If you asked a high school student what they know about “CBE learning”, they could probably tell you what it stands for – competency based education – but not much else.

Although many teachers have been using this method for a while, it hasn’t been required in classrooms until recently. This being the case, it isn’t exactly an area of concern for students or parents until they hear an administrator mention it. That’s when they start wondering – Will it affect college transcripts or work applications? Is it something they even need to pay attention to?

Well, who would be better to answer these questions than teachers? And who’s a better teacher to ask than Shauna Stafford, who has been teaching English for 14 years and following  CBE guidelines for 12?

“The goal of CBE is to be extremely clear,” Stafford said, “‘This is what you’re working on.’ When students learn that, then they tend to kill it in college.”

CBE is a skill-based form of education that allows students to learn at their own pace. Instead of using the A-B-C-D-F grading scale that most students are used to, CBE uses a 1-4 scale, with 1 being the rough equivalent to a D and 3-4 being roughly equal to an A. According to Stafford, CBE allows students to have more control over the subjects and skills that they learn. This gives them the freedom to master the required rubrics in a more engaging way, with feedback and tools personalized to help them towards their goals. 

“They [students] get to do the things they love,” she said. “That’s CBE. That’s like the meaning of CBE.”

As for college, students don’t need to be worried, Stafford said.

“If students understand how they are being graded, those are the students that are the most highly successful,” she explained. In other words, because CBE is adaptive to different skill levels, students get constructive criticism that helps them to succeed. Some college courses even use CBE in their materials, so students who start using this system now have that experience. 

With work, however, it’s not quite as cut and dry. Many jobs require the abilities to communicate and perform, such as being an EMT or a waiter. Standard grading may be good at preparing students for college, but CBE really comes in handy in careers such as these.

 “If we do CBE well, instead of me saying, ‘It’s really important that you memorize all this stuff about To Kill a Mockingbird’, I’ll be saying, ‘Can you communicate well? Can you write really clearly? Can you read to make sense of things?’” Stafford explained. Research shows that these are very important skills for students to learn in order to succeed beyond school. 

Of course, as with everything, this form of education has its drawbacks. While it may work fine in Stafford’s English class, in other subjects, such as math and science, CBE rubrics can be more difficult to adjust to students. These classes have standards that can’t be catered to a student’s specific skill level, leaving CBE difficult to apply. 

“I completely understand teachers that are just like… ‘What is happening? What is this?’… It’s going to feel different for different people,” Stafford said, in regards to these concerns.

Another detractor of CBE is that it can take accountability away from students. In fact, a major complaint of parents is that assignments have fewer time-constraints. In a positive light, this can be viewed as students being able to learn in their own time, but if a student isn’t proactive, they can quickly fall behind. This can also take away from their ability to work towards deadlines, which they will always have in future careers. 

“It would be helpful if students had teachers that they knew had their back and would not allow this system to get in the way of that,” Stafford explained. 

As long as students stay on top of their work, CBE learning shouldn’t impede your success. Some, like Stafford, believe it can prepare students for the future just as well as standard grading.