Accelerating Your Journey: MTC Grow
Schools eager to make the move to mastery learning understand that the process of change is one that requires commitment, innovation, design thinking, and clearly defined targets for growth.
Grow Your Capacity for Change
Informed through our partnerships with hundreds of member schools, Mastery.org's Journeys to Mastery Learning (JML) framework articulates a set of core competencies that provide goals and practical steps to support school communities in redesigning learning, teaching, and educational systems.
To help members use the Journeys to Mastery Learning framework, Mastery.org developed a tracking and planning tool called MTC Grow. Grow follows the same design principles as our Mastery Transcript and MTC Learning Record.
For each competency, schools determine if they have "not started", are "in progress", or have "earned" that credit. To help make this determination, there are descriptions and a curated library of resources from our partner organizations. Schools are encouraged to upload evidence of mastery and associate it with earned competencies as they progress towards a mastery learning model.
Schools use MTC Grow as a guide to determine strategic priorities and as a snapshot to celebrate progress. This collaborative space engages each member of your faculty in the transformation process.
A Roadmap for Transformation
The JML framework is a guide to inquiry, collaboration, and iterative design. While each school will forge its unique path to realize mastery learning in the context of its community, the framework's design elements are essential in shifting practice and implementing the Mastery Transcript or MTC Learning Record. These competencies were informed by Aurora Institute’s Definition of Competency-Based Learning and Mastery.org's research on school change in a mastery learning system. Read more about the framework's design here.
Purpose & Vision: What is your compelling reason to innovate?
- Stakeholder Buy-In (Foundational)
- Learning is Constant, Time is Variable (Foundational)
- Equity-driven Decisions (Foundational)
- Learner Leaders (Advanced)
- Community Impact (Advanced)
Graduate Profile: What will success look like for all learners?
- Vision of Success (Foundational)
- Vision-System Integration (Foundational)
- MTC Learning Record (Advanced)
- Captures Diverse Perspectives (Advanced)
Learning Model: How will learning and teaching need to change?
- Mastery Credit-Informed Instructional Design (Foundational)
- Student Agency and Voice (Foundational)
- Meaningful, Student-Driven Assessment (Foundational)
- Shared Vision for Learning/Teaching (Foundational)
- Real-World Experience (Advanced)
- Anywhere, Anytime Learning (Advanced)
Alignment: How do school culture, instruction, and structure function to support your learning model?
- Timely Support (Foundational)
- Success Pathways (Foundational)
- Feedback for Growth (Foundational)
- Mastery Transcript (Foundational)
- Peer-Peer Feedback (Advanced)
- Exhibition and Defense (Advanced)
Sustainability: How will you build capacity to sustain change over time?
- Professional Excellence (Foundational)
- Reflective and Strategic Iteration (Foundational)
- Mentoring (Advanced)
- Policy Development (Advanced)
JML Case Studies
Mastery.org's diverse network brings together member schools of all types. These member case studies highlight how different schools have taken similar paths toward mastery learning, but with distinctly different contexts and steps. The insights shared feature their key moves within the JML and offer ideas and lessons learned along the way.
- Pathways High School: Designed for Success
- The Big Why: Tilton Introduces the Mastery Approach
- Northern Cass: Can Greatness Replace the Culture of Ranking
- Driving Improvement with the Learning Sciences at Champlain Valley Union High School
- Personalized Learning at Singapore American School Out
- Synthesis: Mastery Learning in Action