Dive Brief:
- Writing for USA Today, James Piereson and Naomi Schaefer Riley argue that competency-based education is making itself known as the cheapest and most efficient method.
- They acknowledge that there are still questions to be answered: How will credentials be standardized? And how will the government determine which programs get federal funds?
- But they say that through grade inflation and watered-down curricula, higher education has put itself in a spot where competency-based education is an increasingly appealing alternative.
Dive Insight:
The authors point to a new University of Wisconsin program that may pave the way for acceptance of competency-based programs. The pack mentality, they suggest, may be on the side of competency-based education, just as it was when it comes to the development of MOOCs. Where one big school goes, others soon follow.