Overview
Idaho is a national leader for high school transformation through its adoption of seat time flexibility, development of a set of college and career readiness competencies, and assurance that students who earn a diploma are eligible to apply to the state’s institutions of higher education. The state has also taken steps to better prepare high school students for a changing workforce, while developing a microcredential platform—SkillStack—that allows Idaho’s educators to award industry-relevant badges to students based on demonstrations of proficiency.
As part of the state’s efforts to reimagine the high school experience, since 2022, state leaders and educators have been partnering with XQ Institute on a math badging initiative that explores the use of a competency-based math framework and aligned assessments to rethink students’ third year math coursework and build stronger career pathways for students. Students taking part in the pilot model real-world problems to demonstrate their mastery of rigorous math concepts and earn badges that might ultimately inform new student transcripts.
As Idaho continues this work, the state could explore opportunities for a statewide initiative with dedicated resources to incentivize community-based high school redesign.
