Mineola School District 

Pre-K Badge Program

The 2017-2018 school year Mineola will embark on a new assessment system for our Pre-K students.  Instead of traditional letter or number grades, we will use electronic badges to demonstrate mastery of a skill or content.

Micro-Credentials for Pre Kindergarteners: Swapping Grades for Badges

For Pre Kindergarteners, grades have become a thing of the past. Instead, students earn badges, to demonstrate growth and are awarded for crossing academic milestones such as counting objects, writing words, informational/narrative/opinion writing, telling stories, book concepts and more! Imagine mastery-based grading, add colors, and you have Mineola’s badging system. 

Badges have long been used to designate achievements. Soldiers earn badges and medals on the field of battle; scouts earn badges to prove they’ve mastered different skills. And for this generation of digital natives, with their keen understanding of leveling up, badges also make sense. Most schools, however, stick with what they know, reporting student progress with letter grades, numbers or percentages. 

During the 2016 - 2017 school year, the Pre Kindergarten teachers and administrative staff began to discuss the possibility of using micro-credentials and badging for their youngest students in order to record their development throughout the year.  A group of cross-district Pre Kindergarten teachers met with elementary principals to talk about the potential that badging could have. The teachers were immediately sold on the fact that students, who’d grown up with online games and trophies, would understand the concept of leveling up.

To start, age-appropriate practical skills, literacy, and numeracy skills were identified and classified into 43 different badges. Each skill was then associated with content and skills from our curriculum. The teachers decided to allow a great deal of flexibility for the assessment of each skill, so students would have the opportunity to demonstrate what they know differently. One of our own teachers created the badges. The badges were then printed in the form of a sticker by our High School students in the Fab Lab. Once students earn a badge, they will be given a corresponding sticker to proudly wear home. Teachers will issue each digital badge on the KidOYO website for both parents and students to view. This is the beginning of their digital portfolio that will follow students through high school. The badges are organized by trimester, however, we recognize that pre-kindergarten students all learn at different rates.  Each student can earn badges at their own rate.  Our goal is for each student to earn them all by year’s end.  The website sends notifications and gives parents a way to talk to their child(ren) about what they are learning in school. 

The district is hoping to continue the badging initiative with subsequent grades as they work to determine the specific needs of each level. 

Please click the category below to view the badges.