Schools eager to make the move to mastery learning understand that the process of change is one that requires commitment, innovation, design thinking, and clearly defined targets for growth.
Grow Your Capacity for Change
Informed through our partnerships with hundreds of member schools, MTC’s Journeys to Mastery Learning (JML) framework articulates a set of core competencies that provide aspirational goals AND practical steps to support school communities in redesigning learning, teaching, and educational systems.
To help members leverage the Journeys to Mastery Learning framework, MTC has developed a tracking and planning tool called MTC Grow. Grow follows the same design principles as our Mastery Transcript and MTC Learning Record.
For each competency, schools determine if they have "not started", are "in progress", or have "earned" that credit. To help make this determination, there are descriptions and a curated library of resources from our partner organizations. Schools are encouraged to upload evidence of mastery and associate it with earned competencies as they progress towards a mastery learning model.
Schools use MTC Grow as a guide to determine strategic priorities and as a snapshot to celebrate progress. This collaborative space engages each member of your faculty in the transformation process.
A Roadmap for Transformation
The JML framework is a guide to inquiry, collaboration, and iterative design. While each school will forge its unique path to realize mastery learning in the context of its community, the framework's design elements are essential in shifting practice and implementing the Mastery Transcript or MTC Learning Record. These competencies were informed by Aurora Institute’s Definition of Competency-Based Learning and MTC’s own research and knowledge about school change in a mastery learning system. Read more about the framework's design here.
Purpose & Vision: What is your compelling reason to innovate?
1Stakeholder Buy-In (Foundational)
Our school has engaged in a deep review of the current state, gathering community input and feedback from multiple stakeholders to make a case for change.
2Learning is Constant, Time is Variable (Foundational)
Our learners progress based on evidence of mastery, not seat time.
3Equity-driven Decisions (Foundational)
We employ strategies to ensure that the principle of equity for all students is embedded in the culture, structure, and pedagogy of the school.
4Learner Leaders (Advanced)
Our learners are empowered to lead conversations and co-design the process by which the school redefines an inclusive and just vision of success for all learners.
5Community Impact (Advanced)
We make connections with the larger community to advance learners’ ability to collaboratively and meaningfully seek and build solutions to community-based problems.
Graduate Profile: What will success look like for all learners?
1Vision of Success (Foundational)
Our faculty has developed and uses rigorous, common expectations for learning (knowledge, skills, dispositions) that are explicit, transparent, measurable, and transferable.
2Vision-System Integration (Foundational)
We partner with the larger community to promote and design all learning experiences, events, and community-based opportunities around advancing learners' attainment of the vision of success.
3MTC Learning Record (Advanced)
We use the MTC Learning Record (MLR) to showcase students' mastery of school-wide competencies.
4Captures Diverse Perspectives (Advanced)
We have co-created the vision of success with and for learners (and their families) of diverse backgrounds, especially with learners who have been historically underserved.
Learning Model: How will learning and teaching need to change?
1Mastery Credit-Informed Instructional Design (Foundational)
Our school uses building blocks (mastery credits) of common expectations as the basis for constructing learning experiences that are meaningful and lead towards mastery of skills.
2Student Agency and Voice (Foundational)
Our learners are empowered daily to make important decisions about their learning experiences, how they will create and apply knowledge, and how they will demonstrate their learning.
3Meaningful, Student-Driven Assessment (Foundational)
Our learners engage in (and may co-design) assessment experiences that are meaningful, positive, and empowering for students that yield timely, relevant, and actionable evidence.
4Shared Vision for Learning/Teaching (Foundational)
Our educators have developed a shared language, common expectations, and shared pedagogical vision across the entire school. Educators use and hold themselves accountable to the educator competencies that we've collaboratively developed and continually update to reflect the needs of our learners.
5Real-World Experience (Advanced)
We ensure that every learner has opportunities to interact with and have an meaningful impact on the larger community through learning that is project-, problem-, or inquiry-based.
6Anywhere, Anytime Learning (Advanced)
Our faculty recognize and welcome evidence of learning created/curated beyond the confines of the school's physical plant and daily schedule.
Alignment: How do school culture, instruction, and structure function to support your learning model?
1Timely Support (Foundational)
Our educators provide and our learners receive timely, differentiated support based on their individual learning needs.
2Success Pathways (Foundational)
Our students engage in learning actively, using different pathways and varied pacing.
3Feedback for Growth (Foundational)
Our learners receive meaningful and actionable feedback (in place of traditional permanently recorded grades) to support them in their learning growth.
4Mastery Transcript (Foundational)
We use the Mastery Transcript to capture student learning in a holistic manner.
5Peer-Peer Feedback (Advanced)
Our learners engage meaningfully in peer-peer feedback cycles that are embedded into the workflows of evidence creation and curation.
6Exhibition and Defense (Advanced)
Our learners conduct meaningful defenses of learning via school-wide events, panel reviews, or student-led conferences that involve and engage experts and other interested parties beyond the school faculty.
Sustainability: How will you build capacity to sustain change over time?
1Professional Excellence (Foundational)
We maintain a student-centered approach characterized by organizational flexibility and commitments to robust professional development and continuous learning.
2Reflective and Strategic Iteration (Foundational)
We use our school's vision, holistic assessment data, feedback from students and the community, and postsecondary learner data to continually adjust and improve our mastery learning model.
3Mentoring (Advanced)
We actively seek out and develop mentors to support new hires or those needing additional support to internalize the mindset and practices required by the learning model to achieve the Profile of the Graduate.
4Policy Development (Advanced)
We continuously review and revise our policies to reflect the culture and practices we've adopted to achieve the Profile of the Graduate.
JML Case Studies
MTC’s diverse network brings together member schools of all types. MTC presents these member case studies to highlight how different schools have taken similar paths toward mastery learning, but with distinctly different contexts and steps. The insights shared feature their key moves within the JML and offer ideas and inspiration as well as lessons learned along the way.
