Charting the Microschool Landscape

The microschool landscape has grown tremendously in both public and private sectors. Our early research classified microschools into four unique categories: operators, intermediaries, schools within schools or programs, and incubators. Through continued efforts within our microschool initiatives, we’ve identified a more complex ecosystem that exists with both the private and public sectors, as well as unique public-private partnerships. Additionally, homeschools and learning pods (multi-family) fall into the microschool landscape. While we have articulated a number of elements across the landscape, we also acknowledge the overlap in some of these models. By naming the elements within the landscape, all educators and parents can see opportunities for more options across all sectors to better serve their students and children.

Growth and Scaling Microschools

When we hear the term scaling as it relates to growth, we often loosely define it as simply expanding. Harvard’s business school defines scaling as “a business growing revenue more quickly than its costs” and growth as “the process of increasing revenues and resources at an even rate.” But how does that translate to microschools?

Growth in microschools refers to the process of increasing enrollment, resources, and educational offerings – usually at a single site. This might include adding more teachers, expanding facilities, or introducing new programs to meet the needs of a growing student population. 

Scaling in microschools involves expanding the reach and impact of the educational model while maintaining or improving the quality of education provided. This expansion might include impacting more students by increasing the number of campuses or developing partnerships with other educational institutions. 

As the demand for innovation and personalized learning options grows, so does the need for microschools. This demand can be met by both growth and scaling approaches.

Scaling Microschools in the Private Sector

A significant number of private microschools have launched over the last four years. Leading the charge in fostering the proliferation of microschools are organizations such as VELA, National Microschool Center, and Microschool Solutions, which stand as prominent networks of edupreneurs that offer alternatives to conventional schooling. Some of these microschool leaders want to expand their reach deep and not wide. Private-sector microschools can scale their model through decentralized or centralized networks. 

In decentralized networks, microschools codify their framework for replication by others. This form of scaling gives the school leader full autonomy of their own site while utilizing an existing framework. Although this type of scaling involves some risk in quality control, it provides leadership with autonomy to tailor a school model to the community it serves–a primary objective for many microschools. This idea of replicating a specific school model is not new (model-provider networks exist in both private and public sectors). Still, it has been adopted by microschools like Insight Colearning which joined the One Stone growth network as an entire replication site.

Other private microschools scaled their impact through more centralized efforts. This allows them to maintain the quality and assurance of their model by opening and operating multiple sites and building a centralized affiliate network. Notably, private model-provider networks or intermediaries like Prenda, Acton Academy, and Wildflower Schools operate in this way through direct operational support and sharing tools or resources. For example, growing networks like Primer are leveraging technology to share human capital across their network. 

Intermediaries can also function as operators. For instance, Kaipod is utilizing a hybrid learning model to grow and scale its model into a centralized network while also growing its network of decentralized affiliated schools and homeschooling cooperatives, referred to as learning partners.   

These private, microschool networks primarily utilize a tuition-based model, with some accessing public funds through Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs) or engaging in charter partnerships, like that seen between Sequoia and the Black Mothers Forums. While much attention has focused on these private-sector solutions, a robust microschool ecosystem has existed and continues to evolve in the public sector as well. 

Scaling Microschools in the Public Sector

Microschools in the public sector are not a new concept. These include the original one-room schoolhouses, existing rural schools, and the school within a school model. However, with the emerging growth of the private microschools sector, new models are surfacing and existing models are rebranding, utilizing microschools as platforms for researching, designing, and scaling equitable practices in the public sector.

We have also found that microschools can exist within a district to provide unique and niche offerings, similar to that of a magnet choice school. These program-specific models are designed to support niche offerings in the school that is not intended to scale throughout the district. EDGE High School (Liberty Public Schools, MO) and Iowa Big (Cedar Rapids, IA) both serve as specific programs within or across districts that are distinctly different from the other educational programs. 

R&D models are designed around a larger district’s intention for a learning model and hope to diffuse ideas through a school district. Issaquah School District (WA), Lamont Elementary School District (CA) and Escondido School District (CA) are all designing and launching microschools. Some districts like Denver Public Schools (partnering with Launch microschools) or Mesa Public Schools (partnering with Prenda in Arizona) find that existing intermediaries can facilitate faster launch efforts.

For many years, high schools have built school within a school models, sometimes encompassing all learning experiences at the school. Laguna Creek High School (CA) offers a number of career-related microschool models within the larger comprehensive high school. Especially in high schools, CTE pathway programs are becoming increasingly prevalent to better prepare young people for the world of work.

ASU Prep Microschools (now ASU Prep Digital Plus), Gem Prep Learning Societies, and Purdue Polytech High Schools Lab School are examples of public schools launching satellite microschools in multiple sites but using similar learning model structures as their original bricks/mortar sites (these three examples are all charter schools/networks). ASU Prep co-locates within ASU facilities and taps into university expertise while enrolling students in ASU Prep Digital programs. Gem Prep Learning Societies enroll students in Gem Prep Online programs while hosting small groups of students in rural sites around Idaho. Purdue Poly launched its first microschool in 2023-24 to expand access outside of their main campus sites.

Lab Schools, while sometimes larger than typical microschools, serve as training and support locations for schools of education. University of North Carolina operates a number of lab schools at university campuses across the state – in partnership with local districts.

Businesses are also catching up to the idea of co-locating microschools as a work-based learning model. These models have the potential to provide robust real-world learning experiences while leveraging the microschool as a pipeline for future recruitment. GPS Education Partners runs a set of district-supported, business co-located learning centers in Wisconsin for students to gain work-based learning experiences through apprenticeship models.

School districts and universities aren’t the only systems scaling microschools in the public sector.  Public service institutions and organizations such as libraries, zoos, farms and museums have the ability to co-locate microschools that are funded through public dollars to the organization. 

Public-Private Partnership Microschools

Although we’ve identified many ways in which microschools can exist both publicly and privately, that is not to say it must be either/or. Microschools are not monolithic. My Tech High and Khan World School could be classified as microschool provider models that can be adopted by both public and private sectors. Moreover, informal cooperative structures that have existed for centuries operate within both sectors–leveraging partnerships with families and even charter school districts to grow and scale. In Snoqualmie Valley, the district runs a part-time 100+ student microschool for homeschooled elementary and middle school students as part of the Parent Partnership Program.  

Conclusion

The diversification of school models reflects a broader understanding that one size does not fit all in education. Across public, private and innovative partnerships between public and private sectors, these microschool models represent a big tent of efforts aimed at making education not only more personalized but also more accessible and effective. By embracing these varied educational landscapes across the public and private sectors, communities can better cater to the diverse needs of learners, ensuring that every student has the opportunity to thrive in a changing world.

How Getting Smart is Thinking About Microschools

At Getting Smart, we recognize microschools as catalysts for educational innovation. Through our funding efforts and technical assistance, we aim to support microschools driving innovation to scale or expand their impact. Join the conversation by participating in our upcoming community of practice, where we explore microschool models within larger systems. Whether you’re a district leader seeking to scale innovation or a microschool leader looking to expand your model, we invite you to join us in shaping the future of education through microschools.

