By Holly Zanville | Research Professor and Co-Director of Program on Skills, Credentials and Workforce Policy in the Institute of Public Policy, George Washington University Giving credit for learning in its various forms to non-credential students sets them up for greater professional success. What happens when college students complete many courses and acquire learning but leave college before they graduate? Mostly they leave with no formal recognition of their learning—no credential—and have only a college transcript that lists the...

Kirk Knestis, Founding Principal of Evaluand LLC and Research Manager for Credential As You GoHolly Zanville, Research Professor and Co-Director of Program on Skills, Credentials & Workforce Policy at George Washington University and Co-lead of Credential As You Go————————— Education researchers are raising the yellow flag warning that traditional research methods may not work well in the dynamic credentialing ecosystem. The yellow flag is on the field at the national Credential As Yo...

Transforming the Credentialing System in the U.S. To transform our legacy degree system into a nationally recognized transferable incremental credentialing system, we must: increase national awareness of and value for incremental credentials ensure equity, quality, and integrity of incremental credentials develop purposeful policy and practice reforms to support incremental credentialing align this work with other efforts within the learn and work ecosystem Initially, six areas are targeted to increase the adaptability, ...

The feasibility of a nationally recognized incremental credentialing system was explored through an 18-month planning, research, and testing project supported in 2019-2021 by a Lumina Foundation grant: Credential As You Go (CAYG): Phase One. Phase One Outcomes The feasibility of a nationally recognized incremental credentialing system was explored through an 18-month planning, research, and testing project supported in 2019-2021 by a Lumina Foundation grant: Credential As You Go (CAYG): Phase One. Key outcomes from this work are as follow...

An Incremental Credentialing Model was developed through an 18-month planning, research, and testing project supported in 2019-2021 through a Lumina Foundation grant: Credential As You Go, Phase One. The Incremental Credentialing Model was developed from the results of the environmental scan, prototyping, and feedback from national leaders which took place during the Credential As You Go: Phase One initiative. The Model provides five patterns of credentialing that can be used to design incremental credentials. Further work on the Model durin...

An Incremental Credentialing Framework was developed through an 18-month planning, research, and testing project supported in 2019-2021 through a Lumina Foundation grant: Credential As You Go, Phase One. The Incremental Credentialing Framework was developed from the results of the environmental scan, prototyping, and feedback from national leaders which took place during the Credential As You Go: Phase One initiative. The Framework provides six strategies of credentialing that can be used to design incremental credentials. Further work on th...

The postsecondary credentialing system in the U.S. is in crisis. The centuries-old, traditional four-tiered system (associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate) can be insurmountable for many and punitive to those who do not complete any given tier. This system no longer serves our country’s social and economic needs. Problem and PurposeFor too many learners, the only postsecondary credentials that count are four tiers of degrees (associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate). Degrees are widely recognized and often required to be considered...