Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

The Carnegie Unit was developed in 1906 to define the minimum number of hours required for high school courses. Since its wide adoption, it has served as the standard for measuring student progress toward high school graduation and through college. The Carnegie Foundation (owner of the Carnegie Unit) proposes to revisit the standard to study the feasibility and appropriateness of creating a "Carnegie 2.0" that measures student learning with a competency metric rather than time. The study would examine new and developing measures, identify criteria for a redesigned Carnegie Unit, and create an outreach plan to build support for what might be considered a revolutionary change. The work would include establishing an advisory group of experts to inform research and build a network of interested parties, culminating in a published report with recommendations for next steps.