thrumming along, coronavirus notwithstanding. In 2020, at least 35 companies relocated to Austin, creating a record . Austinites new and old were flush with cash: As of March 14, a year into the pandemic, consumer spending was up more than 31 percent over January 2020. 

But not everywhere.

Because Austin鈥檚 new transplants were not spending their disposable income at the small businesses that are major employers of low-income workers, revenue was down 43 percent. Employment dropped 13 percent overall and 26 percent among the lowest earners, while rising 0.5 percent among those at the top.

At the same time, rents rose to the point where a minimum-wage earner would have to work a 125-hour week to afford a one-bedroom apartment; last year, the number of people sleeping on Austin鈥檚 streets increased 45 percent, the sort of crisis that puts homeless students even further behind academically than their low-income peers who have a roof over their heads.

Even Austinites with the wherewithal to buy a home found themselves priced out of the market. Outsiders鈥� house-shopping budgets were nearly 33 percent higher than locals鈥�, averaging more than $850,000, versus less than $650,000. In some zip codes, housing prices are up as much as 46 percent, putting home ownership 鈥� a typical first down payment on intergenerational wealth and the security it affords 鈥� further out of reach. And, by extension, the possibility of moving into the neighborhoods with the most sought-after schools.

鈥淗ousing has become a luxury good,鈥� told the Wall Street Journal. 鈥淭he economy seems to have officially split in two. There is so much hardship in one part, and then there鈥檚 just an absolute mad dash to buy houses in the other part.鈥�

This is emblematic of what economists are calling the K-shaped recession. When the pandemic struck, economists John Friedman and Raj Chetty realized it looked different from previous downturns: While even small changes in the way money changes hands create ripples, COVID was a shockwave. The co-founders of 鈥� a team at Harvard University that researches income inequality and education鈥檚 potential to lift children out of poverty 鈥� persuaded credit card companies, payroll processors and other businesses that track money as it moves through the economy in real time to turn over what are essentially trade secrets.  Using that information, the researchers built a nationwide online pandemic tracker capable of providing a down-to-the-day snapshot of who is spending and who is struggling, by income level, city, state and county and, in some instances, by zip code.

The data quickly revealed stunning implications on virtually every front.

Rather than a typical recession鈥檚 V shape, in which people across the socioeconomic spectrum experience both the downturn and the subsequent recovery together, the economists saw a K. Affluent Americans at the top of the K bounced back right away 鈥� much more quickly than in a typical recession. But their new spending patterns 鈥� buying fancy meal kits online rather than ordering in from neighborhood restaurants, giving up Uber rides and manicures 鈥� crippled the businesses that supported their lower-income neighbors; those impoverished families on the bottom continue to struggle disproportionately on every front, beset by challenges long proven to be detrimental to children’s ability to learn in school.

(Friedman and Chetty update the tracker as the underlying information changes. The data in this story was downloaded June 29, 2021.)

The Opportunity Insights tracker contains one academic dataset: student participation and progress on the math app Zearn, which one-fourth of the nation鈥檚 K-5 students have access to. Immediately after schools closed, use of the app among low-income students “completely dropped off,” notes Zearn CEO Shalinee Sharma. As they started logging on again, a yawning gap became apparent. A year into the pandemic, these students鈥� progress was behind where it should have been, while their wealthier peers were ahead 28 percent.

New studies . and the nonprofit assessment concern found wide disparities between white/affluent students and their low-income peers/children of color. Depending on grade and subject, low-income students ended the 2020-21 school year with up to seven months of unfinished learning.

Researchers, Friedman told 社区黑料, fear the losses 鈥� of jobs, of loved ones to COVID, of mental health supports and reliable food supplies 鈥� may have even more devastating impacts for children that schools were already failing to serve, with education鈥檚 potential for lifting a family out of poverty moving further out of reach. In Austin, add to this list of barriers to classroom success an increase in homeless students and the exodus of families priced out of their homes, whose children tend to fall in the middle of their classes academically.

Even before the pandemic, a single classroom likely contained students who achieved at seven different grade levels 鈥� both behind and ahead. But because COVID has put the most disadvantaged students even further behind while hollowing out the middle, the span of academic mastery in individual classrooms is likely to be bigger. Pre-COVID, researchers at four universities used data from the 2016 NWEA MAP assessments, formerly known as the Measures of Academic Progress, to establish that in an average fifth-grade classroom, one-third of students perform at or below a third-grade level in math, a third at fourth grade, one-fourth at fifth and the remainder above grade level.

