Every freshman and sophomore at James Madison High School is tracking skills across nine domains this school year. Administrators expanded a pilot program to all underclassmen, replacing the school's WINGS portfolio system.

The Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) program is mandatory for the classes of 2030 and beyond, The Hawk Talk reported Oct. 19. Under WINGS, students gathered evidence of growth in five Portrait of Graduate skills. Under MTC, they track competencies across nine broader domains and deliver a formal presentation to a panel of judges at year's end.

The change grew from frustration with how underclassmen treated the old system.

"We've found over the last few years that underclassmen were not taking collecting evidence and building their WINGS portfolios very seriously–most were just uploading things to complete the task, but weren't really invested in the process," advisory MTC teacher Dan Blanchet told The Hawk Talk.

MTC launched at Madison in 2021 with a small group of students. By the 2025-2026 school year, about 100 juniors and seniors had opted in. The program is now mandatory for all freshmen and sophomores, and administrators plan to require it schoolwide within a few years.

Current juniors and seniors can choose to join MTC or finish with the traditional WINGS program, including the senior WINGS externship in May.

Each of MTC's nine domains contains four to five individual competencies. Analyze Current Events, for example, falls under Societal & Global Awareness. Students progress through four levels: Emerging, Developing, Competent and Extended Application.

A key difference from WINGS: the MTC Learner Record is a digital document students can share with colleges and employers. Blanchet said the record gives students "as another way to distinguish students from their competition." The Mastery Transcript Consortium's website describes two products: the Mastery Transcript, built from school-defined competencies instead of grades, and the MTC Learning Record, a flexible companion to a traditional transcript.

Madison also partners with the Close Up Foundation through the MTC program. Students can earn Civil Discourse credentials focused on civic literacy, critical thinking and communication. The Close Up Foundation describes the credential as covering three domains: Analyzing Political and Social Issues, Communicating Across Difference, and Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy.

The Hawk Talk reported that students who earn all three credentials can receive a letter of commendation from a senator, though the Close Up Foundation's own website does not mention that recognition.

Advisory MTC teacher Beth Blankenship said the school believed in equal opportunity for students to develop and document their skills. She said the school had to improve upon the WINGS program so students could build evidence for college and employment.

Administrators plan to phase MTC in for all grade levels over the next few years, eventually making it the standard for every Madison student.