For over 17 years, Boston Day and Evening Academy has served a population of young people often left behind: those who are off track to high school graduation or who have dropped out altogether. Through its competency-based approach, BDEA has tackled one of the toughest education conundrums of our time: how to recover low-skilled students two or more years off track to graduation, provide them a rich and rigorous education aligned with the Common Core State Standards, and graduate them quickly and college ready. 

This report uses BDEA as a model to describe the process of aligning competency-based pathways for off-track youth with rigorous standards. It details how BDEA designs its competencies for struggling students. In addition to a narrative of the process, the brief contains a glossary of terms and numerous examples, tools, and resources to assist educators tackling this work for their schools. 

Additional resources on competency-based education, BDEA, and off-track youth:

• The Art and Science of Designing Competencies, by Chris Sturgis (August 2012)
• BDEA: A Learning Organization, blog entry by Chris Sturgis (June 2012)
• BDEA: Where Competency Education is Good Teaching Practice, blog entry by Chris Sturgis (June 2012)
• Clearing the Path: Creating Innovation Space for Serving Over-age, Under-credited Students in Competency-based Pathways, by Chris Sturgis, Bob Rath, Ephraim Weisstein and Susan Patrick (December 2010)
• Making Mastery Work, by Nora Priest, Antonia Rudenstine, and Ephraim Weisstein (November 2012)
• Reading the Pulse of Students at BDEA, blog entry by Chris Sturgis (June 2012)
• When Success is the Only Option: Designing Competency-based Pathways for Next Generation Learning, by Chris Sturgis and Susan Patrick (November 2010)