Why We Developed This Guide
This Guide was developed to offer strategies and activities to successfully complete the essential steps in planning and implementing a proficiency-based learning system in your high school. This series of info briefs outlines key issues and strategies districts and schools should address to successfully implement proficiency-based learning.
The Great Schools Partnership and its professional staff support proficiency-based learning in Maine and beyond, including all New England states, Florida, Georgia, Colorado, California, Maryland, and Illinois. From our many years in diverse school settings, we’ve distilled the foundational steps needed to implement a high-quality proficiency-based system. Further, we’ve worked with schools to address issues ranging from school transcripts to data management systems to quality instruction. This Guide provides links to free resources developed by Great Schools Partnership staff and tested in hundreds of schools. We are confident that these resources will be useful for your work.
We know there is no one particular pathway to implementation, as each district is unique, but given essential steps to follow, supported by practical suggestions and quality resources, districts can build a local model that is equitable, personalized, and rigorous for all students.
The steps we recommend and the resources we provide are grounded in the Framework for Proficiency-Based Learning PBL we have created and assume a general level of familiarity with it.
Topics
| Briefing Title | Release Date |
|---|---|
| Steps to Proficiency: In this brief, we outline the ten steps districts can follow to implement proficiency-based learning in their schools | January 31, 2017 |
| Assessing Multiple Pathways: Recognizing Student Learning in Career and Technical Education Programs and Other Experiences | February 7, 2017 |
| Transfer Students: Assessing and Recognizing the Prior Learning of Transfer Students | February 14, 2017 |
| Ensuring Success for Students With Disabilities | February 21, 2017 |
| Verification of Performance Indicators | February 28, 2017 |
| Verification of Graduation Standards | March 7, 2017 |
| Assessing Maine’s Guiding Principles | March 14, 2017 |
| The Report Card: Communicating Student Learning in Proficiency-Based System | March 21, 2017 |
| Revising the High School Transcript | March 28, 2017 |
| District Policy Considerations: Revising local policy to support a proficiency-based learning system | April 4, 2017 |
| Planning Backward: Unit Design in a Proficiency-Based Learning System | April 11, 2017 |
| Communication and Community Engagement | April 18, 2017 |
| Selecting a Learning Management System | April 25, 2017 |
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