diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/mako_module.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/mako_module.py
index fcc47aaaaf..213e9077db 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/mako_module.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/mako_module.py
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@ from x_module import XModuleDescriptor, DescriptorSystem
 
 class MakoDescriptorSystem(DescriptorSystem):
     def __init__(self, load_item, resources_fs, error_handler,
-                 render_template):
+                 render_template, **kwargs):
         super(MakoDescriptorSystem, self).__init__(
-            load_item, resources_fs, error_handler)
+            load_item, resources_fs, error_handler, **kwargs)
 
         self.render_template = render_template
 
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/xml.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/xml.py
index 7dd6868f78..8a084b19ee 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/xml.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/xml.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ def clean_out_mako_templating(xml_string):
     return xml_string
 
 class ImportSystem(XMLParsingSystem, MakoDescriptorSystem):
-    def __init__(self, xmlstore, org, course, course_dir, error_handler):
+    def __init__(self, xmlstore, org, course, course_dir, error_handler, **kwargs):
         """
         A class that handles loading from xml.  Does some munging to ensure that
         all elements have unique slugs.
@@ -88,9 +88,9 @@ class ImportSystem(XMLParsingSystem, MakoDescriptorSystem):
         resources_fs = OSFS(xmlstore.data_dir / course_dir)
 
         MakoDescriptorSystem.__init__(self, load_item, resources_fs,
-                                      error_handler, render_template)
+                                      error_handler, render_template, **kwargs)
         XMLParsingSystem.__init__(self, load_item, resources_fs,
-                                  error_handler, process_xml)
+                                  error_handler, process_xml, **kwargs)
 
 
 
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/x_module.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/x_module.py
index 7bb98dcdc5..97ae307809 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/x_module.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/x_module.py
@@ -521,7 +521,7 @@ class XModuleDescriptor(Plugin, HTMLSnippet):
 
 
 class DescriptorSystem(object):
-    def __init__(self, load_item, resources_fs, error_handler):
+    def __init__(self, load_item, resources_fs, error_handler, **kwargs):
         """
         load_item: Takes a Location and returns an XModuleDescriptor
 
@@ -561,14 +561,15 @@ class DescriptorSystem(object):
 
 
 class XMLParsingSystem(DescriptorSystem):
-    def __init__(self, load_item, resources_fs, error_handler, process_xml):
+    def __init__(self, load_item, resources_fs, error_handler, process_xml, **kwargs):
         """
         load_item, resources_fs, error_handler: see DescriptorSystem
 
         process_xml: Takes an xml string, and returns a XModuleDescriptor
             created from that xml
         """
-        DescriptorSystem.__init__(self, load_item, resources_fs, error_handler)
+        DescriptorSystem.__init__(self, load_item, resources_fs, error_handler,
+                                  **kwargs)
         self.process_xml = process_xml