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Already know the answers? New San Jacinto College program lets students skip familiar lessons [1]
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Date: 2025-02-20
Forget zoning out in class while the professor drones on about a concept you’ve got down pat. Or racing to catch up on a lesson you missed before the class moves on.
Under a new program at San Jacinto College, the amount of time students spend on a lesson is determined by one thing: whether they’ve mastered it.
San Jacinto plans in March to launch its first “competency-based” education program, which will allow global logistics and supply chain management students to move through their online coursework at their own pace. San Jacinto leaders aim to attract industry workers who want to advance their careers, without having to spend a predetermined amount of time — such as a semester or year — in classes.
While college classes are typically measured by credit hours or how long a student spends in a class, competency-based education “is more about what you know than it is about the time you spent on it,” said Amber Garrison Duncan, chief operating officer of the national Competency-Based Education Network, a nonprofit that helped San Jacinto build its program.
San Jacinto will offer four courses in the new model, with students completing various certificates that prove their industry skills and help them get higher-paying jobs. The program will be the first of its kind among large Houston community colleges.
Here’s what we know about competency-based education and how the college plans to get the novel program off the ground.
How does competency-based education work?
Under the competency-based model, students must demonstrate that they’ve “mastered” class content or skills before they can move on to the next lessons.
San Jacinto is targeting adult learners who already work in the logistics field with its first class, so most students won’t be starting fresh. Instead, they’ll arrive with varying levels of industry knowledge. As such, San Jacinto advisers must assess what each student knows.
Before starting the program, students will be quizzed on their existing skills and college advisers will look at any certifications they already have. With both in mind, advisors will personalize each student’s degree or certification plan, zeroing on areas where the student needs more practice and allowing them to effectively test out of areas they’ve already mastered.
“It’s not really about you skipping content as much as it is that you may have gaps in your knowledge,” Rinehart said. “You may go through module one faster than you go through module two, or you may go faster through part of module one, but not all of module one. You may have to spend some additional time learning that content knowledge.”
Assignments are grouped into eight-week modules, with one assignment per week, which students can complete at their own pace. The assignments will range between projects, lectures, essays and more. The grading scale is simple: either you master a skill or you don’t.
Although the program is designed to be flexible, it’s not entirely hands-off. Rinehart said there will be plenty of opportunities for check-ins and support from educators, despite the online class format. Faculty will still make sure students are progressing — and intervene when they aren’t. Even if a student flies through the eight-week module in considerably less time, they must wait until the next eight-week term begins to start their next class.
“We would offer things like additional labs where you might want to meet with the faculty member and say, ‘Concept B, I don’t understand, and I need some additional support on that,’” Rinehart said. “It’s no longer about … the teacher at the front of the classroom, as much as it is somebody on the side, kind of walking with you on that journey.”
What are the benefits and drawbacks?
The largest benefit of competency-based education, proponents and San Jacinto leaders say, is flexibility.
The online format allows students to learn on their own time, meaning they can continue to work their jobs simultaneously. Students spend more time on areas they need more practice in, and less on topics they don’t. Plus, if a student is sick and misses a week, the class doesn’t move on without them.
Overall, students might not have to commit as much time to securing a credential — such as a degree or certificate — from a community college.
“We’ve got a lot of folks in our community that have been working for a really long time in a certain field, but they don’t have a credential,” Rinehart said. “And so what we’re trying to do is to give them a flexible learning option that allows them to use their content knowledge to accelerate and to be flexible through their learning, because we really want them to get that credential.”
However, some colleges have seen pushback to the competency-based model, which has stemmed from a few concerns: fear that it isn’t the same quality as typical classroom education, worries that students with less self-motivation may stumble, or reluctance to make such a big shift.
Adopting the model requires colleges to get approval from their accreditor, and it can take a while to get off the ground. San Jacinto’s program is four years in the making, college leaders said.
How popular is competency-based education?
Competency-based education isn’t widespread, but it’s growing in popularity. Garrison Duncan said it’s grown from a handful of institutions offering the model in 2013 to over 600 colleges now.
“For higher ed, that’s a pretty big change in 10 years,” she said.
The model has increasingly come to life at community colleges, particularly in Texas, after the COVID-19 pandemic sent many classes into fully online formats, Garrison Duncan said.
San Jacinto’s program will start small, with college leaders hoping to enroll 20 to 30 students in the first year.
“It’s awesome to be the first one to do something. It is scary to do it. But, you know, I don’t think we have a choice,” Rinehart said. “I think we have to help meet our community where they’re at and where the needs are.”
Western Governor’s University, a Utah-based online college using the competency-based model, provides some insight into the demand for this kind of learning. Hundreds of Houston-area community college students have transferred to the college in recent years, records obtained by the Landing from each of the colleges show. Western Governor’s ranked as the 12th-most popular transfer destination for San Jacinto students over the last four academic years.
Why global logistics?
San Jacinto has recently focused more on the logistics and distribution industry, a shift born from an advisory committee of industry leaders who help steer the college’s technical programs. In January, the college’s board of trustees approved a bachelor’s degree in the same subject that will debut in spring 2026.
The logistics industry, which handles the movement of goods from producers to consumers, drives Houston’s economy and is especially prevalent in the south Houston area, where San Jacinto serves roughly 32,000 students. Over 70,000 employees work in the logistics industry in Pasadena, according to the Pasadena Economic Development Council, fueled by the many nearby petrochemical companies and the Port of Houston shipping hub.
“We were just hearing from our industry partners that there was an issue with employees that had content knowledge but didn’t have a credential,” Rinehart said. “There are a lot of companies that are wanting to advance their employees, but they don’t have that credential that goes along with it.”
Are there more competency-based programs to come?
San Jacinto leaders hope to expand the number of programs offering a competency-based format.
In the immediate future, they’re eying construction management and child development programs, but don’t yet have solid plans for either.
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