BFA Fairfax’s Proficiency-Based System Is a Learning System

Bellows Free Academy (BFA) in Fairfax, Vermont embarked on a journey to a proficiency-based learning system following the 2013 Act 77 Flexible Pathways legislation and the accompanying Education Quality Standards (EQS). Over the past decade, Act 77 and EQS accelerated a shift towards flexible pathways to graduation supported by proficiency-based learning and proficiency-based graduation requirements for all students in Vermont high schools. 

In keeping with the state’s independent spirit, each high school holds significant autonomy in how to meet the goals of Act 77. The Vermont Agency of Education (VT AOE), provides guidance, resources, and learning opportunities for practitioners to collaborate. Some schools have leaned into opportunities to learn beyond the school walls and others have focused on redesigning their core learning systems to be proficiency-based. BFA offers an example of the latter – though they also have flexible pathway opportunities to learn beyond their building. I was particularly interested in their seemingly smooth transition to a proficiency-based transcript.  

I had followed the BFA story after teacher and instructional coach Jensen Welch wrote two blog posts for CompetencyWorks. That led to two BFA students sharing their experience on Aurora’s Next Generation Credentials webinar. With excitement to see the school firsthand, as soon as I had the chance, I made a plan to visit. This post shares details of their system.

Key Elements of the BFA Fairfax Proficiency-Based System

The BFA Fairfax faculty redesigned their core learning expectations and teaching focus around discipline-specific and transferable skills proficiencies that guide their course and graduation requirements. Students and teachers use proficiencies in day-to-day learning, which are also reported on using a 4-point proficiency scale in official report cards and transcripts. The school profile captures key information about the system.  

Each course aligns to a selection of the academic proficiencies for the discipline and the schools’ transferable skills proficiencies. Based on their evidence of learning, students get a proficiency score for each specific indicator. Students can see their current proficiency scores for their courses, which supports reflection on their learning and encourages students to take ownership of their learning by initiating a reassessment after further learning. Transparent formative assessment practices provide opportunities for students to understand the expectations and practice for what they will need to do to demonstrate their proficiency level. Opportunities to work on the proficiencies happen multiple times over the course of four years, giving students, teachers and families the ability to see growth over time.

At the start of the 2023-2024 school year, BFA transitioned to a trimester system with redesigned course options. The school realized that though the shift to a proficiency-based system had changed their outcomes, instruction, and assessment practices, the curriculum remained largely unchanged. The next step for BFA was making the curriculum more relevant and offering more choices. Principal Liz Noonan shared, “We moved to way more electives, freedom, and student choice and voice. And we’re learning that our proficiency model allows us to do that. If we were still in a traditional system, there’s no way that we would be able to accurately reflect student learning and give them the voice and choice that they have. It just doesn’t fit.” Now, while there is some variation based on the department, there are typically a few core requirements, followed by electives which include a range of courses such as: Wildlife Biology, Ancient Empires (history), Comparing Literature and Film, The Art of Craft, and Statistical Applications. I’ll dig in more to the change process in my next post. 

In addition to trimester classes, flexible pathway options include learning outside the school such as in internships, dual enrollment, or at one of the four regional tech centers within range of the school. There is a designated space with virtual course options through the Edmentum platform with support on exercising executive function skills from a staff member. 

All BFA students have a Personalized Learning Plan (PLP), through which students design their own pathway toward proficiency-based graduation, as required by Act 77. The PLP is a place for students to develop agency and show their growth in and demonstration of transferable skills and academic proficiencies. As part of the PLP process, students create a portfolio and present their evidence and reflections in exhibitions. Recently, they engaged in a student-teacher participatory action research partnership to review their process and get student input into how to improve the PLP process. 

When they began using proficiency-based transcripts, BFA also shifted away from class rankings based on grade point averages. Instead, they created a “Graduation with Distinction” system as a way for students to pursue deeper learning in areas of interest such as STEM, the arts, and humanities. The graduation with distinction planning process happens during advisory, starting when students enter ninth grade. This encourages students to think ahead in setting goals and choosing courses if they are interested in pursuing a distinction. 

As a whole, the BFA Fairfax proficiency-based system offers an example of what it can look like to implement a coherent competency-based education system. 

A Proficiency-Based System Is a Learning System

The importance of a learning stance came through in the story of BFA’s evolution over the past ten years. Principal Noonan closed our conversation with these thoughts about the importance of iteration and modeling how to learn from experience. (She also made a plug for structured proficiency-based curriculum resources to allow teachers to focus more on how to teach rather than what to teach, but that’s a whole other post!) 

This is my 17th year in education and this is the first place I’ve been where kids talk about their learning. And it’s all kids, not your top tier only taking AP classes. You have a freshman talking about, “I did this writing and I couldn’t analyze this piece. Can you help me do this?”…A proficiency model is such a safe place, because they have to learn failure here or they can’t handle it as adults….And it’s not failure. It’s: I’m learning in this process that has a cycle to it and reflective practice. But schools also have to do that – you can’t just do that to kids – you have to do that as a school in a district yourself. It’s not perfect the first time you put this out, and that’s actually a really good thing.

As I debriefed the morning with Jensen, she reflected on how our time together helped her to celebrate BFA’s accomplishments, even as there are always things to work on. She shared, “We do have great teachers, and they care a lot. And I think other teachers who come here from other schools say that they see teachers [at BFA Fairfax] who are really trying to build relationships with kids, and I think we get really far with certain kids that might not get far in other places.”

In my next post, I’ll dig into a few lessons to highlight from BFA Fairfax’s journey. 

Learn More

• Personalized Learning Plans at Bellows Free Academy in Fairfax, Vermont
• Webinar: Next Generation Credentials: Rethinking the High School Diploma
• Essential Components of Local Assessment Systems for Personalized, Proficiency-Based Learning

Laurie Gagnon is the CompetencyWorks Program Director at the Aurora Institute. She leads the work of sharing promising practices shaping the future of K-12 personalized, competency-based education (CBE). She had the opportunity to spend the morning at Bellows Free Academy in Fairfax the day after the Act 77 Celebration event in December of 2023 and looks forward to sharing more stories from Vermont.