Additionally, we’d love your feedback on how we are mapping the microschools ecosystem. Please share any thoughts using the form below.

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The post Small Schools, Big Umbrella: Expanding, Defining and Scaling the Microschool Ecosystem appeared first on Getting Smart.

Student Experience

True to their stated goals of focusing on purpose and student profiles, KWS students are gaining a variety of skills outside of core content areas to grow into both thriving students and humans. Through Seminar, students engage in real-world discussions that develop their critical thinking skills. The students may be presented with a question like: Is college worth it? Is climate change a bad thing? Are U.S. elections fair? Will people live to be 150 years old or more? Should we pause AI development? They will then work together to reason and address challenges, develop solutions and better articulate their ideas on the subject. 

Along their learning journey, students focus on specific passion projects, developing their research and creativity skills. “We encourage choice and voice as much as possible. For example, in all humanities courses (and many STEM) students can self-design projects to demonstrate mastery,” said Jessica Jaeger, Khan World School Guide Manager and Humanities Guide at ASU Preparatory Academy. KWS allows students to exemplify their skills and knowledge in any way they choose, but are still expected to reason through their thinking when answering questions, they are assessed on their processing as well as their accuracy. 

Jaeger continued, “The parents are noticing that through projects and Seminar, students are building transferable skills. Employers can teach job-specific skills, but [at KWS] we’re helping equip them with some of the more durable skills.” 

At KWS, particularly at the high school level, oftentimes the feedback cycle is peer-to-peer rather than facilitator-to-student. This helps form a close cohort of students while also getting them comfortable with content and expertise, editing and much more. One 6th grade student reflected on the agenctic model by sharing “We DEFINITELY have a choice in what we dive deeper into here! For example: book talks. We can read any book we like as long as it’s not a baby book. ANY BOOK! Do you know how many books there are in the whole world?”

Student Projects

These passion projects have yielded impressive results. One student shared “I really like the mastery projects because you can do ANY IDEA YOU CAN IMAGINE!” Through co-authorship and intentional rubrics, the students are given just enough information to get started and just enough flexibility to follow their curiosities wherever they may take them. For example, one student leveraged their love of video games to explore Ancient Mesopotamia through the game Sumerians. Their critical question revolved around the historical accuracy of the game. Unprompted by the facilitating staff, this student sent an email to Dr. Irving Finkle, a scholar at the British Museum and asked questions about the game and how it compared to research on Mesopotamia. In another history project, this one at the middle school level, a 6th grader completed a humanities inquiry project that centered on the building techniques of Roman Aqueducts. They then used this lens to investigate the water system of their city. 

This work is not limited to History class, however. It also applies to Science. Some labs are structured, but when they aren’t, students are encouraged to “Design Your Own Science Lab.” This has resulted in some of the following questions and corresponding projects: 

High School

• What is the effectiveness of a linearly progressed strength training program?
• What is the effectiveness of special moves in chess?
• What was the effectiveness of COVID-19 protocols on public health outcomes (using an ASU simulation)?
• What is the correlation between the mass of an organism and the size of its genome?
• Do PEMF frequencies affect plant growth?
• What is the effectiveness of UV phone sanitizers?
• What is the effect of exercise on sleep quality?
• How efficient are different rowing strokes?

Middle School

• Does a PCle 4.0 slot actually make a huge difference over a PCle 3.0 slot when compared to desktop and gaming functionality?
• Which sports drink actually contains the most electrolytes when measured by a multimeter?
• Is a pneumatic system or a hydraulic system more efficient?
• Which colored light will cause the least amount of bacterial growth in an agar plate
• Does the density of a liquid change how fast something sinks?
• In randomized samples would people prefer photos that have an increased amount of saturation?

Additionally, a high school student in Art Independent Study has been experimenting with a variety of mediums and painting techniques.

In addition to core content projects and assignments, the KWS model provides learners with the flexibility to pursue additional passion projects outside of school. Some examples include competitive gymnastics, world champion chess, national robotics competitions, theater and a student who worked on developing an app for pregnant women in rural India that would help them track their pregnancy including when they should be visiting a doctor.

What’s Next

Khan World School is a free virtual public school option that operates as a private school in other locations. It is now enrolling for the 24-25 school year.  Interested applicants should submit their application online and select their interest in the Khan World School program. Applicants can expect to submit the following materials:

• Current transcript
• Most recent standardized test scores in math and ELA
• Letter of reference
• Student interest video essay

Interested in learning more? Check out this conversation with Sal Khan and Amy McGrath on the Khan World School.

The post Passion Projects and Peer Feedback: A Recipe for Work That Matters appeared first on Getting Smart.

With all the talk about school reform, transformation and redesign, student voices are often neglected or only given tacit acknowledgment. When we ask for student opinions or partner with students to co-design, the end result turns into a better opportunity for young people, and often for the rest of the school as well. Students have a lot of feedback – schools become stronger when they start to listen. The list below highlights key student opinions and initiatives based on a variety of surveys and conversations.

Listen to Students

Every year, several surveys describe the national sentiment of students including the Gallup Poll and Students-Speak.org. School leadership and staff can use these trends to design surveys to understand the needs and opinions of students. Survey resources such as Panorama provide frequent feedback checkpoints as well as resources for educators to act on the data that they see. An increasing number of states require student feedback data (ex. Idaho Student Engagement survey). Transcend’s Conversations with Kids, NGLC’s Student-Centered Evidence Toolkit and programs like 100 Days of Conversation are great ways to allow students to host, lead and share in community conversations about what school and community are for.  

While these surveys and conversations are critically important, taking action based on the survey results is essential. Without acting on the insights these surveys will look the same year after year.

Focus on Wellness

Gen Z and Generation Alpha have been dramatically affected by global unrest, the climate crisis and a pandemic. School must be a place that provides students with wellness support. Most markers of student wellness have declined significantly over the past decade — a trend that began before the pandemic. While half of schools feel that they can provide adequate mental health support, schools that check wellness daily through low-cost tools like Thrively’s Well Being Index or Rhithm (among many others) and schools that provide extensive wrap-around support (Community Schools) serve students better. 

Allow Student-Driven Civic Engagement

Young people want to engage with communities in ways that are purposeful and impactful. While some states such as Texas have enacted legislation to reduce this possibility by banning assignments that require interaction with local, state or federal officials, students want to engage with problems worth solving. Youth-led projects and organizations like UnTextbooked, Sunrise Movement and Civics Unplugged all provide great resources for building student agency and for teachers who want to better engage students. With voter turnout for 18-29 year olds hovering below 50% over the last fifty years, and not looking to improve, students deserve better. The role of the teacher should be to provide as many unbiased resources as possible to best inform students as the students choose challenging projects and practice civic engagement in their local, national and global communities. 

