Colleges turning to Competency Models

WGBH News has been featuring a number of interesting stories related to education, K-12, college, public, private, standards and policies, finances and budgets.  Lots of topics.  This one on competency based learning model really caught my attention.  Although the story is regarding a college, and a trend that is building within the college community, it seemed to me that it had serious resonance with high school vocational education.

There's the story script and about 4 minute pod-cast.

One of the statements that really hit home for me was:
“I was in the bathroom the other day and I heard two girls during finals say, ‘I was up all night trying to memorize all of that. I will never ever remember all that again.’ And I’m like, that’s exactly why we do competency-based education,” said [Dr. Charla] Long [dean of the College of Professional Studies at Lipscomb University]
Could a badge system work for vocational courses?