Journey to Mastery Learning

December 17, 2022

Compass Finds Its Way: Mastery Learning and State Testing

When standardized testing resumed after a two-year hiatus at Compass Community Collaborative School, the scores were higher, much higher than before the pandemic. The school’s Executive Director, Jan Harrison, and her colleagues were not all that surprised with this encouraging data. After only a few years of implementing the school’s mastery-based learning program...
August 9, 2022

Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Education Reimagined with MTC Learning Record

Do you remember a learning experience outside of school that made a difference to you? Why did that experience matter? For me, the first thing that comes to mind is actually a person: my brother, Michael Wexler.
May 23, 2022

Spring 2022: Member Highlights

Though every MTC member school has forged a unique path on its journey to mastery learning, there are common threads that connect their experiences. Clark Street Community School—a charter school in Middleton, Wisconsin, and Oxford Academy—an all-boys boarding school in Westbrook, Connecticut—are at different phases of implementing new learning models.
April 5, 2022

From Refugee to Entrepreneur: My Mastery Learning Journey

Mastery learning assuaged my doubts about being able to fulfill my potential through school. I was born in Syria and fled to Lebanon when the war started. I arrived in Jordan from Lebanon as a refugee at the age of fifteen, unsure that any of my needs would be met. When I learned of Amala, I admit that I was unsure about their mastery learning approach, especially while still adjusting to my surroundings. A new way of learning in a new environment?
August 12, 2021

Summer 2021: Member Highlights

What do Jordan, Missouri and Washington have in common? No, they are not home teams for “His Airness”, a former Washington Wizard. These disparate locales are where our pioneering member schools, the first three spotlighted in this “Member Highlights” series, are located.
June 9, 2021

Progressing to Mastery: A Different Kind of Flex

I’ve been thinking about programming and community a lot as I finished my first month as CEO of MTC. For me, that journey involves talking to as many member schools as I can, and while I’m just getting started, it’s clear to me that we can evolve our programming over the coming year to make sure all members get what they need.
April 20, 2021

MTC Members Strive and Thrive in a Year Like No Other

From mindset-shifting to resilience and everything in between, one on one time with member schools about their respective Journeys to Mastery and the impact of the pandemic has yielded thrilling results.
April 16, 2021

School, Racism, and Hope

School, Racism, and Hope — Chief Education Officer Patricia Russell reflects on three common themes emerging from MTC member schools in 2021.
December 14, 2020

2020 in review

As the academic year gets into full swing, there are several key initiatives that MTC is advancing with its network of nearly 300 member schools. In particular, this is the...
September 18, 2020

Future of College Admissions: Perspectives of Mastery Learners

Student panelists to share their experiences with mastery learning and how it has prepared them for college, career, and life.
August 19, 2020

MTC Voices: Student Profile

Rising senior at Winooski High School, Evelyn Monje, shares her experience with mastery learning, her excitement about using the Mastery Transcript this year as she applies to college, and a range of work she does in and out of school.
July 1, 2020

A Transcript for School Change

Amid a backdrop of historical events, there was a particularly significant milestone for MTC and its theory of change. The first students applied to college using the Mastery Transcript.
June 11, 2020
Blog Header: What Mastery Learning Looks Like

Mastery Learning in Action

This article and the deeper paper is a culmination of the five Mastery Learning case studies MTC recently published highlighting the incredible work of five of our member schools as they made the journey to mastery learning.
May 12, 2020
Saving Nature By Planting Trees

Mastery Learning at Home and Everywhere

MTC offers 10 insights, drawing upon lessons from our member schools and best practices from the field of mastery learning, to help parents endure the task of schooling at home as they can--and to see learning and their own learners/children in the best light.
May 7, 2020
Assessment

Transforming Assessment, Curriculum, and Beyond

In April Greg Curtis participated in MTC's Online Member Symposium, delivering two sessions on assessment and reimagining the learning environment. The following post addresses the role of assessment and curriculum change in moving toward mastery-based school transformation.
April 22, 2020
Banner: Member School Symposium April 2020

MTC Webinars on Higher Ed & More

MTC is offering two public webinars as part of its weeklong MTC Online Member Symposium. Both are free and open to the public, given broad interest in the discussion topics: "Progress and Promise: MTC and Higher Education” (Thursday, April 23 at 11 a.m. EDT) and “Mastery Transcript: Product Roadmap for Fall 2020" (Friday, April 24, 10 a.m. EDT).
April 1, 2020

Academic Excellence: A New Definition

Well before government officials began closing schools to slow COVID-19’s impact on our healthcare systems and communities, there were compelling reasons to rethink what “academic excellence” actually means. At this moment and in our current context, this definition is being wholly redefined.
December 27, 2019

Insight & Connection: Strategies in Vermont and Wisconsin

We continue our series of case studies with the stories of two more MTC member schools: Champlain Valley Union High School in Vermont and Pathways High School in Wisconsin. Both are public high schools who are engaging their students in learning experiences deeply rooted in research on learning. What is a common road block for school change?
December 27, 2019
View of Northern Cass School District

Insight & Connection: Mastery Learning Case Studies

MTC’s expertly illustrated series of case studies, prepared by Chris Sturgis, are key resources for member schools. We launch with two member schools, Northern Cass School District 97 in North Dakota and Tilton School in New Hampshire, whose journeys follow similar paths, but…
December 9, 2019

MTC Works: “The Journey towards Mastery Learning”

MTC is pleased to introduce the publication, “The Journey towards Mastery Learning: The Steps and Stages to Mastery Credits and the Mastery Transcript,” coauthored by mastery learning experts Chris Sturgis and Katherine Casey, along with MTC’s Senior Director of Member Engagement Susan Bell. This is the second in a series of publications MTC is producing (“MTC Works”) during 2019-2020, following on the earlier theory of action paper, “Getting Our Signals Straight for Students.” The goal of “The Journey towards Mastery Learning” is to provide MTC member schools–and others who are thinking about joining the MTC movement–with a framework for reimagining high school and transitioning to mastery learning … and ultimately the MTC Mastery Transcript. Read on for more.
November 25, 2019
Kettle Moraine High School

Member School Voices

School leaders from MTC member high school, Kettle Moraine, share their experiences in launching new teaching and learning methods through microschools and in beta testing the Mastery Transcript.
November 15, 2019
Reinventing Crediting

Reinventing Credit

Jonathan E. Martin has recently published the book “Reinventing Crediting for Competency-Based Education” to explore the need for school transformation along with the implementation of promising models, particularly the Mastery Transcript Consortium.
October 23, 2019
Reimagining College Admission Season

Reimagining College Admission Season

“Will I be able to get into college?” This is a common question coming from high school seniors around the country right now.
October 17, 2019
iNACOL

Join MTC at iNACOL

Come learn with MTC at #iNACOL19 sessions! Get a preview of the Mastery Transcript and learn about how it supports and accelerates schools’ adoption of mastery- and competency-based learning.