pbraverman wrote:The "new" kind of transcript, called the Mastery Transcript, is the brainchild of a 14-year school head named Scott Looney (who is, fair disclosure, a good friend of mine). It is supported by an avalanche of educational research into how students learn and build success in their lives. Scott's school in Cleveland, Hawken School, is pioneering an adjunct high school this fall dedicated to the concept, and indeed it is ungraded — though Hawken itself retains traditional grades. You can be sure the new school will have flaws, and you can be sure they'll make adjustments as they go along.

If anybody is interested in WHY such an initiative might be appealing (and, yes, minor colleges like Harvard are already on board), reading might start with their site, www.mastery.org, rather than with the vapors over the death of merit.

Reasonable people can disagree about the idea, but years of thought have gone into this whole thing, and reducing it to "How stupid" says far more about the poster than about the "new" transcript.

Sorry to interrupt the quick insults to defend an approach that assesses students based on what they've learned, how deeply they think, and what they can do with their knowledge, rather than simply test scores. Call me a wild-eyed dreamer, but that seems like an idea worth discussing.

Anonymous wrote:Asian students are killing it in terms of grades and SAT scores. So now whites have to move the goal post and remove those grades and SAT scores in favor of subjective evaluations. Guess Asians will have to follow suit and learn how to suck up to their teachers and guidance counselors. At which point, whites will move the bar again.

pbraverman wrote:The "new" kind of transcript, called the Mastery Transcript, is the brainchild of a 14-year school head named Scott Looney (who is, fair disclosure, a good friend of mine). It is supported by an avalanche of educational research into how students learn and build success in their lives. Scott's school in Cleveland, Hawken School, is pioneering an adjunct high school this fall dedicated to the concept, and indeed it is ungraded — though Hawken itself retains traditional grades. You can be sure the new school will have flaws, and you can be sure they'll make adjustments as they go along.

If anybody is interested in WHY such an initiative might be appealing (and, yes, minor colleges like Harvard are already on board), reading might start with their site, www.mastery.org, rather than with the vapors over the death of merit.

Reasonable people can disagree about the idea, but years of thought have gone into this whole thing, and reducing it to "How stupid" says far more about the poster than about the "new" transcript.

Sorry to interrupt the quick insults to defend an approach that assesses students based on what they've learned, how deeply they think, and what they can do with their knowledge, rather than simply test scores. Call me a wild-eyed dreamer, but that seems like an idea worth discussing.

Anonymous wrote:

pbraverman wrote:The "new" kind of transcript, called the Mastery Transcript, is the brainchild of a 14-year school head named Scott Looney (who is, fair disclosure, a good friend of mine). It is supported by an avalanche of educational research into how students learn and build success in their lives. Scott's school in Cleveland, Hawken School, is pioneering an adjunct high school this fall dedicated to the concept, and indeed it is ungraded — though Hawken itself retains traditional grades. You can be sure the new school will have flaws, and you can be sure they'll make adjustments as they go along.

If anybody is interested in WHY such an initiative might be appealing (and, yes, minor colleges like Harvard are already on board), reading might start with their site, www.mastery.org, rather than with the vapors over the death of merit.

Reasonable people can disagree about the idea, but years of thought have gone into this whole thing, and reducing it to "How stupid" says far more about the poster than about the "new" transcript.

Sorry to interrupt the quick insults to defend an approach that assesses students based on what they've learned, how deeply they think, and what they can do with their knowledge, rather than simply test scores. Call me a wild-eyed dreamer, but that seems like an idea worth discussing.

Thanks for surfacing this. I hadn't heard about it yet. But initiatives like this are the future of self-directed, tech-enabled education. I agree it will be difficult for more traditional k-12 schools to adjust, and perhaps for public schools also since the whole No Child Left Behind factor is part of their DNA now.

Anonymous wrote:How stupid.

Anonymous wrote:No grades, and no APs, and colleges making SAT/ACT optional means that the entire application will be based on soft and subjective elements, mostly reflective of privilege. Interesting.

Anonymous wrote:Just got a speech from HOS at our independent school, grades will be a thing of the past.
They are following the example of Andover, Exeter, etc...
So not only are they dropping AP, they are going to get rid of grades entirely.

What say you DCUM hive?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asian students are killing it in terms of grades and SAT scores. So now whites have to move the goal post and remove those grades and SAT scores in favor of subjective evaluations. Guess Asians will have to follow suit and learn how to suck up to their teachers and guidance counselors. At which point, whites will move the bar again.

WTF are you talking about? Most of the elite private schools have plenty of Asian students.

Anonymous wrote:Harvard alum here. Always A-/A student. Feared the possibility of Bs. Used to scoff at mythical stories of how one can drop classes while taking the final exam at Brown or Stanford. Fast forward to grad school which was 100% pass/fail -- LOVED the experience. It's true what they say about taking more risks and going beyond comfort level. If I could send my child to a K-12 or college that had predominantly pass/fail grading system, I absolutely would choose that school over another school that produced students with a weighed GPA of 4.9.

Of course, this would only work at great schools with amazing teachers and students who cared about learning.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just got a speech from HOS at our independent school, grades will be a thing of the past.
They are following the example of Andover, Exeter, etc...
So not only are they dropping AP, they are going to get rid of grades entirely.

What say you DCUM hive?

I think this wonderful -- very progressive. Any child gaining acceptance to an elite private in the first place is bound to perform well anyway. Bravo!

pbraverman wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No grades, and no APs, and colleges making SAT/ACT optional means that the entire application will be based on soft and subjective elements, mostly reflective of privilege. Interesting.

I don't think anybody believes that a new transcript will eradicate the disparities of privilege, but it's universally acknowledged, even by their publishers, that standardized test scores are already widely reflective of privilege. Witness the College Board's aborted attempt to assign "Adversity" scores on the SAT.

Today's standardized tests are still based fundamentally on a 1905 belief that people's overall intelligence can be measured and compared. (Incidentally, the Stanford tests were undertaken to "prove" that white people are smarter than all others, so it's hardly surprising that they reached that conclusion.) Back here in 2019, the adjunct high school program that Hawken is piloting this year is in Cleveland, not the suburbs (where Hawken's two main campuses are), and from what I understand the applicant pool has been largely non-wealthy — kids who, on the whole, perform far below their suburban counterparts on standardized tests. There is little danger that they will fare worse in a new system.

I'm not sure what point the PP is making. It seems like it's either: 1. there is no need for a better system, or 2. people shouldn't try to address that need because their attempts will be imperfect. The people working on the Mastery Initiative are far smarter and more practical than I am, and they are grappling earnestly with a stubborn problem. They may not solve it, but seeking to reduce inequality is certainly one of their goals. I'm excited to see how it launches.