Extending the Transcript

To transition to the later stages in the Credentialing Continuum, we must expand access for all learners, particularly those on the margins; expand value to both the learner and the workforce and expand experiences as a core component of both verifying skills and encouraging community connection.

Expanding Access

A credentialing and LER ecosystem has the potential to be an economic mobility engine. To make this a reality, it is critical to reduce friction in systems that have not worked for marginalized learners rather than starting with existing systems. This increased access is possible through formal durable skills requirements, documentation and validation platforms, and policy. A Credentialing Ecosystem promotes and increases access to real-world learning experiences for every student (either at school, region or state level) and maintains a high-quality level of these experiences. Portraits of Graduates exemplify how an organization can increase the focus on durable skills.

While it may seem like a significant jump to get to a full LER ecosystem, as of 2024, roughly 20% of states (e.g., Indiana, New York, Ohio, Texas, Alabama and North Dakota) have committed to adding new graduation requirements that include some combination of experiences or credentials that supplement a traditional high school transcript. Additionally, a handful of states, such as Alabama, North Dakota and Wyoming are piloting state-wide credential wallets to connect K-12, higher education and the workplace through a skills-based system.

While 82% of recently surveyed higher education institutions offer some Credit for Prior Learning programs, CPL is far less common (outside of normal transfer credit) in the secondary space. Additionally, CPL is most often applied for either previous course completion at other institutions or proxy assessments (such as IB, AP, CLEP, etc.). Recently, Western Governors University acquired Craft, a provider of apprenticeship and on-the-job training, which expands an already leading suite of CPL and job-embedded learning offerings.

Examples of Documentation and Validation Platforms

Adopting platforms that support the full shift to a credentialing and LER ecosystem is the second element to increase access. In an LER ecosystem, every learner will own and have access to their LERs, stored in a digital wallet, as a record of all cataloged learning experiences and skills credentials. This will allow them to grant permission to tailor their LER in support of talent transactions (i.e., enroll, enlist, employ) without requesting transcripts from registrars from each institution attended. 

This work is already underway, as represented by a handful of states that have already launched LER projects. The C-Lab is a Colorado-based lab that aims to “incubate and launch a statewide Colorado Learning Ledger and Skills Graph then publish a report for other states to implement similar 21st-century education and workplace infrastructures.” Alabama’s Talent Triad program and North Dakota’s digital wallet are other state pilot programs. Below are a few examples of LER technology solutions.

Expanding Experiences

How do we know when a learner has had a valuable learning experience? Capturing context data about the sector, skills (core, technical, durable), duration and other connections of the experience and mapping it to skills developed/demonstrated that lead to credentials of completion is one way. Allowing experiences to serve as valuable, verifiable, and recorded evidence of skills and competencies acts as prerequisites for earning skills credentials, serving as proof of the proficiency demonstrated around durable/transferable, core or technical skills. These experiences are also valuable ways for students to build social capital and awareness of new careers and opportunities.

Historically, assessment has been biased, subjective and distorted into single-letter grades. With a rich credentialing ecosystem, removing some of this bias and subjectivity and increasing fidelity to evaluate actual learner skills is possible. Doing this well would require enormous data mobility and more transparency with personal data, but ultimately, it would serve the learner. In this process, it is critical to measure both the skills gained and the skills applied (experience) to ensure fidelity of the competency. These might be described as the following models: a “Skills Disconnect Model,” where skills are acquired void of context or direct application, an “Experiential Model,” where the model is rich with experiences but no connection to or measurement of skills, and a “Proficiency Model,” which excels in both experience and skills categories, making the skills transferable and the experiences specific and contextual.

Assessing Skills Within Experiences

These skills within these experiences can be assessed in various ways (Direct Assessment, Performance Assessment or Skill Extraction). A combination of these three approaches will surface in the emerging assessment landscape.

Direct Assessment

Employers seek candidates who not only possess technical skills but also exhibit transferable skills critical to job performance. However, they often lack the time to thoroughly evaluate these skills, underscoring the need for straightforward and reliable assessment systems. While many agree on these skills, the language and explanations must remain accessible. SHRM’s toolkit offers insights into a skills-first approach to hiring. 

• Mursion: Uses immersive training simulations with human-powered avatars, allowing learners to practice difficult conversations and build impactful skills safely.
• BodySwaps: Offers an immersive training platform that focuses on durable skills development and is accessible via VR, PC, and mobile devices.
• AstrumU: Uses AI and machine learning to create validated skills profiles by compiling data from a learner’s education, credentials, and employment history. This skills extraction concept provides an alternative to directly assessing durable skills (or technical and core skills).

In the education sector, Education Design Lab uses the predetermined algorithms in a virtual reality online learning platform (VSBL) to assess a set of durable skills, including critical thinking, collaboration and creative problem-solving. It involves co-designing and validating micro-credentials with input from institutions and employers.

