Giving Compass' Take:

• Getting Smart examines Diploma Networks, which are ways to help track outcomes across traditional and nontraditional academics, sharing goals, systems and supports.

• The benefits include reducing the complexity for approaching new learning models, while students can find new pathways to higher education. How can donors support such networks?

• Here are some promising changes in education spending for 2019.

Standards-based reforms of the last 25 years stressed grade-level proficiency in basic skills. Recognizing that success in life requires more than basic literacy and numeracy, many schools are defining and adopting broader measures of student success and building personalized learning supports to help students achieve them. These supports include transparent systems to track progress across academic and non-academic competencies, more opportunities for choice and voice, real-world, applied learning experiences, and intentionally designed structures and schedules to nurture deep relationships. Diploma Networks offer schools and districts a promising solution to move in this direction.

Diploma networks share goals, systems and supports:

  • Goals: A common definition of success and shared approach to assessing learning and measuring progress for learners and schools (new graduation requirements, school success metrics that go well beyond standardized tests, etc.);
  • Systems: A learning model with signature experiences and shared tools that support student learning and the transparent tracking of student progress towards graduation; and
  • Supports: Integrated resources and implementation support for new and existing schools adopting the model.

Read the full article about diploma networks and adopting broader outcomes by Tom Vander Ark at Getting Smart.