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N.H. Schools Embrace Competency-Based Learning

Brittany Rollins, 17, a senior at Newfound Regional High School in Bristol, N.H., waits for a friend outside the school office. The school's Extended Learning Opportunity program enables Brittany to earn credits for a journalism class by spending time at a local animal shelter and writing about pet euthanasia.

—John Tully for Education Week

Learning is 'anytime, anywhere'

By Catherine Gewertz

Brittany Rollins is hanging out a lot at the local animal shelter this year. Delving into the issue of pet euthanasia and writing about it will help her earn English/language arts credits toward graduation.

The 17-year-old senior at Newfound Regional High School , in the rural central New Hampshire town of Bristol, is part of one of the most aggressive statewide efforts in the country to embrace competency-based learning. In New Hampshire, this means saying that accomplishment doesn't depend on how long students are in their seats, but whether they can demonstrate that they know their stuff.

It means letting students learn academic content in new ways. It means agreeing on what constitutes mastery, and holding all students to it, instead of letting some earn diplomas with weak skills. It means figuring out multifaceted ways for students to show what they know, and, ideally, it means letting them progress toward mastery...