Kathleen Farley wrote a piece for Google. She talked about ditching traditional credit hours for skills-based standards in K-12. A smart move. Necessary, even.
But I’ve spent years working in personalized, competency-based ed policy. I’ve seen the wall. Again and again.
It’s not pedagogy. It’s not teacher resistance.
It’s college admissions.
Until admissions officers stop treating course lists like sacred texts, skills-based learning stays on the margins.
The Flawed Proxy
Colleges use admission requirements as filters. They want quality candidates.
Coursework and grades are the main data points. The theory? If you survive specific classes, you have the knowledge and the “soft” skills to handle college. It implies a direct line. Good high school performance equals future collegiate success.
Historically. Maybe.
Now? Not so much.
Grade inflation is rampant. Remedial courses remain persistent. Instructors are openly confused by students’ inability to handle college-level work. The link between a high school grade and actual readiness is fraying.
We ignore the fraying threads because that’s just how it has always been.
Comfortable, right? Wrong.
By prioritizing Carnegie units, colleges exert a downward pressure on high schools. High schools bow. They stick to outdated models of measurement. The entire K-12 system gets trapped in this loop.
If we truly valued skill development, where students prove application, we’d see a new paradigm. When, how, and where students demonstrate readiness would shift.
Competency-based education promises this balance. Knowledge plus skill.
It never gets off the ground.
The Tyranny of Tradition
Why? The tyranny of admissions requirements.
Parents panic. Teachers get nervous. Administrators freeze.
Any attempt to deviate from the traditional sequence gets labeled as reckless. Are you locking our kids out of university?
The threat is effective. We snap back. Safe. Static. Boring.
“The implicit assumption here is that successful completion shows what students can do… Yet we continue to accept this because it is the way things have been.”
Flawed logic. But powerful.
Imagine a different setup.
What if colleges said, “Here are the specific skills that predict success in our classes. Prove you have them.”
No course list required. Just evidence.
Admissions would drive demand. High schools would adapt. K-12 would pivot toward competency, not just content consumption.
Is this fantasy? Maybe. But the alternative is stagnation.
Policy Levers That Actually Work
Policymakers can force this hand.
Not every state dictates admissions criteria, but many do. Those states need to rewrite their statutes. The ones without? Use funding incentives. Money talks.
There are blueprints already out there.
The University of Wisconsin System has embedded competency-based options into freshman admissions. It exists. It works. It could scale.
Colorado tells colleges to look at demonstrations of learning. Capstone projects. If it’s on the transcript, it counts.
Indiana goes a step further. Automatic admission pathways for students earning diploma “seals” in durable skills. Communication. Collaboration.
Pilot Programs Proving It’s Possible
It’s not just state-level. Institutions are testing waters too.
The University of Michigan Ross School of Business lets students submit a performance portfolio. Real work, not just GPA.
The City University of New York ran a pilot. They admitted students whose entrance exam scores were below standard thresholds if they passed performance assessments.
Result? These students persisted through their first year at higher rates than the traditionally admitted peers.
Does this mean the traditional model was wrong? Not entirely. But it shows that alternative metrics capture potential that grades miss.
The Hard Part
Easy to say. Hard to do.
How exactly does a massive university evaluate a skill-based transcript at scale? It hasn’t been done globally.
The nuts and bolts are missing.
But the infrastructure for K-12 is building. The Mastery Transcript Consortium is capturing skill mastery. Big Picture Learning has credentials that communicate ability.
Participation in performance standards consortia links to higher graduation and college persistence.
Colorado shows how a state can give broad flexibility. Let students show what they can do.
A Slow Climb Out of the Past
Reimagining readiness takes coordination. It requires guts.
We are stuck in a system from centuries past. Moving toward skills-first standards means tackling admissions head-on.
If we want real K-12 transformation. If we want schools that reflect how people actually work.
The gatekeepers need to change the lock.
They haven’t yet.