Involve Students in the Redesign Process

Students should be involved in learning design, as they are crucial members of the community. A recent survey from NASSP shows that students primarily feel involved in planning and prepping school events, but there are many other ideas to drive involvement that have a higher impact. Some states and/or districts allow for students to serve on the school board, adding invaluable perspective to high-level decisions. Many districts and states have included students in creating a portrait of a graduate and even their design of new schools. It’s important to get both prospective and current students into these conversations. 

We were recently joined by Shiva Rajbhandari on the podcast. Shiva is a current freshman at UNC Chapel Hill and avid climate and education activist who is, to date, the first student on a school board in the state of Idaho. In this episode, Shiva shares his story about student-driven climate action initiatives and the campaign for the school board.

Education About Education

One of the unspoken challenges with youth voice and involvement is that little is taught about education in K-12 schools. Every student experiences it, but few understand both the possibilities and obstacles to change.

Students want to participate in education redesign. YouthXYouth is a student-led global education redesign movement. Teens Take Charge is an impactful student-led campaign for redesigning the New York City Public Schools. OurTurn is a youth-led systems change organization that emphasizes overhauling the education system to better serve young people. IB’s Festival of Hope is one of the largest gatherings of student voices, where young people are encouraged to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences of learning.

The word ‘youth’ is a large bucket and the feedback is as varied as the youths themselves. Recent data from Youth Talks paints a ranging global portrait of what youth think school is for: from purpose and wellness to stability and financial literacy, our young people are seeking relationship, belonging and hope. We must give young people the confidence to imagine possible futures, both for themselves and for society. Futures thinking is a great way to get young people (and educators) to challenge their assumptions and collectively design. 

To get students involved, start by asking and listening. Don’t just ask for information on anonymous surveys, ask often and in a range of spaces including classrooms, schools and board meetings. Follow up with engaged co-redesign, transforming learning to meet the actual needs of the next generation of adults in partnership with the wisdom and experience of adult educators. Along the way, evaluate the role of students using Make Learning Personal’s Continua for Student Agency. The results may look very different from our existing system.

The post The Students Are Talking, It’s Time We Listen appeared first on Getting Smart.

In many high schools in the nation, the traditional course sequence and graduation requirements remain static: four years of English, three years of math, three years of science, etc. Both mathematical and language literacies still hold major importance for every graduate. And, as the world becomes more complex and unpredictable, new consideration should be given to the required core content. 

We talk a lot about the most innovative learner-centered schools that combine personalized, competency-based and project-based learning co-designed around real-world experiences. Here, content emerges from student interest in high-purpose topics while also linking to standards or competencies. These learning environments are challenging the Carnegie status quo and sit on the horizon of education. While important signals for the future of learning, they remain the minority.

Updating content areas would accelerate learning around three core types of skills expected by schools: core skills (typically the skills of writing, reading, mathematics, history, arts found in state standards), technological skills (industry skills earned through CTE programs, work-based learning, apprenticeships, career pathways, etc.), and transferable skills (durable skills, XQ). Weaving in the content below will create engaging and future forward ways to nurture the core, technological and durable skills while preparing young people to govern, contribute and thrive as adults.

Next-Gen Economics

Every learner should engage in learning about entrepreneurship. Releasing a generation of empowered problem-solvers equipped with the tools to contribute to ventures that have both financial and/or social impact, helps future generations find their sense of purpose and ownership. Uncharted Learning, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and KnoPro from NAF all provide resources to embed entrepreneurial experiences and content.

Additionally, with both our country and many individuals experiencing significant debt, financial literacy remains low for graduates. Yet, it can have the most profound outcome on financial stability. Budgeting, credit, borrowing, and investing increase the long-term probability of financial stability for graduates. Both entrepreneurship and personal finance are well-represented in those who choose the CTE Finance or CTE Business and Administration career clusters, but this is not universally available. Many free or low-cost resources exist (see list here).

Artificial Intelligence

While school leaders and educators still are in the early stages of understanding the impact of AI, there is no doubt that it will rapidly become immersed in the education sector (likely in hyper-personalized learning of core skills and support for learning design and assessment). However, every graduate should understand the core principles of AI functionality and how to use it to augment intelligence and performance. These skills will be requisite in almost every future professional career. TeachAI.org recently released a guide for AI implementation while some districts, like Gwinnett County Public Schools, offer an AI CTE program pathway.

Civics and Citizenship

While often found in civics classrooms, the content remains less about good citizenship and more about the structures and function of government. While the structures and function are important, every student should understand their role in a democracy through political processes, how to move an idea to action, and community organizing for change. For example, the United States, with less than 50% of eligible 18-29 year old voters participating in elections, is in dire need of core education in civics. Organizations such as iCivics and Citizens and Scholars offer innovative and engaging approaches to civic education.

Media Literacy

Few other influential forces impact the current (and future) generations like digital media. The power of disinformation, misinformation, bias, etc. propagated through heavily financed algorithms will only increase. High school graduates need the tools and filters to process and evaluate everything they see online to better understand ways to get to the truth. Advances in AI around image, audio and video generation will make discernment of fact even more difficult. Resources such as Civic Online Reasoning at the core of every high school curriculum will have a significant positive change for future generations.

Healthy Living

Data shows the declining mental and physical health of adolescents. A generation struggling with mental and physical health increases the emotional and financial costs of a nation. While physical education programs have changed significantly over the years (like less dodgeball and rope climbing and more yoga and personal fitness), students still disengage from physical education. Accelerating, personalizing and customizing healthy living as part of core learning will increase the odds of healthy adults. Healthy food programs such as Food Corps and innovative physical education programs that focus on personal fitness can be integrated into the school day.

Place and Sustainability

Too many learners graduate high school with little to no knowledge about their local context and the long-term social, economic and ecological factors that drive the success or demise of a community. Every learner should graduate not only with a deep understanding of their own place, but should also know how to understand and impact future communities. Finding local purpose to inspire students through the creation of high-impact projects (Teton Science Schools’ Place-based Education, High Tech High) and building content around sustainability standards (Cloud Institute) can increase the long-term vitality of local and regional communities.

Neuroscience

One of the last frontiers in understanding the human body (along with the microbiome) is the brain. Every day, students are bombarded with outside stimuli that impact their brains from substances (alcohol, vaping, drug use, etc.) to technology (media, phones) – all while going through one of the more significant changes in the human brain – adolescence. Teaching relevant neuroscience could improve choice-making, mental health and learning in general (Global Online Academy, University of Wisconsin Neuroscience Training Program). By graduation all students should be able to describe the conditions and processes for how they learn and how they manage stress.

Data Science

Data science has surfaced over the last decade as critically important in many higher ed institutions and professions. Too many young people graduate high school never having had to create a spreadsheet, let alone organize, analyze and synthesize large amounts of data. Given the continued acceleration (again hyper-charged via AI) of data creation, every graduate needs to understand how to find, interpret, organize and analyze data in every form (YouCubed). 

