In the State of Washington, a group of 40 schools—the Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative (MBLC)—has been working to design new approaches to teaching and learning in public schools, building systems and practices that are culturally responsive-sustaining and mastery-based. Mastery-based learning, sometimes referred to as proficiency- or competency-based learning, attempts to make schools more equitable by establishing clear learning goals for students, creating more accurate and helpful grading systems, improving systems of support, and putting students in the driver's seat of their own learning. These efforts can be attempted through many different strategies, some more successful than others. In this workshop, we will use the experiences of MBLC schools and a review of research to determine which strategies truly lead to better outcomes for students.
Participants will:
- Explore highly effective practices utilized by schools in the MBLC.
- Discuss strategies, resources, and examples that can be used to center educational equity in mastery-based learning work.
- Analyze why mastery-based learning strategies cannot be implemented without culturally responsive-sustaining methods.
