Between 2016 and 2018, the Kwantlen Educational Policy Incubator conducted a study on competency-driven admission to post-secondary institutions. The study, because it relied on our partnership with the Surrey Schools, was called the Surrey Portfolio Pathway Partnership [S3P].
The S3P was guided by a single question:
To what extent can competencies be used to augment conventional achievement indicators, such as letter grades,1 in post-secondary admission?
Prospective answers to this question have substantial implications both for education scholarship and education policy. It is, however, only the latter domain with which this document is concerned. This paper argues that competency-driven admission to post-secondary education is possible. It begins by identifying the need for post-secondary admission reform in British Columbia, and then addresses the issues intrinsic to that reform. Once these issues have been outlined, I propose a way forward – a new model of post-secondary admission that tracks competencies and not only grades.
