Digital Learning: Micro-Credentialing Proficiencies
The goals of the project are threefold to: 1) create a process for students to engage in flexible pathways at the high school level; 2) develop a robust network of ELPs that can offer out-of-school learning opportunities within a badging system; and 3) refine and share a process for students to engage in flexible pathways at the middle school level.
The first goal involves the development of a flexible pathways process that can recognize and honor students’ achievements through a badging system at three school systems: Peoples Academy Middle and High Schools (PAML & PAHS) and Lamoille Union Middle and High Schools (LUMS & LUHS), Main Street Middle School (MSMS) and Montpelier High School. At the high school level each school will use a process that was piloted by Montpelier High School (MHS) in 2018. The Flexible Pathways program articulates a process for students to earn outside-of-school credit toward graduation. Students earning badges at all three high schools will serve as consultants with the goal of improving this process as badges are earned and recognized. Teachers and students at PAHS and LUHS will adapt MHS’s process to integrate into their existing flexible pathways context at their schools. At the middle school level students and teachers will pursue an age appropriate middle level badge earning pathway with either the TRY or VEEP badges apply them to their respective PLPs.
The objectives for this part of the project is the creation of a system with accompanying resources that allow students at these three school systems to:
Propose an out-of-school learning experience with an ELP;
Receive approval by school faculty to participate in the learning experience;
Use a badging system to align the experience with a transferable skill and immortalize the experience;
Have school faculty validate the experience; and
Archive such validation on students’ PLPs and/or transcripts.
The second goal involves the creation of a robust network of ELPs that offers learning opportunities which can be aligned to transferable skills and supported by a badging system. This strand expands upon previous pilot work launched in a partnership with Vermont Learning for the Future, Vermont Energy Education Program (VEEP), Montpelier High School and Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education. VEEP created a micro-credentialing pathway for students attending the Youth Climate Leadership Academy to earn a Youth Climate Leadership Badge. VEEP built the badge achievement indicators using the Vermont Agency of Education’s transferable skills.
The third goal of the project is to create to set of opportunities for sharing and refinement of the badging process among the three participating school systems. As each school system develops a badging system over over the course of the 2018-2019 school year, stakeholders from those systems - students, teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, and ELPs meet to discuss their progress in attaining these goals and consult with each other to improve their respective badging system at their schools using a design thinking framework.