2025

NEA Micro-Credentials

Free and Flexible!

Certificate Renewal

• DEED requires 6 renewal credits every 5 years.

Highly Qualified

Paraprofessional

• Districts must verify that you meet the requirement.
• test
• AA degree
• credits

Salary Advancement

• Locally determined by your CBA

Intrinsic Motivation

& Interest

• Professionals want to learn and grow

Resume Builder

• Gain qualifications for a different position

WHAT IS A MICRO-CREDENTIAL?

• Credentials verify, validate, confirm, or corroborate a person’s learning achievements, knowledge and preparedness for performing tasks or demonstrating skills.
• Micro-credentials are typically focused on a specific set of learning outcomes in a narrow field of learning and achieved over a shorter period of time.
• Micro-credentials are offered by commercial entities, private providers and professional bodies, traditional education and training providers, community organizations and other types of organizations.

WHAT’S AN NEA MICRO-CREDENTIAL?

A Micro-credential is a short, competency-based recognition that allows an educator to demonstrate mastery in a particular area. NEA Micro-credentials are authored by members, grounded in research and best practice, and designed to be:

• Personalized: You can create your own learning journey, based on your interests and career goals; gaps in your skills; and the specific needs of your students, school, and district.
• Flexible: You can study when it’s convenient for you, alone or with your peers.
• Performance-based: Unlike “sit-and-get” certifications, NEA Micro-credentials are awarded based on demonstrated mastery of the subject matter, not just for showing up.

In this Micro-credential stack, topics covered include the impact of federal policy on American Indian/Alaska Native education, culturally responsive pedagogy and classroom management, and teaching culturally through content areas such as ELA, Social Studies, and STEM. While each course is free-standing, the courses are scaffolded to build an understanding of teaching for and about Native students as well as the historical contexts that still impact the modern Native education experience.

FOR EXAMPLE:

Self-directed, flexible, Professional Development in a variety of areas and topics

Why earn them?

Portable digital “badges” that are recognized nationwide as an indicator of high skills.

Approved certificate renewal by DEED ($0) and� Approved for 1 credit each through UAA ($)

List them on your LinkedIn, resume, email signature, and more!

WHAT THEY ARE NOT!

• Endorsements: the NEA Micro-credentials do NOT endorse you to teach anything else in Alaska.
• Hoops for easy CEUs/Credits: NEA Micro-credentials are designed for professional growth. They are performance based and EVALUATED by trained members, so you must submit evidence to demonstrate mastery of the learning objectives in your work to earn the Micro-credential.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

1. Go to nea.certificationbank.com/alaska to get started.
2. Select a skill you have developed or would like to develop.
3. Collect the required evidence demonstrating your competence in the selected area.
4. Submit by uploading your evidence.
5. Share your achievement with others!

• Competency
• Key Method
• Method Components
• Research
• Resources
• Evidence and Evaluation
• Part 1(Context)
• Part 2 (Project and Rubric)
• Part 3 (Reflection)
• Digital Badge

Anatomy of a Micro-Credential

Step 1: Create an account!

nea.certificationbank.com/Alaska

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Click “Sign in” at the top.

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Scroll down and click “Create One Today!”

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Step 2: Choose a Micro-credential�

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Consider your needs!

STEM?

Equity?

SpEd?

Substitutes?

Teacher Leadership?

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Step 2: Choose a Micro-credential�

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Step 3: Register for your first!

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Step 4: Complete and submit your work to NEA for evaluation!�

If paying for credits through UAA, we check completion rates and submit grades once per month. Courses are approved in annual cycles from Sept. 1 - Aug. 31, so if you sign up for UAA credits, you’ll want to complete them in the same cycle.

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• Read each section carefully. Respond to ALL questions in that section, in the order in which the questions are posed.
• When responding to sections with multiple parts, number your answers to match the micro-credential.
• Read and refer to the resources and research provided in each micro-credential.
• Refer to passing criteria and rubrics for guidance. Use these as a checklist to determine whether your submission is complete.
• If including links to your work, be sure they are accessible to the reviewers.
• Avoid the use of abbreviations, unless defined the first time they’re used.
• When uploading a document, a PDF file is preferable, unless otherwise indicated in the micro-credential.
• Maintain confidentiality - do not include your name or students’ names within any submissions or file names.
• Use effective communication - please proofread your work.

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Quick Tips from NEA

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Types of submissions:

-text boxes

-file upload

-links

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Text boxes don’t save! Write in a doc, then copy & paste to submit.

If you need to upload a video or picture-heavy file that is too large, try uploading it elsewhere (YouTube, Drive, etc.), and then uploading a document with the link inside it!

Use the .pdf instead!

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Certificate & Badge

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Certificate & Badge

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Certificate & Badge

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NEA Completion Certificate

This can be submitted directly to DEED (with $0 evaluation fee paid to the state) for one credit toward certificate renewal (of 6 required).

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