Current Events 

While traditional history has expansive coverage in schools, most learners experience fact immersion rather than relevance and understanding. Every high school learner should experience history through a modern-day lens to both understand the throughline (see Throughline podcast) and the repeated themes of history — war, peace, power, oppression, freedom, religion, etc. — to find hope and skills to imagine a more peaceful future. Facing History provides a Current Events toolkit for those ready to jump in.

Systems and Futures

Understanding both systems thinking (the complex interactivity of multiple elements) and futures thinking (aptitudes for transformative vision-seeking over short-term solutions) is critical in a complex and uncertain world. By explicitly creating content and experiences around these concepts, young people are better equipped to anticipate and address current and future challenges.

To be clear, literacy remains paramount and a core pillar of society. While as a nation we still greatly struggle with literacy rates, we cannot wait to adapt our current content base toward possibility, opportunity and contribution. If a high school does not have the support or resources to complete redesign, rethinking the core curriculum may be an alternative first step when state or local policy allows. Replacing or merging the typical core content with the ten content areas above better supports the current generation of students to tackle an unpredictable and uncertain world.

The post The Content Every High School Student Should Learn (But Doesn’t) appeared first on Getting Smart.

In 2020, however, the pandemic enabled families to see (and often engage in) their children’s school experience. This window into school made transparent the quality, types of learning and community that made up the lived experience of their children. For some, low satisfaction fueled renewed interest in microschooling led by parents, political support and philanthropic dollars.

The last two years of microschool growth (estimated enrollment by the National Microschooling Center at 1-2 million current students), heavily subsidized by the philanthropic sector, demonstrated that the demand exists. Alongside this resurgence, key questions arise: Are microschools sustainable? What outcomes should they measure (if any)? Are they compatible within the public sector? Can they scale? 

Below, we briefly hit upon the first three questions and then dive into the question of scaling.

Sustainability

Most microschools operate in the private sector, sustained by public funds (via Education Savings Account structures) or private tuition. Both of these funding sources supply individual students with far less than can be found in the public sector, making the business models and staffing (1-2 educators and a handful of students without the support of larger operations systems) challenging over time. Organizations like Microschool Revolution (investment model) and Prenda (service and support model) have emerged to address this issue.

Outcomes

In the public sector, there is a heavy focus on narrow slices of accountability which challenges  many families. Although microschools have far fewer accountability expectations outside of the public sector, they do have a responsibility to ensure that every child finds success. As a sector, we remain in the early stages of alternative, efficient, adaptive and flexible forms of measurement addressing both academic and whole child development.

Public Sector

With increasingly diminished enrollment in many districts (3% post-pandemic), the public sector needs to imagine the power of microschools within their existing communities. More specialized approaches, autonomy for teachers and small communities that benefit from larger districts will better serve all students. High school academy models such as CAPS and NAF have scaled around professional pathways to provide more opportunities for high school students.

Scale

Roughly 1-2 million students are enrolled in some form of a microschool, just 2% of all students enrolled in K-12 schools (estimates are difficult as many microschools are not required to report enrollment numbers). If demand is high for microschools – and demonstrated success continues, then scaling support is needed. ASU Prep in Phoenix, Arizona built a Microschool Entrepreneur Fellowship Program program to help facilitate this scaling. Based on the success of their microschool options — powered by ASU Prep Digital and partnered with ASU Prep school or ASU higher education campus — ASU Prep wants to support others in this journey. 

The size of microschools may provide the sense that they are easy to start and run. Yet, anecdotes from the field indicate challenges with sustainability and operations. Partner organizations and programs, like ASU Prep’s Microschool in a Box fill a needed space in the ecosystem to help these programs thrive and scale.

The ASU Prep Microschool Entrepreneur Program provides training and support for microschools. The fellowship spans one year with coaching calls starting for those accepted as early as October. A 3-day in-person Fellowship gathering in February in Tempe, Arizona kicks off the formal programming which leads to an online community of practice designed to build community amongst fellows. They then round out the year with frequent resources and ongoing mentorship and support. The program will support the launch of several new microschools in the Fall of 2024 to serve diverse learners across the country leveraging the assets of ASU Prep. The fellowship covers a range of topics including:

1. Policy and funding. Policy, rules and regulations, and funding models are the lifeblood of the microschool. Adhering to local and state regulations and securing appropriate funding is a key priority that ASU Prep will support.
2. Operations. Hiring, space design, leadership training, and general operations (schedules, transportation, facilities, etc.) can be overwhelming for microschools with 1-2 teachers and no administrators. Using established templates and resources, ASU Prep guides the construction of the operations of the microschool.
3. Pedagogy. While most microschools founders have some ideas of the approach for a school, ASU Prep’s robust resource base from a variety of approaches allows for more rapid development in this area. ASU Prep’s experience with professional learning and growth supports microschool leaders as they maintain relevance in the education landscape.

Funding is often a barrier for entrepreneur support programs like this but the Stand Together Trust has funded this program enabling up to 20 full grants for fellows. Similar programs from the Learning Innovation Fund at Getting Smart Collective and Community Partner Grant Program have also funded microschool models.

Microschools are meeting strong market demand for more personalized, more contextualized and more relevant learning for every student. Programs like ASU Prep’s Microschool in a Box make it possible for more learners to become future-ready with access to affordable, relational microschool learning.

The post Microschool in a Box: Programs Enabling the Microschool Movement appeared first on Getting Smart.

For the last few years, we’ve been making the case that purpose and contribution are the core outputs of a society. Because of that, there are skills and habits that young people need to strengthen and flex with regularity in a learning setting. This will result in generations of difference makers and solutionaries, people who spot problems (inherited or otherwise) and respond rapidly and systematically toward a future that works better for all. We must not continue to perpetuate a world where our long-term outcomes are purely economic or academic. 

Powerful technology like AI increases the complexity given the challenge of bias in AI models, the susceptibility of humans towards influence, and the propensity for false narratives and information generated from AI sources. These challenges add a layer of increased urgency to the work of embedding purpose and imagination in our communities and schools. 

In a recent interview on the People I (Mostly) Admire Podcast, guest Kevin Kelly shares “Part of my critique about the A.I. folks who are concerned about the end of the world is that they overestimate the value of intelligence. There are a lot of intelligent guys who think intelligence trumps everything, but most of the great things in the world are happening not by the smartest people in the room. They’re happening with people who have enthusiasm, who have imagination. Smartness and intelligence is one component, but if you put a man and a lion in a cage, it’s not the smartest one that’s going to win. It’s only one part of what we need to make things happen in the world. And the key thing of that is imagination. Imagining what could be, what we’d want, an alternative way of doing things. And that’s not just I.Q.”

As we continue to think about the role that AI will play in society, we must also consider what the core variables are that must be kept alongside exponential information to better drive decision-making and lead to a better world. For now, we will call the dream of a better world ‘purpose’. In an equation where information is merely one variable in a combination of factors toward a better world, what are the other variables? How might we preserve, promote and proliferate those variables while also using smart tools? To some, this may be viewed as “What makes us human?” To others, this may be viewed as “What constitutes a community?” And to others, “How does an ecosystem function, sustain and grow?”

