Editor’s note: This is Freeport High School senior Taylor Schenker’s perspective from a class where a teacher has implemented some proficiency-based practices prior to the full school implementation.

In many ways, proficiency-based learning sounds great – students will be graded on their ability to meet specific standards and show their understanding in new and creative ways. The Legislature allows schools to interpret and integrate the new system as they wish. But proficiency-based learning also raises a few questions.

First, how can we ensure that students leave the high school with good time management and the ability to meet deadlines when, in proficiency-based education, there are no deadlines and students learn at their own pace? In a world where homework can now be viewed as optional – only used as another method of practice to show your understanding – it can be challenging to see how unmotivated students will keep up. In proficiency-based learning, students will not gain or lose easy points simply based on participation or handing assignments in on time. The grades will be specific to content and thinking surrounding the particular class.

Freeport High School was given a one-year waiver to introduce proficiency-based learning with next year’s incoming freshman class, the class of 2019. Though they are unsure of how exactly grading will look at this point, Principal Brian Campbell assured me that each department has been working on standards and different performance indicators that will be used next year. As of now, the only teachers using proficiency-based grading are those who have elected to use the program for their own teaching methods.

The first few years of proficiency-based learning will be challenging. Students will need to learn an entirely different way of grading and assessment than they have been previously conditioned to. As students get used to it, hopefully they will be mature enough to realize that it will be better off for them in the long run.

Freeport hopes to raise the minimum bar from passing, currently a 70, to “meets,” which in standard world is a “3” and translates to an 85. In theory, that would mean that every student would graduate with at least a “B” average. Typically the standards grading scale ranges from “1” (does not meet), “2” (partially meets), “3” (meets), “4” (strongly meets) and sometimes “5” (exceeds).

Proficiency-based education allows parents, students and teachers to better understand where the gaps are within a student’s understanding. In the traditional system a student could still get an “A” without understanding one concept entirely. Proficiency-based education limits that possibility, insisting that all students would need a basic understanding of the concept and how to use it to earn a “meets.”

When students earn their diplomas, those will be able to say that they understand just about everything that they learned during their time here. While raising the minimum bar will improve skills in low-performing students, many, including myself, are worried by what will happen to the high-performing students. In most interpretations of proficiency-based learning, the only way to get above a “4” is by doing additional work to show your understanding in a more in-depth way. This often means more work for students outside of class, but could cause trouble for students who don’t have the resources to do such projects.

The Regional School Unit 5 district has a number of students who leave each year to receive their education from alternative sources. Many, if not most, of these students are high performing, so it raises the question of why these students are leaving. Proficiency-based education will work to bring up the performance of below-average students, but it may come at a price, and that price could be losing higher-performing students.

Taylor Schenker of Freeport, daughter of Mary and Scott Schenker, is a senior at Freeport High School. She will attend Clemson University as an engineering major next fall.