Competency Learning & Mastery Transcript

Reimagining Education

At Cascades Academy, we’re joining a growing movement to redesign education for learning. Here, students progress toward competency, master real-world skills, and can tell their story of learning beyond traditional grades.

Competency-Based Learning

Competency-based education focuses on measuring a student’s mastery of learning rather than time spent in a classroom. By redesigning the education system around actual learning, we better prepare students for a global and competitive economy.

This approach empowers students to make decisions about their learning experiences and receive timely, differentiated support tailored to their needs. It ensures meaningful assessments, varied learning pathways, and rigorous, equitable expectations that are transparent and transferable.

Visit the Aurora Institute for more information on the key tenets of competency-based learning.

How Competency-Based Learning Works

As a student progresses through our program, they cultivate a set of knowledge and competencies (mastery credits) core to our portrait of a graduate. Students earn the full suite of foundational credits before graduation and showcase their interests and strengths with advanced credits.

Competency-based education creates a high bar for all students and no ceiling. Beyond the rigor of the required 28 foundational credits listed below, students will pursue advanced credits and own the process of curating the evidence that appears on their final transcript, including from beyond the classroom. Attached evidence will accurately reflect their strengths and differentiate them from peers. This active engagement in high school learning is the best way for students to develop the agency necessary to thrive in college and beyond.

Cascades Academy Credit Areas

Character and Wellbeing

A Cascades Academy graduate cultivates a strong sense of self by intentionally identifying, protecting, and advancing personal values, being a self-directed learner, developing resilience as they embrace challenges, and seeking balance in their pursuit of well-being.

Required Credits:

Self-Directed Learner
Balance & Wellness
Empowered Individuality
Perseverance & Grit

Communications

Creativity & Originality

Evidence-Based Critical Thinking

Local & Global Citizenship

Scientific, Quantitative, and Technical Fluency

Social & Ethical Fluency

Mastery Transcript

Cascades Academy is a Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) member and sending school for the class of 2027, meaning they are the first class to leave traditional grades for the Mastery Transcript™. There are nearly 400 MTC member schools, and we are the first sending school in Oregon, distinguishing Cascades Academy as a leader in modernizing secondary education.

Cascades Academy is the first school in Oregon to implement the Mastery Transcript.

Competency-based learning is core to all Upper School curricula. While students prior to the class of 2027 are assessed using more traditional grading, our Mastery Transcript uses the competency framework outlined above.

Sample Mastery Transcript

The Mastery Transcript is a student portfolio that tells the story of their learning journey. Instead of traditional grades and GPAs, the Mastery Transcript measures student competency with mastery credits. Each mastery credit (outlined above) represents a specific set of skills that may be discipline-specific or cross-disciplinary.

Cascades Academy does not yet have a complete Mastery Transcript to share as the class of 2027 will be the first to earn one. Below is a static example from Mastery Transcript Consortium, and please visit a dynamic transcript example using access code XG5Y3E.

College Admission

The Mastery Transcript was co-designed with admissions officers for universal understanding and to give readers a more holistic picture of a prospective student. It includes their skills, interests, courses taken, and tangible work samples associated with competencies earned. This level of detail ultimately empowers students and demonstrates how they will thrive at a specific college or program.

Applicants with the Mastery Transcript have been accepted to hundreds of schools, including including University of Oregon, University of Washington, Caltech, Colorado College, Harvard, NYU, and MIT.

Mastery Transcript FAQs

Why Mastery Transcript?

The traditional transcript reinforces outdated modes of education, constrains innovation, limits learning to single subjects, and impedes the pursuit of educational equity and excellence. It sorts and sifts students through narrow measures such as grades and GPAs, reducing each complex and unique individual to a simple number.

The Mastery Transcript is a dramatic improvement to the status quo. It supports each student in learning for today’s world, in exploring and pursuing varied pathways to futures that compel them, and in being recognized for acquiring and mastering skills both inside and outside of school.

What is the difference between a Mastery Transcript foundational credit and advanced credit?

Mastery credits are divided into two levels: foundational and advanced. Foundational credits are graduation requirements. To earn a diploma from Cascades Academy, students are required to earn all 32 foundational credits. Advanced credits are optional and often display increased credit area interest or skills. For instance, if a student has a particular passion for physics, they could create a capstone project to attain an advanced credit in Scientific, Quantitative, and Technical Fluency.

Are there grades on the Mastery Transcript?

There are no A-F letter grades on the Mastery Transcript. There are mastery credits earned based on evidence of student learning and skill acquisition. The transcript’s focus is on the growth of specific, measurable skills. Cascades Academy’s mastery credits are customized to reflect our portrait of a graduate. Please see the Credit Areas above for our 28 foundational areas in which students are assessed.

Why should I choose a Mastery-based education over IB (International Baccalaureate) or AP (Advanced Placement)?

All of these education systems have their merits, and it's crucial that students find the model that suits them best. Learning for mastery:

Prioritizes in-depth understanding, personalization, and student agency over GPAs and letter grades
Emphasizes real-world application of durable skills rather than rote memorization and/or test-taking strategies
Is ensured and evaluated through rigorous, measurable, diverse assessments with clear ongoing feedback for individual skill development
Minimizes the reliance on high-stakes standardized tests because students are assessed in a variety of ways, including presentations, written exams, student-led initiatives, and multi-step projects that all foster continuous improvement
Ultimately develops highly transferable 21st-century skills and prepares students for lifelong learning

Cascades Academy adopted mastery-based learning to prioritize personal growth and durable skill building that students need to succeed in college and life. This can also alleviate stress related to peer comparison and performance anxiety. Instead of fixating on grades or test scores, students strive for deeper learning through ongoing feedback on specific skills and areas for improvement. We make learning more engaging and relevant by connecting academic work to practical applications.

Do colleges and universities accept the Mastery Transcript?

Yes, colleges and universities accept the Mastery Transcript. Application officers are used to receiving myriad transcripts from alternative schools, homeschools, international schools, or mastery models like this. There has not been a single college admissions officer who has said they can't use the Mastery Transcript in their admissions process, and each year more and more students have gained admissions at a college of their choice using the Mastery Transcript. Over 450 colleges (and counting) have already accepted students with the Mastery Transcript.

Who works with students to create and maintain their Mastery Transcript?

Mastery Transcript gives students the agency to choose their path to graduation and reflect on their competencies, and they have ample support along the way. Each student is matched with an advisor family, which stays with the same faculty advisor throughout high school. That faculty advisor, along with the future and college counselor, helps the student curate a transcript that speaks to their strengths and learning profile. In our small community, students build strong one-on-one relationships with faculty focused on only a handful of students.

How does Cascades Academy accommodate students who transfer without a Mastery Transcript?

Cascades Academy is committed to supporting students transferring with a traditional transcript. All prospective students go through an application and interview process where we get to know their academic background and compare the classes they’ve taken to our competency framework. Upon admittance, we transfer those competencies onto their Mastery Transcript, denoting progress toward each mastery credit.

The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning.

John Dewey

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