How do we measure learning? It’s a question that challenges educators, as a rapidly changing landscape keeps everyone scrambling to catch up with evolving technologies, ever-expanding content, and the need to blend real-world experiences with tried-and-true curriculum. For over 100 years, part of the answer to that question has been the Carnegie Unit, a measurement that represents time spent learning a subject. And now, the vice president for educational transformation at the Carnegie Foundation says that answer needs to change.
Diego Arambula joins host Morva McDonald for an in-depth look at how reliance on the Carnegie Unit has shaped education in this country, and why he believes a massive shift is needed to help unlock potential and expand educational access for the future. It’s the architecture of schooling that needs an overhaul, he says, pointing to the idea that hours spent in class are currently equated to “learning.” Diego asks educators to examine things that aren’t being measured in credit hours: leadership and exploration outside of school hours and the development of skills, habits, and dispositions that allow real learning to take place.