A Proposed Formula

With purpose as an extended goal, supported by meaningful income and access to information, we propose a clear formula as a North Star for living and learning in an AI-influenced world.

(Skills + Reported Knowledge + Observed Phenomena) x Purpose = A Better World

Skills. Durable or transferable skills are a critical element and will be at a premium for those emerging into the workplace. Creating the systems and opportunities for learners to practice and show proficiency in these skills will move the needle toward a purpose-driven future. Fundamental building blocks tools such as those in the core skill set (literacy in language and mathematics) and technical skill set (relevant technical skills that change over time) support the application of durable skills. For now, AI is capable of many mental skills, however, without the aid of robotics and other technological advancements, it does not yet possess the ability to fully occupy and affect the physical world.

Reported Knowledge. Reported knowledge is the accumulated set of digital information (seeing as most information has been digitized or originated digitally). This reported knowledge can be loose in validity but due to insufficient truth systems and exponential dissemination technologies, it propagates as fact quickly. With AI scraping and building from this reported knowledge, information will continue to be useful, but only under close scrutiny. The “hallucinations” of early AI tools such as ChatGPT indicate occasional unpredictable results and very confident false results. AI tools are not thinking tools, but intelligence augmentation tools.

Observed Phenomena. With the proliferation of reported knowledge, we, as a species, will rapidly become distant from first-hand accounts of actual phenomena. These superpowers, the ability to observe the world, communicate directly with other humans and verify proclaimed data will be increasingly difficult and must be explicitly taught in education systems. Place-based approaches can support these efforts.

Purpose. We multiply the sum of all by ‘purpose’ which is a key multiplier towards a better world. A purpose-less pursuit regularly results in growth for growth-sake and while purpose can be variable, when we say it we mean that it is aligned to “the benefit of all life” and is at least reflective of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. While shared values may be harder to come by in an increasingly complex world, some, like empathy, safety, kindness and mutuality (working together towards common goals) may transcend divisiveness and increase belonging. 

What happens if we ignore a variable in our educational systems? What happens if the multiplier (purpose) is not accounted for?

As stated in a recent article by Tom Vander Ark, “This change won’t be easy but this new era means young people can do more than ever–more than we dreamed possible even a few months ago. It’s time to invite them, especially learners furthest from opportunity, into a future of possibility, into work that matters. Their potential just got bigger and better.” 

In many cases, AI is a boon to the variables above rather than a threat, however, without a carefully calibrated purpose, the end result gets a whole lot murkier. Augmenting a design of the future with AI can certainly amplify purposeful futures for young people, but without careful evaluation of each element of the equation, future generations may end up falling into the trap of a highly developed AI world that misses the mark, or worse. 

The post Is Knowledge Power? What the AI Conversation is Missing appeared first on Getting Smart.

The promise of Khan World School is a small, academically challenging virtual microschool model serving students from around the world. The program is personalized and mastery based using the offerings of partners Sal Khan of Khan Academy and ASU Prep. Small group tutorials help students accelerate their learning while weekly seminars bring the real world in through relevant topics generated by RISC at the University of Chicago. It is not easy to build culture and climate through an online learning experience, but the school has tackled this challenge by designing a house system for advisory and group connection. Within the houses, students complete projects and rely on peer mentoring and tutoring both within the program and through schoolhouse.world tutors (another program built by Sal Khan and his team). Many of the students tackled ASU college courses to accelerate their progress toward a college degree. 

So what happened by the end of the first year for the approximately 50 9th graders who were part of the inaugural class? First, average growth via standardized metrics proved extraordinary. Students’ percentile score average is 90% or higher in all subjects (Reading 90%, Math 92%, ELA 98%) and from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, scaled score improved 2.8 times the typical growth in Math, 3.4 times the typical growth in Reading, and 5.3 times the typical growth in Language Arts. While this data supports a strong traditional model, students also loved the seminar to discuss real and relevant global topics. Given the geographic diversity of the class with about half of the students from Arizona (where tuition is free) and the other half national or international (8 countries) students, educators (called learning guides) reported that listening, empathizing and understanding other points of view became well established by the end of the year. 

With this first-year success, Khan World School is expanding to 6th-12th grade next year. As with any new venture,  the learning model will evolve based on feedback and observations from this past year which include:

1. Onboarding. The shift from time-based to mastery-based can be difficult for students who have been well-trained in compliance rather than agency. In response to this, the school is building a robust onboarding program to help with the adjustment.
2. Scale: While online learning is one solution to impact more students, the team also predicts that the model will succeed within an existing bricks/mortar school. To test this hypothesis, the team is exploring partnerships with existing schools to embed Khan World School. This microschool within a school model may help scale the microschool movement in general – providing microschool benefits within the traditional system.
3. Purpose. Students asked for a continued focus on purpose through projects and seminars. Given the most recent survey data indicating challenges with K12 engagement, the school is well-poised to build on and improve relevant and real-world learning from the first year.
4. Artificial intelligence. With the addition of Khanmigo to Khan Academy, the school now has the start of a personal tutor for every student. Khan World School students will continue to test this tool, especially around using AI to evaluate higher order tasks more efficiently. 
5. Student profile. While the school focused on traditionally-evaluated high-aptitude students, the team learned that the profile of a successful Khan World School student centered more on characteristics such as willingness to learn, self-regulate, be curious and commit to the school model. As education moves towards mastery-based approaches, these learner characteristics will be critical for student success.
6. Accelerated college. The positive reception to college courses in year one prompted the school to offer almost all 10th-12th grade courses for college credit through ASU. This increases the odds that graduates will earn a college degree faster and without significant accumulated debt.

In the long term, Sal Khan sees a three part system to support Khan World School students. The existing Khan Academy model enables personalized and individual practice on content and skills. Embedded AI tools provide scalable 1:1 coaching and assessment for all. Finally, the schoolhouse.world model of connecting peers to support human-powered acceleration of learning will support human connections around learning. 

As Khan World School embarks on year two, it fits within the larger microschool portfolio of ASU Prep. Hybrid learning within existing schools and in-person college campus microschools offer opportunities for on-site students in the Phoenix area – complementing the virtual programs of ASU Prep Digital and Khan World School.

“With the launch of any new learning model, we’re carefully assessing its efficacy in meeting student needs and ensuring we are anchored to our commitment to increasing academic achievement. With KWS, we had high expectations, but the outcomes were far more dramatic than we anticipated. It’s a clear signal the program can bring meaningful opportunities for accelerated students who are motivated by curiosity and the joy of learning.” – Amy McGrath, ASU Prep Managing Director

As education models move towards microschools powered by AI, personalized learning and competency-based approaches embedded in the real world, learning from the Khan World School initiative should help all innovators.

The post Khan World School – One Year Later appeared first on Getting Smart.

        “Own your own learning, become better at it.”

        “Reliability, you can get your work done in a good way.”

        “To speak up for yourself.”