Performance Assessment 

In 2022, Data Quality Campaign reported that nearly a dozen states had begun transitioning to “through-year assessments.” Through-year assessments, or progress monitoring systems, combine ongoing interim and traditional summative assessments into a unified structure. Interim assessments provide timely, actionable feedback to teachers and families, enabling them to support students’ learning in real time. At the end of the year, students receive a final summative score that informs students and satisfies accountability requirements. Key advantages include faster results, more valuable data for adjusting instruction and a focus on growth. States, including Alaska, Georgia and North Carolina, have leveraged federal money to establish these systems and others, including Texas and Virginia, have established these systems through legislation. 

Efforts in evaluating skills include public initiatives that pioneered this shift towards performance assessments (critical structures to evaluating durable skills). While these efforts primarily addressed standards, they emphasized the need for more authentic assessment.

• New York Performance Standards Consortium (NYPAC): The NYPAC is a comprehensive and long-standing Performance Assessment Consortium. Teacher and learner-directed learning experiences, professional development, performance assessment tasks, and external/internal validation via rubrics across all discipline areas.
• California Performance Assessment Collaborative (CPAC): This California initiative convenes educators, policymakers, and researchers to develop authentic assessments that support student learning. CPAC uses performance assessments, such as projects and portfolios, to measure applied knowledge and 21st-century skills.
• Performance Assessment of Competency-based Education (PACE): New Hampshire’s PACE focuses on deeper learning through a competency-based approach. It blends local, common and state-level assessments to promote critical knowledge and skills.
• Performance Assessment Resource Bank: Hosted by Envision Learning Partners, the resource bank is a database of performance assessment examples built through a collaboration of the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC), the Center for Collaborative Education (CCE), the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), Envision Schools, Summit Public Schools and others.

Skill Extraction

According to Peter Janzow of Credly, “Tasks are increasingly the language of work—how people define work and jobs and roles, the relationship with tasks and skills, proficiency levels of skill related to particular jobs and job roles at particular levels.” He went on to share that this level of tasks is also where we see humans being replaced and augmented by machines. A clear articulation of skills helps select the right person and machine for the task. 

Platforms like LivedX and CompetencyGenie are creating products that allow students to submit learning experiences and have an AI tool extract the number of valuable skills, reducing the administrative burden of these tasks. When coupled with verification, this AI-enabled extraction and identification of skills becomes a valuable tool for matching candidates and communicating proficiencies. “Skills can be described in meta-data using AI and triangulation with a variety of experiences to confirm/verify that you have a particular proficiency in a particular skill,” said Meena Naik of Jobs for the Future (JFF). 

Solid Project enables the credentialing of military experiences by converting them into badges. These badges, which represent skills learned, are stored in a digital wallet. The credential provider, who offers these experience-based badges, verifies the individual based on their Joint Services Transcript (JST) which documents their military training. They also ensure that the metadata attached to each badge aligns with civilian manufacturing standards.

A more accurate learner proficiency profile emerges through a combination of direct skills assessment, embedded performance assessments and skills extraction.

Expanding Value

For incentives to receive and award credentials, first they must be valued by employers, higher education and the recipients themselves (i.e. a student showcasing a skill credential with a record of experiences to increase the probability of higher education admission/success or hiring). This more accurate skills-based assessment of talent benefits employers through quicker hiring, keeping new employees out of work for shorter periods of time, and reducing retraining costs. In 2020, Laffer Associates’ research estimated that a shift to verified and validated LERs would provide aggregate gains to the U.S. economy of more than $400 billion.

According to Meena Naik, JFF and formerly of the University of North Texas, value is increased when we apply skills to tasks, meaning a skill in isolation signifies less than when connected to an experience. Take communication, for example… “what does communication look like for a business organization versus a finance organization? There’s a lack of that context and that data. That’s the data that can live in these credentials.”

Another benefit of credentialing is that students with valuable real-world and work-based learning experiences have increased confidence and often increased success in finding opportunities after (and before) graduation. Naik continues, “We’re hedging our bets on the person receiving the credential, finding value in it. And it increases their self-efficacy. It increases their resilience. And we saw this. We saw it in GPA increases. We saw it in persistence. We saw a stronger likelihood of people returning to their degrees because they were getting these things and starting to see the real-life applicability and all of the things they’re actually learning.” This research (and here) was conducted at the University of North Texas. 

In addition to credentials boosting confidence and self-efficacy, the experiences offer a similar boost. The Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) Network is a national network of programming that immerses high school and higher education students in a “professional culture, solving real-world problems, using industry-standard tools and are mentored by actual employers, all while receiving high school and college credit.” In a recent report on alumni satisfaction, learners expressed high increases in overall confidence, resilience, self-knowledge and collaboration through the professional experiences they participated in. (See below).

Credentialing the skills gained in these valuable learning experiences and capturing these experiences so that they can be easily recorded, verified and communicated will increase value for all learners.