Our Story

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The idea for Mastery Transcript Consortium® (MTC) sparked in 2014 and the network officially launched on March 1, 2017 to champion a belief that there is a better way of preparing high school students for the world ahead and of presenting them to colleges and employers. The concept for MTC was born from the Hawken School in Cleveland, thanks to the vision of head of school Scott Looney, who saw the most basic of all high school documents—the transcript—as a boulder in the way of high school innovation.

That 99 percent of the high school transcripts follow an identical format is a vestige of an outdated industrial age. MTC hopes to reflect a new age that demands a new approach to education.

Scott Looney, Head of School, Hawken School, Ohio

Our History

  • February 2023Over 300 Colleges Accept Learners Applying with Mastery Transcript

    See College Admissions List here.
  • September 2022MTC Learning Record (MLR)

    An additional, more flexible competency-based record is released. Learners can send the MLR alongside a traditional transcript.
  • February 2022MTC Grow

    A strategic planning tool, rooted in the Journeys to Mastery Learning framework, is released to allow members to track schoolwide progress towards competency-based learning.
  • September 2021Mastery Transcript 2.0

    The second version of our competency-based, digital transcript is released after extensive collaboration with groups of
    Higher Ed Admissions Officers.
  • May 2021MTC Announces New CEO,
    Mike Flanagan

    Mike Flanagan assumes the role of CEO after spending four years as Chief Product Officer, leading the design and launch of the Mastery Transcript.
  • March to June 2021Over 170 Colleges Accept Learners Over Mastery Transcript’s First Two Years

    See College Admissions List here.
  • Fall 2020Schools Continue Sending Mastery Transcripts

    The number of “sending schools” increases to fourteen as members apply to colleges and career pathways with Mastery Transcript.
  • Spring 2020First Class of MTC Seniors Gets Acceptance Letters

    Seniors from four member schools are accepted to over fifty-five colleges sending only their Mastery Transcript.
  • March 2020Membership Milestone

    MTC officially surpasses 300 member schools.
  • January to March 2020Regular Decision
    Applications Submitted

    More and more college acceptances begin rolling in from students applying with the Mastery Transcript; initial results are very encouraging.
  • January 2020Regular Decision
    Applications Begin

    Students apply to colleges using the Mastery Transcript regular decision. In total, dozens of students applied to more than 100 colleges using the Mastery Transcript during 2019-2020.
  • November to December 2019First Mastery Transcript Submitted to a College!

    Pioneering students at MTC’s pilot schools use the Mastery Transcript to apply early decision to colleges. Numerous other members begin beta testing the transcript, while others continue to advance on their journeys to mastery learning.
  • Fall 2019MTC Mastery Transcript Launches

    The first, functional version of the MTC Mastery Transcript launches.
  • July 2019Membership Milestone

    Public and charter schools now comprise nearly 20%
    of MTC membership.
  • April 2019MTC Welcomes Higher Ed Advisory Group

    MTC’s Higher Ed Advisory Group launches with about a dozen inaugural members, poised to serve as a growing group of admissions leaders from diverse colleges throughout the country. Together they will provide MTC with feedback, thought leadership, and advocacy in the world of higher education.
  • March 2019Mastery School of Hawken Announced

    Mastery School of Hawken is announced on February 14, 2019—the first school based upon the concept of the Mastery Transcript. The school will open in August 2020 and is an interesting model to watch.
  • December 2018MTC Earns Key Industry Award

    MTC earns the Reimagine Education “Gold” Award—the top honor for an educational solution or pedagogy that excels in five areas: approach, uniqueness, innovation, scalability, and efficacy.
  • July 2018MTC Welcomes Public
    School Members

    MTC welcomes several public schools right out of the gate. In this first year public school growth was significant.
  • February 2018MTC Announces New CEO

    Stacy Caldwell joins MTC, bringing a deep understanding of innovative education models as well as the dynamics at the intersection between preparation for college and college admissions.
  • November 2017Award Winner

  • August 2017First Site Director Meeting

    The first group of MTC site directors gather at Phillips Academy (MA) to imagine their school's Mastery Credits. Global Online Academy facilitated the session, using their vast experience with competency-based education to help site directors with their work.
  • June 2017Membership Milestone

    Just four months after launch, MTC reaches 100 members.
  • April 20172017 Collaborative Innovation Grant Awarded to MTC

    The Edward E. Ford Foundation awards a $2 million Collaborative Innovation Grant, the largest single grant in its 60-year history to MTC recognizing that the Mastery Transcript is a bold concept with great potential.
  • March 2017MTC Launches at
    NAIS Annual Conference

    MTC is officially introduced. The inaugural meeting is held in Baltimore with 100+ participants and a welcome to MTC’s initial 54 member schools—15 more members sign on that day. Looney introduces Patricia Russell, MTC’s interim executive director.
  • October 2016Creation of the MTC Board

    The first invitational meeting of schools is held in Cleveland, Ohio, which resulted in a group of founding schools joining the MTC and the establishment of MTC’s first Board of Directors.
  • January to September 2016Building Consensus

    The process of gathering feedback begins, including from college admissions officers. Overall consensus is that a new transcript would be a challenge….but, if done with a collective group of schools, change is possible. The importance of a networked approach takes hold.
  • March 2015Research Gets Underway

    Armed with a proven approach to instruction and the need for a new transcript, Hawken School works with Hanover Research to produce a national, benchmarking study showing the need for a mastery transcript. Nothing similar had existed in this space before; all existing transcripts were either entirely narrative or graded.
  • January 2015The Idea of MTC is Born

    Scott Looney takes the challenge of the transcript to his Board of Trustees at Hawken, and the idea for MTC and bringing a new transcript to scale is born.
  • September 2014Hawken School Launches Entrepreneurship Program

    Hawken School launches an entrepreneurship program, fully opening the door for immersive, mastery-based learning. The program takes off, under the leadership of Doris Korda and Scott Looney; but the two leaders soon realize the students’ work does not translate well into grades...they need a new transcript.

Join the MTC community to learn more about the work we are doing to transform education