        “Mutual trust between educator and learner.”

        “The willingness to ask questions and take action for yourself.”

These thoughts, by students from Northern Cass School District, north of Fargo, North Dakota, paint a very different picture compared to the national discussion on accountability.

The Northern Cass District emerged in 1997 after the union of five small rural towns within two districts 30 miles north of Fargo, ND.  Drawing its 688 PK-12 students from a 400 sq. mi. area and an additional 35% out-of-district open-enrollment students, this consolidation provided better resources than any individual school but meant hard work to build strong culture and climate and a new academic program. Five years ago, more than 20 years after consolidation, with lower college graduation rates than expected and low student engagement rates, Northern Cass embarked on a journey to reimagine the learning experience.

What has emerged is a remarkable, learner-centered, personalized school that continues to build better experiences for its learners, delivering on their why: We believe every learner can change the world; therefore, we will provide a world-class education.

Standards-based

The journey began with a partnership with the Marzano High-Reliability Schools model. This grounded the district in a high-fidelity standards-based assessment model supported by quality instruction in every classroom. North Dakota law allows local districts to set more rigorous standards than the state standards, and thus all classes have identified 7-14 priority standards that are transparent to each student. Every class uses playlists and proficiency scales that guide learners to meet the expectations of the standards with assessments recorded using the Empower LMS. When prompted, learners of all ages in the school easily described their current understanding connected to each standard. To earn credit for a class, the district follows the 80/100 rule, meaning 8 out of 10 standards in any given class must be at 3 or higher to earn credit for the class (out of a 4-point scale). Even at the youngest levels, learners showed portfolios with literacy and reading progress and their growth over time.

Grades and percentages are not used anywhere in the school with the exception of final translated transcripts to support higher education and scholarship requirements. A roadshow by the school leadership to most regional higher education institutions built trust and confidence in Northern Cass graduates, even without a traditional transcript.

Dual-enrollment

While Northern Cass still has three AP courses (Chemistry, Psychology and Human Geography), most college-level courses are dual-enrollment. Partnerships with higher education providers such as Valley State University (which pays for Northern Cass educators to get certified to teach the courses), North Dakota State University, and Arizona State University save learners time and money in higher education (one reported having earned close to have an AA while in high school).

Competency-centered

A Portrait of a Learner includes Accountability, Communication, Adaptability, Learner’s Mindset and Leadership. These five competencies describe expectations for every graduate. This culminates in a Capstone presentation in 12th grade where learners describe their development of these competencies and their personal journey to become who they are today in front of a panel of educators.

Educators also are expected to meet these competencies as well through professional learning experiences. A conscious decision was to include everyone as a learner rather than build a distinct portrait of an educator.

In partnership with Mastery Transcript Consortium, Northern Cass is embedding these competencies into both the MTC portfolio platform and a set of Mastery Learning Records that will be stored on the newly approved North Dakota digital wallet.

Future work includes developing progressions for the competencies to help development across the spectrum of grade levels.

Personalized

Certainly, personalized learning is built into the mastery-based approach, but with the support of three different North Dakota legislative moves, learning is on the way to becoming personalized for every student.

HB 1478. Learn everywhere. Learning outside of school can receive credit. The proposal comes from the district and a formal application from the provider. Approval is currently at the state level, but newer changes may allow this to shift to the district level, saving time and paperwork.

SB 2186. General waivers. Waiver for seat time requirements in lieu of mastery-based demonstrations. This is essential for Northern Cass learners to move at a pace that is best for them – within good constraints set by the educators. Learners reported acceleration at the individual level based on interest, time, and engagement.

SB 2196. Pathways to graduation. This allows learners to meet graduation requirements with projects and other learning experiences outside of formal courses approved for credit. This has empowered the formation of the Studio model in middle school and high school (see below).

Project-based

New this year, and based on lower than desired engagement levels, all middle school learners participate in studios where educators coach 6-week learner-centered high-engagement projects. This past fall, one studio was built around a Farm to Fork concept to teach about agricultural careers and to experience the world of food production by going out and exploring the real world.

This effort is also being replicated in a full Studio microschool program piloted in high schools with 10-15 students. In partnership with Building 21, the Studio program allows learners to build independent/collaborative projects and match to expected standards to meet graduation requirements. While not every learner will want this microschool opportunity, it will be a game-changer for some who were disengaged or uninspired.

Each learner needs to meet graduation requirements mandated by North Dakota, Northern Cass expects an additional requirement including an internship and/or job shadow, community service, and a Capstone presentation.

Educator powered

Dr. Steiner and his team believe that “un-learning” of veteran educators may be slower than upskilling of novice educators and thus focus hiring on those new to the field. With partnerships from regional universities, an Teacher Leadership Academy has supported advanced degrees for 60% of educators.

Culture and Climate

Second-grade learners eagerly came to greet us at the door when we entered the classroom. Looking for handshakes and introductions, they were clearly used to visitors – and developing excellent interaction skills. A panel of high school learners could find no real improvements when prompted with the question “What would you do if you were Superintendent”? Engagement rates have soared with the implementation of studio approaches. Learners are part of most decisions with leadership coming from a Student Advisory Committee. Learners and educators report that behavior issues are virtually non-existent – and attribute this to the learning model that develops independence, ownership and agency for learning.

What every school can learn from Northern Cass

1. Get out of the way of students. Aspire to personalize through whatever means necessary – figure out ways to demonstrate mastery AND follow their passions.
2. Don’t accept low engagement scores. Ask students frequently and co-design better solutions – even if academic outcomes are strong.
3. Use legislation. Northern Cass would not be able to do what it does without legislative waivers. Many states have these but are under-utilized.
4. Be brave before perfect. These changes take courage. Many questions have to be resolved. In this case, the district was already getting high marks for academic performance, so redesign did not feel like an imperative for some.
5. Growth mindset. In a school going through redesign and change, every constituent must live with a growth mindset.

At Getting Smart, we see four key elements of school design emerging in innovative schools. Mastery-based (including competencies associated with a portrait of a graduate), project-based/real-world learning, dual enrollment opportunities, and a strong social-emotional and character program. Include opportunities to unbundle, and you have a model that is suited for the future. Northern Cass gets this and continues to develop a model where every learner is ready to change the world. It is a school worth visiting!

The post Rural Places, Big Visions – a visit to Northern Cass School District appeared first on Getting Smart.

Through our partner work with XQ Institute, we identified core criteria that any next-generation LMS should incorporate.

