Maintaining Legitimacy: Barriers to Altering Grading and Credentialing in Michigan Competency-Based Pilot Districts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17161/cberj.v3no5.24975Keywords:
Competency-Based Education (CBE), Grading, Implementation ChallengesAbstract
Competency-based education (CBE) has emerged as a promising reform to address persistent concerns about student achievement and workforce readiness, yet implementation efforts consistently stall when districts attempt to alter traditional grading and credentialing practices. While prior research documents these challenges, the literature fails to explain why they persist. This study employs institutional theory and the concept of isomorphic pressures to examine how external forces constrain CBE implementation in three Michigan pilot districts. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with district administrators and school leaders conducted between 2019 and 2020, this qualitative study addresses two research questions: how normative pressures from parents and coercive pressures from post-secondary institutions influence districts' grading decisions, and how districts navigate these competing pressures. Findings reveal that normative pressures manifested as parental resistance to proficiency-based grading that deviated from their own educational experiences, while coercive pressures from post-secondary institutions led all three districts to maintain traditional transcripts despite their philosophical commitment to CBE. Districts responded through translation, converting proficiency scores to letter grades; supplementation, adding portfolios alongside traditional transcripts; and stakeholder education, investing in sustained parent communication. These strategies represent compromises that preserve institutional legitimacy while only partially advancing CBE goals. The study recommends that states develop formal partnerships with university systems to pilot competency-based transcripts, districts invest substantially in reshaping parental expectations, and policymakers extend implementation timelines to allow for gradual normative shifts.
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