Microcredentials for Educators
NC State’s educator microcredentials are short, focused professional learning experiences designed for practicing educators who want to strengthen their leadership and instructional impact. Each microcredential combines research-informed frameworks with practical tools that participants can immediately apply in their schools.
Programs are delivered in flexible, cohort-based formats that include a blend of live online sessions, guided practice, and small-group coaching. Participants engage with peers from schools around the world, reflect on their professional experiences, and demonstrate their learning through a capstone artifact connected to their own leadership practice.
New microcredentials will continue to be added to address key areas of professional growth for educators and school leaders.
Current Offerings
Emerging Leaders (Summer 2026): July 7-30, 2026
Strengthen your capacity to drive results with NC State’s four-week leadership microcredential (MC). This engaging, cohort-based experience bridges the gap between theory and practice, equipping current and aspiring middle-level leaders with the essential skills to empower their teams. Through a blend of live synchronous sessions, flexible independent exploration, and personalized small-group coaching, you will develop the collaborative dispositions necessary for effective leadership in any professional environment.
Participants can earn 18 professional development (PD) hours (6 live + 12 asynchronous) and a digital badge.
Audience: Teachers preparing to step into enhanced middle-leadership roles (department heads, grade-level leaders, teacher coaches, coordinators, PLC facilitators)
Cost: $400
Objectives:
- Cultivate relational trust and develop an international professional network
- Reflect on your own leadership journey and experiences with other leaders
- Identify key elements of adult learning theory
- Identify and practice collaborative leadership practices
- Demonstrate key learnings and competencies
Program Framework
- Week 1 — From Teacher to Middle Leader (Synchronous Cohort Session – July 7, 2026)
- Focus: Identity shift from excellent teacher → leader of adults & framing authentic, engaging leadership through Community Learning Exchange (CLE) process and protocols
- Learning Experience: Journey Line of Leadership
- Week 2 — Seeing Practice Through a Leadership Lens (Asynchronous Session)
- Focus: Collaborative Leadership Framework
- Learning Experience: Unpack leadership readings with your coach
- Week 3 — Leading Conversations: Designing a Community Learning Exchange (Synchronous Small Group Session – Exact date/time TBD)
- Focus: Create a community learning exchange (CLE) agenda & introduce the capstone artifact guide
- Learning Experience: workshop the CLE agenda with your small group and coach & develop the capstone artifact guide and rubric
- Week 4 — Ready for the Role: Leadership in Action (Synchronous Cohort Session – July 30, 2026)
- Focus: Translating learning into leadership practice & building confidence, language, and clarity of role
- Learning Experience: Presenting the capstone artifact & leadership reflection / post-program survey
Supervising for Student Engagement (Fall 2026)
Empower your teachers and improve student outcomes through NC State’s eight-week microcredential in instructional supervision. This program translates adult learning theory into classroom action, teaching you to use structured protocols to document student academic discourse, specifically focusing on “calling-on” and “question form” strategies. Through a blend of three live sessions, applied practice, and small-group coaching, you will master a guided conversation framework designed to drive productive dialogue and advance instructional practice.
Participants can earn 27 professional development (PD) hours (9 live + 18 asynchronous) and a digital badge.
Audience: School leaders (teachers who want to improve their practice, teacher coaches, assistant principals, and principals)
Cost: $800
Objectives:
- Cultivate relational trust and develop an international professional network
- Reflect on your own teacher supervision journey and experiences with other leaders
- Identify key elements of adult learning theory
- Identify and practice equitable academic discourse practices
- Identify and practice effective post-observation conversations with teachers
- Demonstrate key learnings and competencies
Program Framework
- Week 1 — Foundations of Instructional Supervision (Synchronous Cohort Session)
- Focus: Understand elements of adult learning theory & the equitable academic discourse framework
- Learning Experience: Journey Line of Supervision
- Week 2 — From Perceptional Data to Classroom Evidence (Asynchronous Session)
- Focus: Understand evidence-based protocol
- Learning Experience: Calling-on protocol
- Week 3 — Calling On Protocol (Asynchronous Session)
- Focus: Practice classroom supervision for equitable student voice
- Learning Experience: Practice the calling-on protocol in your school
- Week 4 — Reflection & More Practicing the Calling On Protocol (Asynchronous Small Group Session)
- Focus: Reflecting on classroom supervision for equitable student voice
- Learning Experience: Conversations and feedback on the calling-on protocol with your coach
- Week 5 — Question Form Protocol (Synchronous Cohort Session)
- Focus: Understand evidence-based protocol (How we ask student questions in the classroom) & introduce the capstone artifact guide
- Learning Experience: Question-form protocol & develop the capstone artifact guide and rubric
- Week 6 — Question Form Protocol (Asynchronous Session)
- Focus: Practice classroom supervision for equitable student voice
- Learning Experience: Practice the question-form protocol in your school
- Week 7 — Teacher Conversation Guide (Asynchronous Small Group Session)
- Focus: Reflecting on classroom supervision for equitable student voice
- Learning Experience: Conversations and feedback on the question-form protocol with your coach & the capstone artifact
- Week 8 — Capstone Presentations (Synchronous Cohort Session)
- Focus: Translating learning into leadership practice & building confidence, language, and clarity of role as an effective classroom supervisor for equitable academic discourse
- Learning Experience: Presenting the capstone artifact & leadership reflection / post-program survey
Instructor Bio
Matthew Militello is the Wells Fargo Distinguished Professor in Educational Leadership at East Carolina University (ECU). He has held faculty positions at North Carolina State University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Prior to his academic career, Militello was a middle and high public school teacher, assistant principal, and principal in Michigan. Militello has more than 60 publications, including his 7th book, Leading and learning together: Cultivating school change from within (2025, Teachers College Press).
Militello has received more than $22 million in external funding. He is the founding director of the ECU International Ed.D. program, a hybrid, three-year Ed.D. with annual summer learning in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2023, he was awarded the ECU Eminent Career Trend Setter Award. He earned his undergraduate teaching degree from the University of Michigan and his masters and Ph.D. in Educational Administration from Michigan State University. Matt has been married to Elizabeth for 31 years and is the father of four wonderful boys.