In my previous post, I attempted to summarize the arguments for and against the emerging Competency Based Education (CBE) phenomenon that is gaining momentum in North American higher education. How should we respond to this phenomenon? In my opinion, we should thoughtfully welcome this development, seeking both to get ahead of the curve and to shape its trajectory. Why? First, because the concerns driving this trend are legitimate and long standing. Second, because infusion of CBE into the higher education landscape is inevitable. And third, because CBE offers great opportunity to collaborate and innovate in ministry formation and leadership development.

It has probably been more than two decades now since I heard these words from a speaker at an accreditation gathering: About the only thing a US high school diploma tells you is that a person has been institutionalized for 12 years. The speaker argued—rather arrestingly, I would say—that this was the inevitable consequence of a primary-secondary educational system in which time is the constant and achievement is the variable. Efforts over the past two decades to restore primary-secondary education to a more achievement-based enterprise, featuring heavy doses of standardized testing, have met entrenched resistance from those invested in the status quo. Meanwhile, even the strongest proponents of testing are beginning to acknowledge the ill effects of an examination glut.