Written by Dr. John Meyer

What are the teachers at your school talking about? Schools where teachers talk positively about ways to improve teaching and learning are more successful than those that complain about students and parents (Ronfeldt, Owens Farmer, McQueen, & Grissom, 2015; Gruenert, 2005). Principals and teachers can use micro-credentials as a tool to create the kind of positive, professional collaboration that improves student achievement (Crow & Pipkin, 2017).

Micro-Credentials: Formal Recognition for Informal Learning
Earning Micro-Credentials is a way that teachers can receive formal recognition for skills learned informally. After all, teachers are constantly reflecting on and improving their practice. They experiment with new approaches learned through books, articles, inservices, and conferences. These new skills become effective teaching strategies in a teacher’s toolbox. But such competencies don’t show up in credits or clock hours. Micro-credentials give teachers a way to receive formal recognition for their skills from a respected institution, including colleges like the University of Wisconsin, MIT, Penn State, and Martin Luther College.

How It Works
A teacher learns and practices a new skill or perfects an existing one at her own pace. She gathers evidence, like a lesson plan or a video, and submits it to an institution offering formal recognition of that skill. Experts review the evidence according to an established rubric and award the micro-credential in the form of a digital badge. Teachers “can display those digital badges and the supporting portfolio of evidence on a profile, blog, website, or signature to signal their demonstrated competence wherever their professional journey might take them” (Crow & Pipkin, 2017, p. 6).

Involve the Whole Faculty
When principals and teachers work together to establish joint goals by earning micro-credentials, collegiality and professionalism increase. For example, a faculty might agree to focus on using formative assessment to improve student learning. They use inservice time to discuss some formative assessment ideas. Then teachers practice the skill in their classrooms and visit one another’s room to get feedback and refine practice. At recess, lunch, social gatherings, and formal meetings, they share successes and failures, and exchange ideas. The faculty sets a goal for earning the Formative Assessment Micro-Credential, and each teacher submits the competency evidence for the micro-credential when she is ready.

Such job-embedded professional collaboration is exactly the kind of model that research shows is effective for teachers’ professional development. “Effective professional development is intensive, ongoing, and connected to practice; focuses on the teaching and learning of specific academic content; is connected to other school initiatives; and builds strong working relationships among teachers” (Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, & Orphanos, 2009, p. 5).

MLC and CLS Teaming Up to Offer Micro-Credentials
Martin Luther College (MLC) and the Commission on Lutheran Schools (CLS) are teaming up to make such professional collaboration a reality in Lutheran schools. Micro-credentials associated with teaching and coaching skills for the synod’s new Ministerial Growth and Evaluation Program will be available beginning July 1, 2019, from Martin Luther College. These skills are being introduced in four CLS modules that school leaders are attending. They will also be showcased at the EdTechLead Summit and in teacher conferences and inservices.

Training resources and suggestions are provided free of charge for each micro-credential skill on the MLC Continuing Education website under Micro-Credentials. The website also explains how to gather and submit evidence of competence. Faculties are encouraged to work as a group to practice, refine, and receive formal recognition for these skills by earning the corresponding micro-credentials.

So what are teachers talking about at your Lutheran school? Use micro-credentials to engage your faculty in professional conversations and learning around topics of improved student learning. When faculties learn together, good things happen for the students and the school. When good things happen, Lutheran schools are better able to fulfill their missions.

Dr. John Meyer (DMLC ’87) is the director of graduate studies and continuing education at Martin Luther College.

References
Crow, T., & Pipkin, H. (2017). Micro-credentials for impact: Holding professional learning to high standards. San Francisco CA: Learning Forward and Digital Promise.

Darling-Hammond, L., Wei, R. C., Andree, A., Richardson, N., & Orphanos, S. (2009). Professional learning in the learning profession: A status report on teacher development in the U.S. and abroad. Stanford, CA: National Staff Development Council.

Gruenert, S. (2005). Correlations of collaborative school cultures with student achievement. NASSP Bulletin, 89(645), 43-55.

Ronfeldt, M., Owens Farmer, S., McQueen, K., & Grissom, J. A. (2015). Teacher collaboration in instructional teams and student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 52(3), 475-514.