In public-policy terms, competency-based education has been on a roll.
Last year federal officials opened the way for student financial aid to be awarded on the basis of direct assessments of what students learn instead of how much time they spend in a course, as is the case with traditional measures of “seat time.”
A new network of institutions dedicated to that form of educational delivery announced its formation last week.
And governors in Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington State have embraced Western Governors University, which moves students through curricula based on when they demonstrate mastery of the material. Many lawmakers have promoted Western Governors as a way to increase the number of adults in their states who hold college certificates or degrees.
So it is notable that the acceptance of competency-based learning seems to have hit a snag in the Missouri legislature. And the doubts some lawmakers raised have puzzled the movement’s advocates.
A bipartisan group of Missouri representatives recently added language to a state budget bill that would make two state scholarship programs available only to students who attend institutions based in Missouri “for purposes of accreditation.” Western Governors, which is based in Salt Lake City, is regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
Some lawmakers expressed a desire to protect their home-grown institutions. “It’s basically taking away from existing universities in our state,” Rep. Rick Stream, a Republican, told the Columbia Daily Tribune. The universities “are concerned about it,” he said, “and I am too.”
The University of Missouri previously signaled a willingness to work with Western Governors. Last year an official even contested the idea that the online institution would pose a threat to the traditional university’s enrollment.
It is unclear whether that attitude has changed. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Misgivings About Prior Learning
Other lawmakers raised questions about Western Governors’ educational quality. “The purpose of these scholarships is to help people increase their skills or knowledge, not get them credit for something that they already know,” Rep. Stephen Webber, a Democrat, told the Tribune.
That critique puzzles Western Governors, said Joan Mitchell, the institution’s vice president for public relations. “We are a little surprised,” she said. “It just goes to a lack of understanding of what we do and how we do it.”
Being awarded credit for knowledge already acquired is a feature of prior-learning assessments, which is a form of competency-based education. But it is not one that Western Governors offers.
“We’re actually not going to make somebody sit through a course or pay for what they already know,” Ms. Mitchell said. “They’ll focus on what they still need to learn.”
Advocates of prior learning were also confused by the rhetoric. “It does seem kind of strange,” said Pamela Tate, president and chief executive of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning. “It just feels like it’s coming from another time. It isn’t recognizing the nature of the student body we have today.”
Students who receive credit for prior learning earn 21 to 25 credits, said Ms. Tate, and they often persist in their studies to earn associate or bachelor’s degrees. Students who have their prior learning counted for credit will go on to learn, she hoped, “at a higher level, where they belong, rather than wasting their time on things they’ve already mastered.”
The budget in Missouri has yet to be approved, but the concerns about educational quality that have been aired play on some of the underlying misgivings about competency-based education and prior-learning assessments. Similar doubts about the watering down of academic rigor have been expressed about the goal embraced by many states and President Obama to increase the number of adults who hold college certificates or diplomas.
Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, mentioned Western Governors during his State of the State address last year, describing it as a resource that would help push to 60 percent the proportion of adults in Missouri who hold degrees or certificates. It is now about 36 percent, according to the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.
A spokesman for Mr. Nixon said that the governor was committed to high standards in education. “Through the curriculum it offers and the success of its graduates,” the spokesman, Scott Holste, said via email, “WGU has demonstrated its ability to provide a quality online education to nontraditional students, giving those students the skills they need in order to advance their careers.”