1. Competency. Competencies can be added, edited and nested in an organizing hierarchy to accommodate both standards and competency granularity levels. Competencies are not unique to one course or class but can be linked to multiple courses or classes.
2. Learning Experience. Learning experiences can be created by educators and/or learners (tasks, activities, projects, units, modules) where competencies can be connected at the task or project level. Learning experiences can be shared/stored in a library for use by other educators and searchable by competency.
3. Self-assessment. For any given learning experience, the learner can submit and evaluate their artifact/evidence against any competency.
4. Assessment. For any given learning experience, the educator or a community member can evaluate the submitted artifact/evidence against any competency.
5. Documenting. Multiple methods are available to evaluate whether a learner demonstrates proficiency on a competency. These could include teacher decisions, calculations (most recent scores, decaying average, mean of least three scores, etc.) or external moderation methods.  Once proficiency is confirmed, options should exist to award a badge/credential that is assigned to the learner, interoperable, and exportable as an LER (Learning and Employment Record) to store in a digital wallet owned by the learner.
6. Reporting. Learners, educators and caregivers can view an aggregated dashboard to determine learner progress toward completion of competencies over any time period.
7. Analysis. An educator or admin can view aggregated performance data around groups of learners (based on identifying data connected to the learner). This may include grade level, course groupings, school, district, etc.

Next-Generation Platforms

The technology stack for most schools now is significant and includes many pedagogical, communication, assessment and database tools. The next-generation LMS is integrated into the Student Information System (SIS) and Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) for linking individual learner proficiency with future opportunities. Mastery transcripts (sometimes called “page 2” transcripts will eventually replace the one-page course/grade/credit format. Transcripts (or the competency validations within them) can be a Learning and Employment Record (LER) that is stored in a digital wallet as part of the Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR).

Learner-centered and competency-based

While many competency-based schools have bootstrapped solutions with spreadsheets, a number of platforms in our review built learners into the core of the design and generally met the core criteria from above. Area9 Capable is a newcomer to the K-12 space but has built significant credibility in the adult learning landscape. The Capable platform provides extensive lesson-building tools, a project-based learning interface and a competency-based dashboard. LiFT Learning, Foundry and HEADRUSH Learning are both project-based and competency-based learning platforms with sophisticated and customizable interfaces and reporting for school partners. MyLC was launched by the Kettle-Moraine School District (WI) and is customizable for other schools interested in competency-based assessment. Building21 is designing the next generation of their original competency-based solution built on the open-source Slate LMS and extended spreadsheets/documents version after years of using the solution within their network. The new platform is designed to meet the needs of all schools with competency-based progressions (for example, built around a Portrait of a Graduate) with a simple, learner–centered approach. Beta versions will be available in Summer 2023.

Badging and credentialing

Most of the platforms above are also in the design phase for badging and credentialing. While badging is available in existing legacy platforms (Schoology and Canvas), competencies are often restricted to the course level (meaning competencies are assigned to a single course) rather than a system wide view where competency progress can be viewed across multiple courses. Instructure’s (Canvas company) recent acquisition of Badgr (rolled into its Canvas Credentials platform) may provide Canvas K-12 users with opportunities to connect badges to Canvas assessment in the future.

A few platforms are leaning into connecting skill and competency with employment via Learning and Employment Records (LER) functionality. Territorium has just launched in the United States with an AI-driven Life Journey toolkit after successful international use cases. The platform links CareerBit (which connects learners with employment and higher ed opportunities using Lightcast market research and recommends pathways and learning experiences to achieve employment goals), assessments to evaluate learner progress towards goals and a comprehensive learner record to document lifetime learning).

“Our LifeJourney toolkit empowers institutions and enables all students, especially the nearly 40 million adults with some or no college degree, to demonstrate their complete capabilities in a verified digital record, including the skills they have acquired from all of their experiences,” said Jonell Sanchez, Chief Growth Officer, Territorium.

Mastery-based and personalized

Cortex and Empower Learning are both personalized mastery-based learning platforms that use a variety of features to track mastery of standards for both teachers and students. Empower Learning was originally designed with Alaska schools as ‘Educate’ by 3 Shapes, then rebranded ‘Empower’ through a partnership with Lindsay Unified School District (and their Race To The Top Funds). This platform has since joined Marzano’s Center for Competency Based Education). Cortex was launched out of Brooklyn Lab Schools to meet the needs of its personalized learning model.

Schoology (owned by Powerschool) and Canvas, are widely used legacy LMS platforms and both can incorporate a standards-based assessment. Canvas uses a Mastery Gradebook feature based on Outcomes and Schoology allows for standards/rubrics to be linked to assignments.

While not moving beyond its existing use case of lightweight assessment and document-sharing around the Google ecosystem, Google Classroom is the most widely used (and currently free) “LMS” type platform. Modifications and add-ons to this platform may be a successful tactic to build a widely adopted next-generation LMS.

Learner showcase and portfolio

See-Saw, widely used in elementary schools, provides a visually appealing lightweight but evidence heavy portfolio platform that showcases student work to parents. Unrulr allows for sophisticated story-telling and interactive features that feel like a social media stream and allow learners to document their learning experiences while peers, community members and educators can provide feedback. EKadence’s portfolio feature connected to district-determined 21st-century skills enhances their traditional grade book and LMS. The NuVu Portfolio Tool, build for NuVu’s specific project-based learning program, also allows a clean showcasing of student work.

Future

It is clear that platforms will need to be more learner-centered and learner-driven in the future as the ecosystem becomes more unbundled. Successful technology that expands on existing LMS features will include, 1) learner-centered LMS, where learners can co-design experiences with educators; 2) tools to assess different types of competencies. These include core competencies (ELA, math, civics, etc.), transferable competencies (from Portraits of Graduates, durable skills, power skills, etc.) and technical (16 Career Cluster CTE) competencies; 3) portfolio features that allow learners to select, display and share badges and credentials connected to competency; and 4) connection of these verified learner skills with potential educational and employment opportunities via Learning and Employment record data stored in one or more digital wallets.

Did we miss a platform? We recognize that new platforms launch every year and that we were unable to list every possible platform in this post. Contact me at nate@gettingsmart.com if you have a solution to share so we can learn more.

The post The Learner-Centered Competency-Based Learning Management System appeared first on Getting Smart.

North Dakota implemented the first state-sponsored digital credential wallet for high school students during the 2022-23 school year. In Texas, students in the Dallas College system have access to their transcript via Greenlight Credentials, which they can selectively choose to share with employers. In New Hampshire, Concord’s Community College NHTI, is rolling out verified credentials in partnership with ProofSpace to store learner outcomes and extra-curricular experiences.

Kirstan Osborne, an educator from the Balmoral Hall School for Girls in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada shared how her school is working with Convergence Tech to distribute and store digital credentials and maintain wallets. When it comes to ownership, Osborne says that “Students will always have access to their credentials, regardless of whether the school continues to pay for the platform or not.” This characteristic of self-sovereignty is essential for digital wallets.

Osborne believes that this will allow the school to “improve student agency in learning,  provide real-world context and the opportunity to look at learning through a different lens, and promote the idea that schools should be part of and not apart from the community.” As for students, they were pleased when they realized their potential for supporting resumés and post-secondary applications.

As employers continue to emphasize the need for both core (literacy, math, etc.) and transferable (collaboration, leadership, communication, etc.) skills, technology is accelerating to meet the need to match learner skills with employer needs. Below is a primer on what every school leader and innovative practitioner should know about the technology within the credentialing ecosystem.

