> allow retakes This is a nitpick but if done right (eg, avoid cheating, such as by making up a slightly different exam for each retake) retakes not only don't

> allow retakes This is a nitpick but if done right (eg, avoid cheating, such as by making up a slightly different exam for each retake) retakes not only don't hurt mastery-based learning, but improve it dramatically. Since the whole point of a class is to learn the designated material, it seems silly that exactly when during the semester you finally figured it out has any bearing on the final grade, as long as you did learn and master the skills and/or content at some point before the end of the semester (and demonstrate that you did so). And, this encourages kids to see school as a game where as soon as a unit is over the knowledge they gained no longer matters, and it devalues perseverance. Worse, without retakes, tests/projects become more high stakes, subtly encouraging teachers to make the standards slightly more "forgiving." With retakes in the mix, it's easier to keep the bar where it should be, because there's no penalty for failing and trying. There has been and still is a serious lack of focus on making grades actually measure "Did they learn the material?" but the influences you talk about have neither improved nor degraded that situation. For that matter, a kid who failed to learn multiplication in elementary school, but who managed to fully catch up and even ultimately master algebra in 9th grade, should not be penalized for their previous "failures" (which honestly, were probably failures of their prior teachers in this particular example, since elementary math ed is just so bad in the USA) as long as they did eventually rectify them. After all, they're going to graduate high school knowing just as much as the kid who learnt the things on the official schedule. The official schedule has little to do with reality and everything to do with practical school operational logistics and a lack of imagination. In order to be able to set high expectations, we have to get away with our obsession with meeting those expectations on a fixed schedule. The natural result is that the expectations slide to conform to the schedule, not the other way around.