PALO ALTO, Calif., March 28, 2017 – BloomBoard, the leading competency-based professional development platform has partnered with a select group of accredited higher education institutions to offer teachers the opportunity to earn graduate-level credit for completed micro-credentials. Graduate credit is available for a wide range of micro-credentials on the BloomBoard platform, enabling educators the ability to work toward salary advancement and/or recertification as they improve their practice through competency-based professional development.

Four accredited higher education institutions have currently partnered with BloomBoard including Brandman University, Fresno Pacific University, Portland State University, and University of the Pacific. Graduate-level professional development credit offered by each partner is non-degree bearing and available for select micro-credentials on the BloomBoard platform. To-date, over 150 micro-credentials have graduate credit available from at least one higher education institution partner. Micro-credentials are issued by leading educator development organizations including Future Ready Schools, eSpark Learning, World Savvy, and Trellis Education and focus on a variety of skills such as building classroom culture, collaborative problem solving, growth mindset, and managing change.

“BloomBoard is committed to providing educators with meaningful professional learning experiences and empowering growth,” said BloomBoard CEO, Sanford Kenyon. “Through these new partnerships, micro-credentials not only provide educators with the opportunity to gain recognition for the skills they develop throughout their career, but as an added incentive, a pathway to compensation advancement and recertification.”

BloomBoard launched its micro-credentialing platform in 2015. Since then, momentum for educator micro-credentials has been steadily rising with approximately three to four percent of U.S. school districts having implemented professional development programs supported by micro-credentials. In addition, five states are running micro-credential based professional learning programs including the Tennessee, Florida, Washington, Arkansas, and Delaware Departments of Education.

To earn a micro-credential from the BloomBoard platform, educators must submit artifacts of learning from work in their classrooms, such as student work samples, classroom videos, or reflections, as evidence that they have achieved competency of the discrete skill outlined by the micro-credential. Certified assessors will review this evidence and award the micro-credential once the competency is demonstrated. Upon confirmation that the micro-credential has been earned, the educator can complete the university’s process for applying for non-degree bearing graduate-level credit.

To learn more about BloomBoard’s graduate-level credit offering, visit bloomboard.com/graduate-credit.