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The one syllibus I am intimately familiar with does build skills from one kyu rank to the next.
Weapons:
first stances are taught, then solo kata, then kumi-tachi, tanto, jo.
Ukemi:
each kyu rank requires ukemi for that kyu and the next one. No one takes falls that they haven't been taught. If you pay attention to the syllibus, you can choose the techniques for any given class based on the lowest ranked student, and know that **everyone** knows an appropriate ukemi for the techniques you teach.
Techniques:
Much the same...the techniques build on one another from basic techniques to more advanced variations to stringing attacks and techniques together in a series to multiple attacks and evasions and eventually jiyu waza. I find the syllibus very well thought out, and by knowing the ranks of the various students, it makes it easy to know how and what to teach in each class. Every student has a test booklet with the specifics of everything required for each kyu rank. People do not jump kyu ranks. You learn the material, you test for the rank. When you learn the next set of material, you test for the next rank. There is a time in grade, but in my opinion, it is not onerous, even if you are "ahead" of other students. Because there is specific material that is tested on, it really about as objective as such a thing can be.
That said, the independant dojo where I now train is still building a syllibus, and we are using the one mentioned above as a base. We are reducing the number of kyu rankings so that there is less stratification in the dojo. We are also going to more of a demonstration format for dan rankings. The demonstrations measure the depth of a student with the techniques chosen for the demo. In our last one, we concentrated on osae waza (ikkajo through yonkajo with at least two variations for each), nage waza (shiho, irimi, kaiten, kote gaish), again with at least two variations, weapons (kumitachi), disarms, and freestyle. I think there may have been a few other things thrown in there as well. The demo was an hour long, with almost constant activity, forcing students to show conditioning as well as technique. I think the things that our instructors were looking for were the ability to perform ukemi, the ability for nage to take uke's balance at first contact, maintaining the connection to uke's center, and a variety of throws.
We considered throwing rank right out the window. We decided not to for a couple of reasons:
Tradition
the need for rank when it comes to instruction
some (perhaps small)need for hierarchy in the dojo
recognition for each students efforts over a period of time and the skills gained.
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