In the delicate process of reforming how colleges measure learning, Amy Laitinen’s job sometimes feels like marriage counseling. One of her main issues these days: competency-based education. … Ms. Laitinen’s own higher education began at Miami Dade Community College, which she attended after finishing 113th out of 121 students in her high-school class. (“I was sort of a rebellious kid,” she says.) After earning an associate degree, she enrolled at the New College of Florida, a public liberal-arts institution that she describes as a “life-changing institution.”