Re-inventing how students prepare for college, career, and life.
The high school transcript is the primary means of communication between high school and higher education. MTC is building a Mastery Transcript as a first, critical step toward changing the way higher education admissions influences high school design, thereby unleashing new possibilities in mastery learning.
We're looking for students open to learning everywhere … The Mastery Transcript can help us even better identify the students who are really going to light this place up.
Liz Cheron, Northeastern University
Core Principles
While the transcript is still forming, the MTC has agreed on three core principles that the new transcript will reflect:
Easy To Read
Transcript has to be readable by college admission officers (once trained) in less than two minutes. Therefore, the transcript format has to be reasonably consistent across MTC schools.
Local Control
The MTC will not require schools to use a common set of Mastery Credits.
Learning Comes First
Letter grading (or numerical equivalent) will not be used. A completed course list can be included.
Imagine a transcript
The MTC model is substantively different from the traditional model of assessment that is typically organized around content oriented courses, Carnegie units for credit and A to F letter grades.
Current Transcript
Flat, two-dimensional, one page
Credit for time
Single-subject
Grades (little or no definition)
Typically limited to academic subjects
Mastery Transcript
Digital, interactive
Credit for Mastery
Cross-disciplinary credits possible
School-defined credits with consistent metrics/rubrics
Credits can be broader; most schools include SEL/4-dimensions
Mastery Credits
Each Mastery Credit signifies complete mastery of a specific skill, knowledge block or habit of mind as defined by the crediting high school.
The MTC schools are supported by a technology platform that allows the complete record of a student’s credits and performance evidence to be submitted to college admission offices for evaluation.
This Mastery Transcript will allow college admission officers to dive deep within a transcript to see the specific mastery credits of the sending high school and actual evidence of student work and mastery, thus giving depth and transparency to the student’s work record.
