We can decouple the calendar year from the advancement process by replacing grade levels (e.g., "I'm in 5th grade) with learning portfolios (e.g., "I'm working on my 5th portfolio in science–and my 6th portfolio in math!). Learning portfolios are collections of student work that showcase learning and growth. They can also serve as a new structure by which learners can demonstrate readiness to advance.
We can configure portfolio expectations–Which skills and knowledge do learners need to demonstrate? Which tasks will serve as opportunities? How many demonstrates will serve as sufficient evidence of readiness to advance?–to ensure clarity and consistency across a school, network, or learning community. As learners advance through portfolios, the body of work should grow in complexity and volume to ensure learners are prepared for post-secondary pathways.
Developmental learning progressions should replace grade-based standards. Learning progressions will ensure that portfolio expectations are clear and consistent for learners–while also ensuring all educators involved in assessing learners are using the same high-quality tools for understanding where learners are in their development, identifying learner needs, and supporting learners in their growth along the progression.
Rather than the highly varied and often biased approaches to grade calculations, we can employ modernized learning management systems to report on learners' actual growth along each learning progression, and on their achievement within and across portfolios. Just as organizations like Building 21 have been doing for a decade. Specific advancement criteria can be set for each portfolio, making it possible to set advancement logic based on demonstration of skills and knowledge across a body of work, rather than based on seat time and grades that serve as faulty proxies for learning.
Research, employment markets, and life experience all point to the same truth: what learners actually remember, can do, and plan to do with their lives after K-12 education is not one-size-fits-all. What if our education systems were designed to ensure every learner developed the most essential skills for future-readiness, while also allowing for choice and flexibility so learners could tailor their own pathways based on their interests and goals? This involves reimagining essential learning outcomes, graduation requirements, program offerings, and systems for supporting and tracking personalized learning pathways.
