Beyond Seat Time: Angela Whitford-Narine on What Flexibility Makes Possible

EdNC recently covered a convening of state and national education leaders hosted by BEST NC, where the conversation centered on a question many schools are beginning to ask: what would learning look like if students moved through school as they were ready, rather than on the clock?

Angela Whitford-Narine, CEO of Second Mile Education Schools, was among the voices invited to share what that approach looks like in practice. North Carolina’s charter law gives schools flexibility from traditional Carnegie units — the long-standing measure that ties a credit to 120 hours of classroom seat time — and Second Mile has built its model around that flexibility.

“Flexibility in state law given to charter schools has been critical to us being able to do what we do.” — Angela Whitford-Narine, CEO, Second Mile Education Schools

That flexibility is what allows Second Mile teachers to operate as coaches and interveners, meeting students where they are and helping them progress as they demonstrate mastery. It’s the same approach the EdNC piece highlighted Second Mile schools for: a network already living out the competency-based model that state leaders are now working to define and scale.

For our students — many of whom have been underserved by time-bound systems — moving at the right pace, with the right support, is what makes graduation possible. It’s also what’s behind the outcomes our students continue to deliver across North Carolina and beyond.

For years, our students have shown what’s possible when learning meets them where they are — and when the system gets out of their way. That story is now part of a much larger conversation about the future of education in North Carolina.

Read the full article at EdNC: State leaders explore an education system based on student competency instead of seat time