“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” — General George Patton
With the phasing out of CNM's dual-credit program from our course offerings, we ought to consider intentionally developing our own distinctive program of studies. These efforts can be implemented in unison with institutional efforts to equip our students to be lifelong learners. This proposal attempts a rough vision at what such an effort might look like.
Rather than seeking to replace dual-credit programs with a similar "certification" via an outside entity, we should reflect inwardly. How we might use EMHS's convergence of luck, privilege, and questionable state charter school policy to make a substantive and lasting change on education? How can we innovate at the department-level to pave the way for constructive reform schoolwide, and beyond?
Numerous discussions have taken place the last several months around the shortcomings of a conventional "numerical" grading system: beyond concerns around equitability, grading does not appear to add much substantial institutional value, nor does it do a particularly good job of giving colleges a distinct academic portrait of our students. There is broad interest in our department to explore alternatives to conventional grading models, and we continue to converge on something similar to a "mastery model."
Under such a model, students would no longer be assessed using numerical grades. Rather, they encounter classes where they can hone explicit skills in classrooms through intentional practice. Student grades are determined by their engagement in class and their growth in areas of focus. Student transcripts highlight those specific strengths and focuses they have developed over their time at our school, and provide colleges with a much better sense of a student's intellectual persona. (The decision to replace the old grading model*—and not merely supplement it—*is key. If we frame this as yet another system we implement alongside numerical grades, we undermine the underlying concerns around equity in conventional grading models and our commitment to seriously addressing those concerns.)
A growing number of schools are organizing movements, like the Mastery Transcript Consortium, to begin work towards a standardized non-numerical model for education. By becoming the second school in New Mexico to sign on with the consortium, we cast ourselves as innovators in the public schooling space. Moreover, we become part of a broader effort to rework the antiquated industrial model of education.