“The lockstep we鈥檝e moved at for generations is just not going to work.鈥� 鈥擫ars Esdal, Education Evolving

In June 2020, the researchers layered NWEA estimates of pandemic learning losses on top of that study to predict that the array of student needs in individual classrooms would widen further 鈥� spanning up to nine grade levels. The scholars predicted that post-pandemic, 24 percent of students in the average classroom would be on grade level and 33 percent each one and two grades behind, with small percentages of students one to four or more grades ahead. 

Reaching students at varying levels of academic proficiency was already a major challenge for educators before the pandemic. In COVID鈥檚 wake, determining what skills each child might have missed during the crisis and figuring out how to fill the gaps presents a daunting challenge. A number of researchers have suggested that it鈥檚 time to consider shifting away from the traditional practice of moving students from grade to grade in age-based groupings, regardless of each pupil鈥檚 level of need. 

鈥淕iven the data we鈥檙e seeing both about the level of variation that existed pre-pandemic and the level at which that variation is expected to increase, the lockstep we鈥檝e moved at for generations is just not going to work,鈥� says Lars Esdal, executive director of Education Evolving, a think tank that advocates for competency-based learning. 

Five years ago, Austin鈥檚 NYOS Charter School 鈥� the acronym stands for 鈥淣ot Your Ordinary School鈥� 鈥� decided to confront the seeming impossibility of serving students who show up achieving at a wide array of grade levels. The school, which was founded 20 years ago by dissatisfied parents and admits children across the economic spectrum by lottery, had already gained a reputation for accommodating what Vice Principal Samantha Gladwell calls 鈥渂ookend students.” These are both children who struggle in a conventional setting and those who learn very quickly. But school officials realized they would never be able to meet such divergent needs if they clung to the traditional calendar-based model.

The strategy NYOS鈥檚 educators chose 鈥� reconfiguring the way time and space are used so students can move through academic material at their own pace with classmates who are learning the same skills 鈥� worked better than they dared hope. In the 2018-19 school year, every grade in both reading and math students met or exceeded state averages, as well as scores in the Austin school district 鈥� sometimes dramatically.

NYOS earned an A on Texas鈥檚 2018-19 state report card, while Austin Independent School District overall got a B. NYOS earned 96 of 100 possible points for student achievement and all 100 for closing achievement gaps. Neighboring district schools earned 88 points on both measures.

As a result, even before the pandemic struck, NYOS was looking to expand its model, known as competency-based education, and lengthen its school year. As it turns out, these are key strategies researchers are counseling as schools contemplate how to address yawning academic disparities when students return to class.      

An ‘overwhelming’ job of catch-up

As real estate brokers and buyers alike are keenly aware, in most places, a neighborhood’s desirability is tightly tied to perceptions of its schools. Less known is that for the Austin Independent School District, it鈥檚 a two-way street: Administrators use real estate data 鈥� closings and construction starts 鈥� to determine, at the individual school level, where enrollment shifts are likely to take place. Coupled with demographic information, the data predicts steep ongoing enrollment losses even beyond the pandemic, continuing a trend the district has experienced over the last decade.

Since the 2012-13 academic year, the student population in Austin ISD has fallen from 86,500 to 75,000, as families have left for more affordable suburbs, as well as charter and private schools. The number of Black students fell from 6,266 in the 2016-17 school year to 4,975 in 2020-21. During the same period, Latino enrollment fell from 48,203 to 41,290. The low-income student population fell from 44,180 to 35,612. 

The influx of new, wealthy Austinites isn’t likely to stanch the flow. In its most recent demographic report, Austin ISD noted that of the more than 41,000 new housing units slated for construction over the next five years, only some 6,000 are single-family homes. The district estimates enrollment of three or four pupils for every 10 single-family homes, but for every 10 condos and apartments 鈥� which make up the lion’s share of new construction 鈥� only one or two.

Financially, the district has held it together 鈥� so far. In 2019, Texas changed its school funding system, boosting per-pupil spending in the 2020-21 school year to an average of $12,000. That increase, plus federal stimulus funding and the state鈥檚 decision to continue to reimburse schools for students who never showed up, has shored up the bottom line for Austin schools. But with the district expected to lose some 5,600 more students by 2025, a fiscal cliff looms when pandemic relief funding runs out.

