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In the 2022–2023 school year, one in eight of all vacant teaching positions in U.S. public schools went unfilled or were filled by individuals who were not fully certified to teach the grade(s) and/or subject(s) they were assigned to.¹ Without talented educators—the most important in-school factor in students’ academic and long-term success²—our students will continue to struggle to reach their full potential.³

One way states are attempting to address school workforce issues and improve students’ educational experiences and outcomes is by integrating micro-credential offerings into their policies to attract, credential, develop, and retain educators.

Why micro-credentials? First, many of the tools traditionally used to vet educators’ qualifications to enter, remain, or advance in the profession (e.g., tests of general knowledge⁴ and credits/degrees earned,⁵ etc.) can be expensive and burdensome despite weak evidence that they benefit educators’ daily work. This approach ultimately restricts the quantity, quality, and diversity of the educator workforce. High-quality micro-credentials, on the other hand, offer a low-cost way for educators to concretely demonstrate that they possess the competencies required to enter the profession, and to retain or enhance their professional credentials and roles.⁶ For example, high-quality micro-credentials offer educators a more accessible and evidence-driven option for obtaining professional recognition and rewards, such as higher-paid teacher leader roles, than doling out money for master’s degrees.

Additionally, the process required to earn a high-quality micro-credential can simultaneously improve educators’ job effectiveness as well as their satisfaction with their professional development opportunities, further boosting the quantity and quality of the workforce. In a national survey, nearly two-thirds of teachers reported being only somewhat satisfied or not satisfied with the professional development (PD) opportunities they were offered,⁷ which—despite federal efforts to get schools to shift to more evidence-based approaches—still often come as one-size-fits-all, short-term passive trainings, without opportunities to test drive the new information or skill, follow-up to see if or how they are applying the new concept in their classrooms, or assistance to help them do so successfully. These traditional types of PD opportunities often reward time spent rather than demonstrated professional learning and growth.⁸

Conversely, the cycle of inquiry process baked into earning a high-quality micro-credential requires and rewards actively applying knowledge and skills in the educator’s specific school context and reflecting on the implementation and outcomes. Simplistically, such a cycle of inquiry includes four basic steps⁹:

1. Reflect on instructional practice, including by reviewing student data, and identify the intended goal of changes to practice.
2. Prepare ideas for how to modify practice, informed by research and evidence of what is most likely to achieve the goal.
3. Implement and test out changes in practice in the classroom.
4. Observe what resulted from the change in practice, including by reviewing data.

Then the process starts over, with educators reflecting on what they learned from implementing the change in practice, why it did or did not meet the intended goal, and how they might modify their practice further to improve outcomes (see Figure 1). For more details on the process for earning a high-quality micro-credential, and the entities playing roles within the micro-credentialing ecosystem, see Appendix A.

Allison Ball, a teacher in Kingsport City Schools who completed a micro-credential through the Digital Promise platform and responded to its 2018 survey about the experience, said: “I would do a micro-credential again because it has helped me to not only reflect better and be more intentional and thoughtful, but it's actually given me practical choice in what I get to do and pursue.”¹⁰

Not only do educators experience this type of learning-by-doing as more relevant, but research shows this active learning approach to be most likely to translate into improvements in instructional practice and advance student learning.¹¹ And because of their “micro” nature, micro-credentials can help educators break down ambitious goals into manageable chunks, and provide a sense of accomplishment when each milestone is reached. For example, Rachel Heaton, a teacher in Kingsport City Schools who completed Digital Promise’s educator micro-credential survey, said: “While we were working on this micro-credential in my classroom, I was learning and my students were learning as well. We had multiple opportunities to achieve the skill in the micro-credential together. Then, as I worked through that, I was able to see evidence of their growth and then use that as the evidence [toward earning] my micro-credential.”¹²

For a definition of the characteristics of a high-quality micro-credential, see the box below.

While educator micro-credentials have been available for a decade, very little research has been done on how to maximize their potential. In 2021, ������Ƶ published the most comprehensive report available on the topic, Harnessing Micro-Credentials for Teacher Growth: A National Review of Early Best Practices,¹⁷ and the companion Model State Policy Guide¹⁸ to inform education leaders’ understanding of this emerging tool. In addition to potential benefits of this new tool, we found there to be significant challenges to developing and implementing high-quality educator micro-credential offerings. For example, while the number of offerings labeled as “micro-credentials” was growing rapidly, no common mechanism existed for vetting quality, and many did not reflect the characteristics of high-quality educator micro-credentials outlined above.

The report highlighted how state and local policies influence educators’ willingness to attempt to earn micro-credentials, as well as their level of earning success. The report also provided a tally of states that included micro-credentials within different categories of educator policies. We found that 26 states explicitly referenced or encouraged the use of micro-credentials in at least one category of educator policy.

This report builds upon our earlier research and policy recommendations by examining how state policy on educator micro-credentials has changed over the past four years and providing recommendations for further state action.