2026 Badge Summit

This session explores the journey the Alliance for Decision Education is undertaking as it moves from PDF-based Decision Education learning standards to digitally published standards and systems that recognize demonstrated competency. Drawing on the Alliance’s credentialing landscape analysis, the session examines the practical decisions involved in digitizing standards, aligning them with State academic standards, creating competencies, and selecting a credential platform capable of recognizing both educators and students for demonstrating critical decision-making skills. Rather than presenting a single solution, the talk surfaces the decision-making that goes into key ecosystem choices, tradeoffs, and open questions that arise when translating learning standards into badge-worthy recognition. Participants will gain practical insights relevant to any organization seeking to move beyond static standards toward credentials that make learning visible, meaningful, and portable.