Signals: Transcripts

Getting Smart Resources

Podcast: How Better Transcripts Will Improve College Admissions, Employment, and Licensing

This Getting Smart podcast episode examines how reimagining academic transcripts can strengthen the systems students rely on to demonstrate their learning and qualifications across college admissions, employment, and professional licensing. It explores the limitations of traditional transcripts and makes the case for richer, more comprehensive records that capture a fuller picture of student competencies, experiences, and achievements beyond letter grades and course names. For practitioners and school leaders pursuing learning innovation, this resource is directly relevant to the growing movement around competency-based education, mastery transcripts, and learner profiles, offering practical context for why and how credential reform connects to real-world outcomes for students. The conversation highlights how better signaling systems can reduce inequity, improve opportunity matching, and make student learning more legible to the institutions and employers who evaluate it.

Podcast: Laurie Gagnon and Cory Henwood on Learner Records and Next Gen Credentialing in Utah

This Getting Smart podcast episode features Laurie Gagnon and Cory Henwood discussing learner records and next-generation credentialing initiatives underway in Utah, offering practitioners and school leaders a ground-level look at how one state is rethinking how student learning is documented and recognized. The conversation explores how traditional transcripts fall short in capturing the full range of student skills, competencies, and experiences, and what more comprehensive learner record systems can do to address that gap. For educators and leaders pursuing competency-based or personalized learning models, this episode provides concrete context around policy, implementation, and the stakeholder coordination required to shift credentialing systems at scale. It is particularly relevant for those working on portrait of a graduate initiatives, alternative credentialing, or interoperability of student data across systems. The Utah example serves as a practical reference point for understanding what systemic change in learning recognition can look like when driven by intentional state-level

On Building a Network of Schools Using the One Stone Growth Transcript

This resource from Getting Smart examines how One Stone, a student-led nonprofit school in Idaho, developed and implemented a Growth Transcript as an alternative to traditional academic records. It explores the practical process of building a network of schools around this model, detailing how competency-based, holistic student documentation can capture skills, experiences, and character alongside or instead of conventional grades. The resource offers school leaders concrete insight into what it takes to design, pilot, and scale a non-traditional transcript system across multiple schools, including the stakeholder alignment and philosophical shifts required. For practitioners pursuing learner-centered transformation, it matters because transcript reform is one of the most consequential and least-addressed levers in reimagining how student achievement is recognized, communicated, and valued by colleges and employers.

Skills Transcripts at Scale: Why The ETS & MTC Partnership is a Big Deal

This Getting Smart resource examines the partnership between ETS and the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) to develop and scale skills-based transcripts that move beyond traditional letter grades and Carnegie units. It explores how this collaboration aims to create a credible, widely recognized alternative credentialing system that captures students’ competencies, skills, and dispositions in ways that conventional transcripts cannot. For practitioners and school leaders, the resource offers insight into the practical and systemic implications of reimagining how student learning is documented and communicated to colleges and employers. This matters for education transformation because transcript reform sits at the intersection of assessment, credentialing, and equity—changing what schools measure ultimately reshapes what and how they teach, making this partnership a significant lever for shifting the broader education system.

Additional Resources

As Schools Embrace Mastery Learning, and Confront Challenges of GPAs and College Admissions, Consortium Creates New ‘Bridge’ Transcript

The74
This article from The74 examines the growing tension between mastery-based learning models and traditional college admissions systems that rely on GPA and standardized transcripts. It profiles a consortium of schools that has developed a “bridge” transcript designed to translate competency-based student records into formats that colleges and universities can readily interpret and evaluate. The resource offers practitioners and school leaders a concrete case study in how institutions are tackling one of the most persistent structural barriers to mastery learning adoption — the transcript problem — with a collaborative, systems-level solution. For educators pursuing competency-based or proficiency-based reform, this piece matters because it demonstrates that the challenge is not insurmountable and that cross-school collaboration can produce practical tools that protect students’ college access while preserving the integrity of innovative learning models.

