What in the world is a micro-credential and why would you want one? I’ll be honest, when I was contacted about this post I had no clue what a micro-credential was and had to dive deep into learning and was excited about what I found!
I am a former public school teacher and remember the days of professional development training. I know many of you are educators in a classroom setting, which is why I partnered with WeAreTeachers.com for this post!
{disclaimer ~ this post is sponsored by WAT}
What in the world is a micro-credential? Micro-credentials provide competency-based recognition for the skills educators learn in both formal and informal settings. The Digital Promise Micro-credential Ecosystem, comprised of educators, content developers, districts and state-level educational agencies, among other stakeholders, works to establish micro-credentials as valuable and desired tools in an educator’s professional journey. 
Each Digital Promise micro-credential is developed using a framework to ensure they:
- Focus on a single competency
- Are supported by research
- Require evidence of competence
- Include a rubric for evaluation
When I was a teacher, I taught at an ESL school {they are called ELL also}, meaning many of the children I taught were English language learners. I absolutely loved this challenge and enjoyed my students {Spanish speaking mostly} tremendously.
Due to my love for ELL students, I loved learning about Digital Promise micro-credentials that support English learners! As classrooms continue to become increasingly diverse, providing stellar-quality instructional support to English learners (ELs) becomes vital.
These supporting English learners micro-credentials are designed to take educators through their instructional practices to recognize the role they play in students’ ability to leverage language to access content. While each of these micro-credentials is unique in its distinct focus, all require educators to reflect on how their instruction influences actual student language use and development – an invaluable skill for today’s educators who lead increasingly complex and diverse classrooms.
There are currently four Supporting English Learners micro-credential stacks:
- Supporting English Learners: Constructive Conversations
- Supporting English Learners: Language Fundamentals
- Supporting English Learners: Mathematical Language Routines
- Supporting English Learners: Supporting Argumentation
These Supporting English learners micro-credentials are designed to take educators through their instructional practices to recognize the role they play in students’ ability to leverage language to access content. While each of these micro-credentials is unique in its distinct focus, all require educators to reflect on how their instruction influences actual student language use and development – an invaluable skill for today’s educators who lead increasingly complex and diverse classrooms.
What a joy it would have been back when I was teaching to be able to extend my professional development in this way. BloomBoard and Digital Promise have partnered with some states to offer professional development credits for awarded micro-credentials. These credits or points can often be used toward relicensure/recertification and continuing education requirements. In these cases, an educator who is earns a micro-credential is eligible to receive credits in those states. You can see the states that are currently eligible here.
Teachers are educating in a time when the diversity of students’ needs is greater than ever. Digital Promise’s micro-credentials offer unique opportunities for teachers that will only benefit students in the long run.