Although we have a few models that have been able to personalize learning and do a better job of instituting mastery-based learning for students, no one has figured out how to do it at scale per se yet, and there is still plenty of room for growth in student outcomes.

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Indeed, Common Core and competency-based learning should be a natural fit, as the former creates learning maps for students to master that can shift the emphasis from time to mastery of deeper learning.

FORBES: Could Competency-Based Learning Save the Common Core?

There is something here for everyone, be it Mastery of Community Management or learning how to make dumplings.

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For parents, stressing intrinsic goals, such as mastery, learning and doing one's best, can be tough.

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Embedding these experiences in digital learning makes it far easier to scale the good experiences across a mastery-based system, which would build student motivation for and ownership over learning all of which the research says bolsters learning.

FORBES: Building Motivation, Instilling Grit: The Necessity of Mastery-Based, Digital Learning

Of course, if there were instead systems of assessments in a competency-based learning system built for students to take an assessment on-demand when they were ready to demonstrate mastery on specific competencies, we would see a different picture develop with assessments that left no doubt that they were different.

FORBES: Could Competency-Based Learning Save the Common Core?