Why

If all learning, whether from formal learning experiences in K-20 schools, industry-related credentials and experience (such as internships, work-based learning and apprenticeships), and out-of-system learning (currently not credited except via states that have passed Learn Everywhere legislation) could be curated in one place, learners will be better matched via demonstrated skills to employers looking for talent. Education is ready for a learner-centered digital learning and employment record stored in a digital wallet (or a set of interoperable wallets) owned by the learner. This would address persistent challenges that include:

1. Difficulty in recording all of a learner’s educational experiences in one place.
2. Inaccuracy in matching potential employees to employers due to the relatively limited methods to verify learning
3. Given #2, using degrees as a proxy for new workplace talent which excludes significant numbers of potential candidates for employment.
4. Inability to share skills and competencies from non-degree programs, incomplete degrees (never earned the final credential), or credentials for organizations that have closed.
5. Cost of requesting and sharing proof of competency (ex. Asking for a college or high school transcript to be sent costs money).

Digital wallets enable individuals to store all Learning and Employment Records – a verifiable record of lifetime learning in one shareable space owned by the individual.

“Verifiable credentials are the most ideally suited standard for educational credentials. They extend digital trust to individuals, allowing them to hold their records and exchange them in secure, reliable, privacy-preserving ways. Together with decentralized identity, individuals can be in control of digital assets, online identity, and reputation.” — Kim Hamilton Duffy, Director of Identity and Standards, Centre Consortium.

How

Due to the technical nature of digital wallets, language can be confusing. To provide clarity, we provide the core definitions below.

• Learning and Employment Record (LER):  Records of an individual’s verified skills, competencies, credentials, and employment accomplishments. An LER can be used to highlight verified skills and match people to employment opportunities. LERs are stored in digital wallets. While platforms like LinkedIn can publicly display this type of information, the LER adds verification to the record.
• Digital Wallet: A digital wallet in education is a technology solution that stores the verified learning completed by the individual. The wallet is owned by the individual and can be built on decentralized blockchain architecture (which generally means that the wallet platform is not owned by/stored on a single platform). This decentralized approach keeps data ownership with the user rather than a centralized entity (corporation or government).
• Self-sovereign: Gives individuals full ownership of their digital identities without needing to rely on a third party, thereby providing greater security of personally identifying information. Users can decide what to publicly and selectively share.
• Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR): The CLR is a technical specification built by 1EdTech to provide technical specifications for LERs. The CLR is the recommended standard for lifetime learning records by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) and has been widely adopted by the credentialing ecosystem.
• Verified Credential: A credential that can be cryptographically verified and is not alterable. Examples can include birth certificates, employee identification cards and records and educational certificates. In education, these credentials often are a set of stacked LERs, which are also verified.
• Awarder (Issuer): The person or entity that creates and issues the credential to the holder.
• Trusted Issuer List: A machine-readable registry of credential awarders/issuers that meet a specific set of quality, accreditation or licensing criteria.
• Holder: The person or entity whose information is being stored in the verified credential.
• Reviewer: The entity which verifies that the virtual credential meets the requirement of the credential. In systems based on Web3 architecture, this can be done in a trustless environment, where interactions between two parties does not have to be mediated by a trusted third party.
• Machine-read: Information/data can be processed by a computer rather than relying on human interaction for processing and verifying the information.
• Interoperability: The ability of apps, computer programs, devices, or products to connect and communicate without the need for third parties. Through the ecosystem, individuals will have the ability to move data into and out of wallets, as well as between wallets.

A widely-adopted credentialing ecosystem will have seamless integration of awarders, holders, and reviewers working within an interoperable framework of LERs stored on the digital wallet. Organizations such as Velocity Network Foundation and Lightcast optimize the match between employers and prospective hires by scanning job databases and matching them with the public data from learner wallets or other collections of verified skills.

Institutions that award digital credentials will benefit from having to store all learner records to a decentralized user-controlled system that is easy, secure and affordable. Identity fraud will be reduced and the level of granularity to describe the skills of a learner will improve.

What

The technology is readily available to serve this purpose. The challenge is to build a system that has choice and widespread adoption in the K12, higher ed, credentialing and employment sector. Displacing legacy practices such as digital transcripts that cannot be machine read, paying for paper copies of transcripts to be shared, and employer human resource departments that find it easier to use degrees as proxy for talent will be difficult.

Credential data can be stored within one or more digital wallets as a way to document the LER.

• GreenLight Credentials – provider of blockchain records for students, K-12 and Higher Ed institutions and employers. For K-12, it offers a “digital locker” that includes student information that enables students to control and share their academic records instantly.
• Territorium – offers verifiable records which includes competencies and skillsets, for students from K-12 and into the workforce. Territorium just launched its Life Journey platform that connects assessment, learner wallets, LER and skills-based job matching in a single platform.
• MIT Digital Wallet – open source wallet designed by the Digital Credentials Consortium
• LearnCard – open source digital and physical wallet. It is also a free app that can  issue, earn, store and share credentials
• Disco.xyz – in beta, will be a way for individuals to have a personal data backpack and control and own what is shared
• Proof Space –  interoperable identity hub wrapped with no-code tools for issuing and verifying reusable identity credentials – to both issue and store credentials.

Mastery Transcript Consortium, the leader in competency-based high school transcripts, has launched the MTC Learning Record (MLR). This MLR documents learning and allows the student to share the record with anyone through a portal where students can curate and display learning data. The MLR is interoperable and can be exported in CLR format to be stored in a digital wallet. MTC is working with partner districts in North Dakota to provide high school students with an LER that documents learning and is stored on the state-designed credential wallet. Approaches like this will become more widely adopted in LMS platform management in the future.

What can you do?

With all of the movement in this space over the last few years, it is difficult to imagine first steps. We recommend the following.

1. Get educated. Get a wallet, earn a simple credential and store it in the wallet. Follow Ed3DAO, a decentralized education organization that helps the education sector understand wallets, credentialing, web3 and all other front-end technologies.
2. Especially in secondary and higher education, now is the time to ensure that every course or program has a clear set of competencies that are linked to career-relevant skills. And, that these competencies are accurately assessed.
3. Feeling innovative? Partner with a platform that will store verified credentials for your students in digital wallets owned by the user (and figure out who will pay the fees for as long as the wallet exists). Few districts and schools are doing this and you can lead the way.
4. For educators, think about badging and credentialing your classroom. Most LMS platforms allow for this (D2L, Canvas, Schoology) and if not, other options exist such as Credly and Open Badges. Young people today will be employed in a marketplace of the future where badging and credentialing of individual competency is common-place. Give them practice.
5. For higher-ed admissions officials, build the processes now to accept LERs from learner wallets as part of the admissions process.
6. For employers, move beyond trusting resumes and believing that degrees are a proxy for talent. Build a human resources department that hires based on verified skills. The long term benefit is immense.

The post Credentialing Everything: A Primer on Learning and Employment Records and Digital Wallets appeared first on Getting Smart.