Micro-credentials — qualifications awarded to students and workers who complete short, often skills-based courses — have become increasingly popular in higher education and the workforce and are now growing in the K-12 education sector. A new report by FutureEd, Skill Building: The Emerging Micro-credential Movement in K-12 Education, explores the movement’s origins, how it is being applied currently and its potential to provide meaningful new pathways for students in K-12 education.
School districts around the country are launching or expanding micro-credentials for students in three primary areas: career and technical education (CTE); job readiness; and “durable” skills, such as communication and collaboration.
“While colleges and employers have focused largely on ’industry-recognized‘ credentials demonstrating technical and job-related skills, K-12 educators have taken a broader view of micro-credentialing’s potential scope,” the report states. “In fact, the field of micro-credentialing is sufficiently new that practitioners don’t yet agree on what a micro-credential actually is.”
For example, some school districts, like San Diego Unified, have worked with higher education partners to award “badges” for motivational purposes or in recognition of achievement. Students can also receive awards for completing specialized programs, such as the US-China Future Leaders Summer Program, offered by UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy.
“While some organizations exclude ’badges‘ from micro-credentials, others use the terms interchangeably. Some organizations insist that micro-credentials must be competency-based, while others are more relaxed in their requirements. And while many badges and micro-credentials are offered through digital platforms via third-party vendors, others are awarded by teachers based on classwork,” according to the report.
Micro-credentials and CTE
Currently, K-12 schools most commonly award micro-credentials in CTE fields. According to Credentials Matter — an ongoing research project examining how industry credentials address the skills gap and create pathways to careers — K-12 students have earned more than 1.3 million industry-related micro-credentials in 30 states during the 2018–19 school year. The three most popular were certifications for Microsoft Office (176,33 awarded), entry-level “core” credentials from the National Center for Construction Education and Research (96,767) and financial literacy certification from W!SE (71,309). Other popular credentials include those from Adobe, the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence and ServSafe, which focuses on food safety.
Some districts are finding innovative ways to use micro-credentials in place of traditional coursework. For example. North Carolina passed legislation in 2023 requiring one computer science class in order to graduate. Students can fulfill the requirement through a traditional computer science course or by earning professional credentials from organizations like CompTIA, the largest vendor-neutral credentialing organization for technology workers in the U.S.
Career readiness and durable skills
According to the report, many schools are offering micro-credentials in “other career-readiness skills, known variously as ‘durable skills,’ ‘soft skills,’ and ‘21st-century skills,’ among other labels. These can include leadership, creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration, as well as attitudinal skills such as having a growth mindset.”
The report asserts perhaps the most well-known micro-credential in these durable skills in the ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate, which assesses students on what it calls “essential skills” such as “working in teams,” “work discipline,” and “customer service,” as well as problem-solving and “financial awareness.” WorkKeys was the sixth most popular industry-related credential in the 2018–19 school year.
There are competing frameworks for these durable skills due to the many ways to interpret the term, including the Carnegie/ETS report on skills-based assessments that identified twelve different skills typologies.
Academic content
An emerging application for micro-credentialing is “badging” for academic content, especially math.
A leading effort in this area is the XQ Institute’s Math Badging initiative, launched in 2022. XQ’s catalog of badges roughly tracks the content of high school algebra and geometry. Currently, schools in Kentucky, Illinois and Idaho are piloting the badges with each following their own implementation strategy.
“Though there are few rigorous evaluations of K-12 micro-credentialing, many educators involved in pilot initiatives say they’ve seen promising anecdotal results, including greater student engagement, achievement and post-secondary readiness, especially among students who previously struggled,” the report finds. “Some also report significant improvements in teaching, catalyzed by a focus on mastery. For others, the advantages of micro-credentialing are philosophical; they see it as a bridge to the competency-based education they argue should become the norm in U.S. high schools.”
The report goes on to list potential challenges in quality, credibility and consistency with suggestions on how implementers can address each area.