When Opportunity Insights analyzed student progress seven weeks after schools first shut down nationwide, students in wealthy communities had progressed in math by 37 percent, while impoverished ones had regressed more than 11 percent. As the first anniversary of the closures loomed, low-income students had made up ground, but their affluent peers were still ahead 鈥� by more than 30 percent. 

In the 2020-21 school year, the number of Austin ISD students failing one or more courses more than doubled over the year before, from 3,300 to 7,600. On the , 60 percent of students scored at grade level in reading, down from 73 percent in 2019. Less than half 鈥� 48 percent 鈥� met math standards in 2021, compared with 74 percent the last time the exams were given.

NYOS has used a variety of assessments to get an early snapshot of students’ academic progress during the pandemic. In broad strokes, while its students are still faring better than their peers throughout the state, the number of early-grades students who were flagging in math and reading grew between fall 2020 and spring 2021. Older students were holding their own and in some cases making big learning gains. 

In December, the education advocacy group Families Empowered surveyed 100,000 mostly low-income Texas families about their pandemic-schooling experience. Among Austin families canvassed, 56 percent said their children were not ready for the next grade. Four-fifths said their child needed support, with almost half calling the amount of catch-up 鈥渙verwhelming.鈥� The organization followed up with phone calls to a number of respondents to gather details. Asked what it would take to get their kids back on track, a third of parents said access to tutoring or other intensive support. 

To ensure that schools can afford these more intensive services, Congress has mandated they spend at least 20 percent of their American Rescue Plan dollars on specific academic recovery efforts. But some experts say that doesn鈥檛 go far enough. Among other, more fundamental changes, some are asking whether it鈥檚 time to consider shifting to a model where students progress through academic material not according to their age or the school calendar, but their individual needs.    

‘Diverse by demand’

NYOS enrolls a representative cross-section of the very different neighborhoods that stretch out on either side of Interstate 35, the unofficial moat that separates Austin鈥檚 affluent and historically white west side from its gentrifying east side. One-third of the 1,000 K-12 students are low-income, 40 percent are white, 36 percent are Latino and 14 percent Black. The school draws from a broad geographic area, so students go home to an array of housing and economic circumstances.

In contrast to integrated schools that describe themselves as 鈥渄iverse by design,鈥� NYOS leaders like to say their school is 鈥渄iverse by demand.鈥� It admits students by blind lottery but tends to attract applicants who want to learn at an accelerated pace, or are struggling to keep up, or don鈥檛 flourish in a conventional setting.

And there is demand. Over the summer, NYOS moved into a new, state-of-the-art building that will allow the school to begin drawing down its 3,000-student waitlist. It will add a few hundred pupils a year for a total enrollment of 2,000.

To judge by the architect鈥檚 rendering, NYOS鈥檚 new campus looks more like a WeWork than a traditional school. Sun-drenched atriums are furnished with tables of different sizes and shapes. There are chairs at long countertops and a broad staircase leading to a second floor that can be used as seating for an assembly. Halls are expansive, flanked by small, breakout-style workrooms and alcoves. 

Students will start their days in classrooms with kids in the same grade, but from there will disperse into small, flexible groups with other pupils working on the same material. Because they advance as they demonstrate that they have acquired a skill or understand a concept, students progress academically as often as needed. They can advance at an accelerated pace in one subject while requiring extra support in another. 

鈥淭he classroom won鈥檛 be the space where you spend your day,鈥� says NYOS Elementary Principal Terry Berkenhoff. 鈥淚t will be a place where you get situated.鈥�

NYOS started the shift to what鈥檚 commonly referred to as competency-based education five years ago, as an outgrowth of the vision of the parents who founded the school in 1998 to keep student needs at the center of all decisions. 

As the school became known for success with kids who had struggled elsewhere, its educators realized that small groups were better than standard, whole-class instruction for teaching large numbers of students with vastly differing academic achievement levels. Teachers already routinely assessed individual pupils鈥� proficiency to identify missing skills or concepts; using that data to enable students to move at their own pace was a natural extension. They could cover the precise material a handful of kids were ready for at the right moment 鈥� a strategy some believe can accelerate learning. And they would avoid the potentially damaging signal that gets sent when a student is pulled out of class for remediation. 

