Vergennes Union High School in Vermont shifted the focus for earning a high school diploma from a traditional report card and hours logged to one that includes a four-year, cross-curriculum portfolio. Beginning with the graduating class of 2016, students will demonstrate mastery through portfolio presentations. 

From Making Mastery Work:

Vergennes School District focused their proficiency-based efforts at Vergennes Union High School in Vergennes, VT.  A video of news coverage of their efforts can be found here.

Context of Competency Education: VUHS is a rural grade 7-12 regional school serving 600 students. The middle school is affiliated with Expeditionary Learning, using Expeditions and Exhibitions to frame student learning. The high school is building on this foundation with the creation of a competency education program.

Focus of Grant Project: To create a set of valid performance tasks, aligned to their Performance-Based Graduation Requirements.

Creating A Transparent Mastery and Assessment System

• The bar for mastery at Vergennes Union High School is proficient performance on a set of performance tasks for each of a number of portfolio categories. Performance-Based Graduation Requirements.
• Leaders of the Quality Performance Assessment Project at the Center for Collaborative Education guided development of a set of valid performance tasks. You can read more about the development process on page 38 and 39 of Making Mastery Work. 

Leadership for Competency Education Development

• Vergennes was cited as the school with the most evident teacher leadership. Staff participate in full-day professional development session, organized and facilitated entirely by teachers.  You can read more about Vergennes' professional development on page 62 of Making Mastery Work.
• Administration hopes that within the next decade, the district will replace the Carnegie Unit with its own performance-based graduation requirements, and they have empowered teachers to move the school in this direction.