Competency-based grading in higher education - a path for student success

This talk will focus on a competency-based grading system that has been implemented in our introductory physics courses. Having previously redesigned both the course content and content delivery in our calculus-based general physics I (mechanics and thermodynamics) and general physics II (electricity and magnetism), we have redesigned our assessments of student learning. In the initial redesign, we developed a grading system, based on a competency-based learning approach, that allows students the flexibility to learn and show competency in the course content throughout the semester. The grading system breaks down the course into "content areas" upon which students are assessed throughout the semester up to and including the final exams. Students have multiple attempts or opportunities to demonstrate competency in these content areas. This initial redesign showed higher course grades and lower rates of student Ds, Fs, and withdrawals (DFWs), particularly for women and first-generation college students. In our second redesign of the grading system, we are piloting a testing center that allows students to complete their content area assessments outside the regularly scheduled class meetings time. This testing center allows students to complete the course assessments at their own convenience and frees up class meetings for additional content delivery, active learning, etc. Student focus groups are ongoing with results to follow later.