Altering instruction turned out to be a much smaller challenge than changing the way adults’ time was organized. Teachers were accustomed to pacing material that鈥檚 supposed to be covered in a particular grade over a fixed number of days. Very quickly, kids started letting teachers know when they were ready for the next skill or concept. So the adults had to shift away from planning daily lessons to having materials prepared for students at a variety of levels.

鈥淵ou have kids who are done with your week-long lesson plan yesterday and some who need a whole 鈥榥other week,鈥� says Gladwell.

Teachers 鈥渓oop,鈥� staying with a group of students for several years. The familiarity this affords helps teachers understand each student鈥檚 needs. 

The kids still take Texas鈥檚 mandated end-of-year STARR assessments, but it鈥檚 not a big deal. 鈥淭he kids don鈥檛 worry about it, they don鈥檛 talk about it,鈥� says Berkenhoff. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just one experience in their whole learning career.鈥� 

In May 2020, Educators for Excellence and found strong support for grouping students by skill level and looping as strategies to help catch students up. Fifty-eight percent said they support small-group instruction, while 54 percent favored keeping students with the same teacher in the coming academic year. 

Education Evolving鈥檚 Esdal says there are numerous reasons why schools should be considering the approach as they plan for what comes after COVID-19. For students at the bottom of the K, the economic crisis has caused problems that won鈥檛 be addressed by pouring on more conventional schooling, he notes. Children uprooted by homelessness or other disruptions don鈥檛 get any benefit from simply repeating a class.

A competency-based approach is 鈥渁n absolute shift from using time as the constant and learning as the variable to learning as the constant,鈥� says Esdal. 鈥淭he biggest barrier is this involves changing the way we鈥檝e always done things.

鈥淲e need to see this period as a pivot point,鈥� he adds. 鈥淲e have this system we鈥檝e seen as 鈥楾he Way鈥� for so long, and it just doesn鈥檛 work for many students.鈥�

Rebooting for the fall

As progressive as NYOS鈥檚 approach is, competency-based learning will not be enough to make up for the pandemic’s academic losses, says Kathleen Zimmermann, the school’s executive director. Students will need more time in class, and many will need several years to recover. This is particularly true for those who already faced challenges and for very young pupils who have struggled in distance learning to acquire basic skills like reading.

Two years ago, the Texas Legislature passed a school finance reform bill that offered a carrot for lengthening the academic year. Under the new law, a school that offers 180 instructional days 鈥� the equivalent of 40 weeks 鈥� is eligible for an additional 30 half-days of funding. (Thirty states require 180-day school years, while 11 allow fewer. The average in Texas has been 173 days.) Pre-pandemic, NYOS had qualified for the money, which Zimmermann says may be used to start the next few school years early, or to run camps or intersessions during breaks.

This puts NYOS ahead of many schools around the country in addressing both the dizzying array of unmet student needs it will confront this fall and the special challenge of supporting children whose families have endured multiple impacts from the pandemic and the recession it sparked.

鈥淲e have to be really cognizant of what鈥檚 going on all over our community,鈥� says Gladwell.

When COVID-19 hit, the school was about six months from the ultimate phase of transitioning to competency-based learning. Implementing both fluid student groupings and remote classes proved too difficult 鈥� at least, at first.

鈥淚n the crisis, we had to ask teachers to go back to doing one-size-fits-all,鈥� says Gladwell. 鈥淭o go back to everyone gets the same thing was just heart-crushing. We were so close to being able to keep it rolling.鈥�

To rebooting its almost-complete competency-based model, add one more challenge NYOS teachers will confront in the fall: It is expecting upward of 300 new students, the first cohort to move off the waitlist.

It鈥檚 a good bet the newcomers will be unaccustomed to being accountable for themselves, say Berkenhoff and Gladwell. Accordingly, they are doubling down on teaching time management, critical thinking and self-regulation, among other things. 

鈥淲e are going to have to be really on top of our processes for pinpointing what they need on day one,鈥� says Gladwell. 鈥淚t takes a ton of upfront work, but it鈥檚 so worth it when you see the child take ownership.鈥�

This article is part of a series examining COVID’s K-shaped recession and what it means for America鈥檚 schools. Read the full series here.

Disclosure: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative provide financial support to Opportunity Insights and 社区黑料.