Mastery Transcript Consortium

MTC
The Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) is a network of schools working to replace the traditional A-F graded transcript with a competency-based alternative that communicates student learning in richer, more meaningful ways. Rather than reducing a student’s achievements to numerical grades and course credits, the MTC transcript documents demonstrated mastery across a range of skills, knowledge areas, and personal qualities, supported by evidence of actual student work. The resource offers schools a framework, tools, and a collaborative community for redesigning how learning is recognized and reported, including guidance on defining competencies and building credible, portable records that colleges and universities can interpret. For education leaders, this matters because the traditional transcript actively constrains curriculum design and assessment practice, and MTC represents a concrete, systems-level attempt to change the signal itself rather than simply improving what happens inside classrooms. Schools exploring competency-based education, alternative assessment, or broader learning transformation will find MTC a rig

Rethinking the High School Transcript for the Future of Learning

Aurora Institute
The Aurora Institute’s “Rethinking the High School Transcript for the Future of Learning” examines how the traditional high school transcript fails to capture the full range of student competencies, experiences, and achievements that matter in today’s world. The resource explores emerging models for reimagining transcripts as more comprehensive records that document mastery-based learning, skills, and competencies beyond seat time and course grades. It highlights real examples of districts and schools developing new credentialing approaches and addresses the policy, technical, and cultural barriers to adoption. For practitioners and school leaders pursuing competency-based or mastery-based education, this resource offers both a compelling case for change and practical insight into what more equitable, future-focused student records can look like.

The Move to Mastery Transcripts

AASA
The Move to Mastery Transcripts is a resource from AASA that documents conversations and insights around shifting from traditional grading and credit systems to mastery-based approaches in K-12 education. It offers practitioners and school leaders access to real dialogue, likely featuring educators, administrators, and innovators who have navigated the practical and policy challenges of redesigning transcripts to reflect what students actually know and can do. The resource is particularly relevant as schools increasingly question whether conventional transcripts — built around seat time and letter grades — accurately signal student competency to colleges and employers. For leaders pursuing competency-based or mastery learning models, these transcripts provide grounded perspectives on how to reimagine credentialing in ways that better serve students and align with the demands of modern learning environments.

Capturing and Communicating Learning Requires More Than Time-Based Measures

KnowledgeWorks
KnowledgeWorks’ resource “Capturing and Communicating Learning Requires More Than Time-Based Measures” examines the limitations of traditional transcripts and credit-hour systems as tools for documenting student learning, arguing that seat time is an inadequate proxy for actual competency and growth. The resource explores emerging approaches to learner records that more authentically capture skills, competencies, and experiences — including mastery-based progressions and comprehensive learner records — positioning transcripts as active communication tools rather than administrative artifacts. For practitioners and school leaders pursuing competency-based or personalized learning models, this resource matters because transcript redesign is often an underestimated barrier to innovation; without credible documentation systems that colleges, employers, and families trust, alternative learning pathways struggle to gain legitimacy and scale. It offers practical framing for why reimagining how learning is recorded is foundational to — not separate from — broader education transformation efforts.

Talking with Families About Transcripts and Grading in a Personalized, Competency-Based Environment

KnowledgeWorks
This KnowledgeWorks resource addresses one of the most practical communication challenges schools face when shifting to personalized, competency-based learning: explaining new transcript and grading systems to families accustomed to traditional letter grades and GPA. It provides guidance and talking points to help educators and school leaders bridge the gap between innovative assessment practices and parent understanding, reducing resistance that often stalls competency-based implementation. The resource recognizes that even well-designed systems can fail if families don’t trust or comprehend how student progress is being measured and reported. For practitioners navigating the cultural and relational dimensions of education transformation, this tool offers concrete support for one of the most human-centered aspects of systemic change—building family confidence in new ways of demonstrating and documenting learning.

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