Credit by Demonstrated Mastery

Yes.

Per State Board of Education policy, all LEAs must offer the opportunity for students to earn CDM for high school courses by the end of 2014-15 to inform student placement in the academic year of 2015-16.

No.

Schools and districts shall assess students and evaluate artifacts based upon the same standards that are applied to students earning course credit in the traditional sense. The achievement levels required to earn CDM through a two-phase assessment already reflect a more rigorous expectation of students who want to earn credit in this manner than those of students who complete the course with the traditional seat-time.

All students in North Carolina Public Schools for high school courses in grades 9-12 and high school courses offered in grades 6-8 in middle school, based on LEA availability.

No.

Students may earn credit using CDM for as many courses as they wish and districts may not impose local limitations. However, students may only make one attempt per course. Students who are unsuccessful after one attempt must register for and complete the course in the traditional manner to receive credit.

It depends.

CDM is only available for standard-level courses and inherently honors courses. CDM credits will be indicated on the transcript as CDM (similar to a ‘pass’) and therefore do not earn a specific grade or calculate into a student’s grade point average. Honors level
courses that are not inherently honors are not available for CDM. In either case, a student only earns credit and does not receive grades or an extra quality-point.

No.

DPI encourages LEAs to advise parents and families of the opportunities and discuss possible benefits and challenges. However, all students must be awarded the opportunity to earn CDM.

No.

CPR is part of the Healthful Living requirement and NC State Board of Education policy specifically excludes required Healthful Living courses from CDM.

No.

Charter Schools are not required to participate but may decide to offer students the opportunity to earn course credit by demonstrated mastery.

No.

CDM is not a replacement for differentiated services to meet the learning needs of students. CDM is in fact a way to differentiate and personalize learning based on individual student needs of content replacement. CDM does not replace the typical accelerated
pathways of learning compacted curriculum by groups of advanced students, which are quite common in many LEAs.

State Board of Education policy GCS-M-001 Course for Credit, Section 8, specifies required parameters. Additionally, NCDPI has developed CDM Guidelines and a CDM Toolkit for LEAs to use to develop and implement the local CDM process. As always, the SBE respects an individual LEA’s context and needs, thus the CDM policy does allow local decisions among the CDM framework. The CDM Guidelines specify additional requirements of the policy as well as components that are determined by the local school district.

It depends.

This is a local decision. DPI recommends that LEAs offer the CDM process for courses taught within the school district, even if they are not taught at all schools. It is not recommended that CDM be offered for courses not available within the local school district. Districts may consider partnerships with NCVPS to consider whether they have staff expertise within the district to offer CDM for NCVPS courses available to its students.

Yes. With the exception of specific courses excluded by SBE policy (work-based learning courses such as co-ops, internships and apprenticeships; courses that have a clinical setting as a requirement such as ProStart, Early Childhood Education I/II and Nursing Fundamentals; Advanced Studies courses).

For CTE courses, an industry credential may be accepted as the required artifact component. Students will still be expected to complete the post-assessment, if one is available, or a teacher made exam if the state does not provide a post-assessment. If
the student earns credit, the post-assessment score would be reported in the technical attainment performance measure.

Generally, students should replace the course with the next course in the sequence, i.e. a student using CDM to earn a Math I credit should schedule Math II in its place. High school students might also use CDM credit to create space in their schedule that can be filled with a community college course available through Career & College Promise or other advanced course, such as AP and IB. The NC Virtual Public School is also a source of courses for middle school and high school students who need to replace a course for which they have earned a CDM credit.

Yes.

CDM credits work like traditional credits towards graduation. DPI recommends that early graduation decisions be made through deep discussion between families, students, and appropriate educational staff.

Yes.

Students attempting to earn a CDM credit for a course with an EOC, must take the EOC as the Phase 1 assessment component of the CDM attempt. If the attempt is successful, the score will be banked for appropriate use.

No.

The CDM policy is being phased in beginning with students who wish to accelerate without enrolling in a course and to attempt CDM prior to taking a course. The CDM Committee has begun discussions about how to extend the policy to promote on-going
mastery-based learning and include students taking courses and in a credit recovery situation. When the policy is extended to those students, the guidance document will be updated to reflect guidelines applicable to those students.

Districts and schools may choose to require, as part of Phase II artifact assessment, student performance tasks that replicate these situations. For example, for world languages, the school may require a student to demonstrate conversational ability as part of earning the CDM credit as part of the Phase II assessment of the CDM process.

It depends.

Each organization will handle CDM within its own parameters. Please see the CDM Guidelines for more information regarding external organizations.

CDM credits are awarded as CDM in the gradebook, essentially like a “pass,” and will appear as such on the student’s transcript. No course grade is received and the course is not included in the GPA calculation.

As of date, there are plans to ensure CDM will be apparent on the official transcript.

Not at once.

A student may attempt to earn CDM for all of the courses in a sequence, one at a time. A student in grade 9, who has NOT taken English I, II or III, may NOT attempt to earn CDM for English IV and then subsequently earn credit for the other English I-III. A student must apply for and earn CDM for the next course in the content sequence. If a student did earn CDM for all four courses through the multi-phase assessments over time, this indicates a clear need for a personalized learning plan.

For EOC courses, the EOC will be given during an early testing window to provide the information needed for the Phase I assessment. For non-EOC courses, LEAs will determine the appropriate examination to use. School districts may decide to aggregate all the tests in the district for a course and either choose one or build one for purposes of CDM. Districts may also decide that the school CDM team will determine the assessment to be used for CDM purposes. With the exception of EOC courses, DPI does not currently require all tests or exams to be the same for student purposes. DPI expects all teachers and principals to administer tests in a professional manner that adequately tests students on the relevant course standards.

No.

CDM policy does not relieve schools, parents or students of the requirement that students attend school until age 16.

Yes.

CDM may be used for any student who would benefit from earning CDM and is able to
meet the requirements. CDM may support a pathway towards graduation that was not
available before.

No.

CDM should not replace current compacted pathways for groups of students. CDM should not be an additional requirement to determine who will work at a faster rate within the classroom. CDM is meant for individual students who need content  replacement and subject acceleration clearly, without any learning of the content in the school setting.

No. 

Students enter into and complete the process with the understanding that a course credit is being awarded and applied if a student successfully completes both Phase I and Phase II.