Lead images: 1 and 4. Emmeline Zhao; 2 and 6. Getty Images

A group of 14 Columbus high school students and their teachers walk behind the Columbus NBC TV-4 station, headquarters past a drainage pond and satellite dishes aimed at the sky.

They follow Ken Freedman, general manager of the station, to a chain link fence that surrounds a field – 2 陆 acres of dirt, debris and tree stumps- that the station owns but has never used.

Freedman has a task for the students as part of that district鈥檚 COVID-sparked summer learning program.

鈥淲hat,鈥� he asks the students, as he points to the field, 鈥渄o we do with this?鈥�

Researching and proposing a use for this all-but-ignored land will dominate summer learning for these students, with each given tasks depending on their strengths and weaknesses, requiring them to use math, public speaking, writing, art and even biology skills.

But there鈥檚 a lot more going on here than just going on here than just a summer project.

With many students needing academic intervention after the pandemic, school district officials in Columbus and Cleveland, are turning to 鈥渕astery鈥� learning as a strategy to catch them up.

The mastery, or 鈥渃ompetency鈥� approach lets students learn at their own pace, making sure they fully understand key skills before moving on.

That could be a good fit when students return to school in the fall after making drastically different progress online or in very limited in-person classes.

The Columbus school district has built mastery concepts into its summer program to let teachers, students and the district test-drive them. The Cleveland school district, which uses it in a few schools already, hopes to expand its use quickly. District CEO Eric Gordon, long a fan of mastery, has named using more in schools as one of his top four priorities in the district鈥檚 post-COVID academic plan.

鈥淥ver time, [it] will actually close achievement gaps more quickly and effectively,鈥� Gordon said.

Kenton Lee, head of secondary curriculum for the Columbus schools, said that mastery concepts have been a major topic in planning COVID recovery. Administrators, he said, are bothered by an increase in F grades in a difficult year when students may have learned material partially from home and can learn the rest now that they are back in classrooms.

鈥淢astery was brought up a lot,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he question is how do you operationalize it in a district that is as large as ours and to scale it.鈥�

And leading the charge in Ohio and nationally, is the Cleveland-area Hawken School, a private school that opened a new mastery-based high school last fall to test and showcase the model, and is now partnering with Columbus as it explores mastery.

The Mastery School of Hawken had to adapt during the pandemic and couldn鈥檛 bring visitors in to demonstrate the highly-individualized model, but it hopes to promote it to private and public schools alike this fall as educators look at new ways to run schools after COVID.

鈥淐OVID really called for an attempt to try to personalize the school experience for kids in the face of de- personalizing of a deadly virus,鈥� said Hawken Head of School C. Scott Looney, who dismisses traditional classrooms as too cookie-cutter and industrialized. 鈥淲e were separated by masks and plexiglass and by technology and the industrial production model does that too. The combination made it really clear for people that we can鈥檛 go back.鈥�

The mastery approach throws out standard expectations that students learn certain skills in a given grade or semester. It instead recognizes that students learn at different paces and may start a school year at very different learning stages. Schools give students time to learn at their own pace, repeating and reinforcing skills until they 鈥渕aster鈥� them.

If students haven鈥檛 learned something by the end of a school year or grading period, they don鈥檛 get a D or F. That would be imposing a schedule on learning, instead of recognizing students might just be still learning the material. So schools give them an 鈥渋ncomplete鈥� or 鈥渄eveloping鈥� or something similar, instead. In some cases, schools don鈥檛 even advance students a grade level each year, but whenever they show they are ready to move ahead, even mid-year.

Looney, one of the strongest backers of the approach nationally, said the upheaval of the pandemic calls out for schools to use mastery, instead of what he calls the industrialized approach of expecting students to all learn on a fixed and standardized timetable.

鈥淭he pandemic didn鈥檛 do anything but expose… the flaws of teaching the same kids the same thing at the same time with the same deadlines,鈥� Looney said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a good idea to begin with, but during a pandemic when some kids are home in Zoom and some kids aren鈥檛, and some teachers are teaching with kids, it really got exposed for what it is, which is a machine.鈥�

Teachers at the Mastery School of Hawken say the approach, which expects students to be at many different stages of learning any given skill, is perfect for a post-COVID world where students have missed varying amounts of classes and learning,

鈥淓ach student is just progressing along at their own pace and wherever they get to, they get to,鈥� said teacher Nick Cheadle. 鈥淭here鈥檚 much less pressure to get through any set of material than there is at a traditional school.鈥�

Columbus has already shifted away from standard grading for elementary school students toward one more focused on progress that鈥檚a key part of a mastery system. The district skips traditional A-F grades and instead rates student progress on multiple skills – for grades 1 through 5.

Students receive a 1 if they are doing work below state standards for a skill, 2 for progressing toward the standard, 3 for meeting it and 4 for exceeding it.

Parents, Lee said, still see a 1 on a report card and think their child is failing. But Lee said the district teaches parents that score is evolving and not a 鈥減ermanent snapshot鈥� of a child鈥檚 performance for a quarter. Ratings that low are normal early in a year and students can progress to meet standards over time.

Students already meeting state standards will receive other academic enrichment to learn beyond.

鈥淓ven that report card is a pretty big paradigm shift,鈥� Lee said.

For high school students, the district has not made any broad changes yet, Lee said. But it hired Doris Korda, a former Hawken administrator who helped design the mastery school there, to train teachers for its summer program that federal COVID-recovery dollars are paying for. Mastery School of Hawken teachers will also support Columbus teachers over the summer.

Korda helped teachers plan several projects for students designed to grab student attention and have them learn academic and social skills by trying to solve real world problems. Teachers will target academic needs of students or help them learn beyond standards as they work on projects.

And students will demonstrate their mastery of the topic by giving presentations at the end.

In the case of the TV station project, students will visit urban farms to learn about using the land as a garden.They will look at using the pond to water plants. They will talk to neighbors, many of whom are immigrants, as well as to a neighborhood mosque and other civic groups. They will then present options to Freedman.

Taylor Rush, one of the teachers leading the project, said she hopes students will take ownership of the project and what they need to learn to solve it.

鈥淭he students are really going to get a chance to get hands-on and get more engaged through the excitement of creating a solution for a real world problem,鈥� Rush said.

The in recent years, including at MC2STEM High School, which to let them keep working to fully learn academic, as well as social and emotional, skills.

Gordon has encouraged other schools to use mastery concepts over time, even saying last spring he had hoped to use more last fall – a hope that COVID and the district鈥檚 shift to online classes made impossible. He has repeatedly said that traditional grade levels and learning schedules force structure onto students that hurt learning.

In the district鈥檚 three-year recovery plan, which will be released in the next few weeks, Gordon plans to help schools already using mastery expand its use. But he wants to give other schools a year of staff training and planning time before expanding it further. Some district teachers are already teaching other teachers some mastery concepts this summer.

That鈥檚 important, say national experts on the model, who say it can take a few years to really learn and use well.

Both Cleveland and Columbus, however, are struggling with how mastery grading systems will affect high school students as they apply to colleges. Columbus hasn鈥檛 changed high school grades out of concerns that colleges won鈥檛 accept them.

Gordon this month is joining the governing board of the Mastery Transcript Consortium, a national panel of about 400 schools founded by Hawken鈥檚 Looney, to develop a common grading system and transcript for students using the approach.

That transcript, now in use at 14 schools, tosses aside traditional grades and grade point averages for an interactive and online report that shows where students stand in specialized skills that are normally just part of a grade in a traditional subject.

Math, for example, now includes whether a student is competent in things like statistical reasoning and scientific experimental design. And English is broken into things like language analysis and analyzing claims. Students are also rated on social and emotional skills like entrepreneurship, collaboration and self-direction.

Started in 2016, the consortium is already seeing successes. Twelve schools used the transcripts this past school year and had students accepted into 166 colleges using them, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To date, most have been private schools that have reputations and relationships with colleges. Gordon, who has been frustrated by not being able to use a full mastery grading plan at his high schools, hopes to change that – and to help convince more colleges to accept new transcripts.

鈥淭hey (the board) believe that part of the case to be made for a mastery transcript is that it is not exclusive to elite, private schools but that it can be an outstanding demonstration of a student鈥檚 content and skills in the public K-12 sector as well.鈥� Gordon said. 鈥淭hat traditional transcript has been a limiter in moving to a more full competency-based model.鈥�

Looney is also glad to have him and to share ideas right in the same city.

鈥淲e can talk about ways we can reinforce each other’s work,鈥� Looney said.