Credential As You Go

Credential As You Go (CAYG) is a national, multi-year research and development initiative designed to transform the U.S. postsecondary credentialing system from a predominantly degree-centric model to an incremental credentialing system that recognizes learning in smaller, stackable, and meaningful units. The project combined system-level infrastructure development, institutional implementation, applied research, and national dissemination to assess the feasibility and potential impact of the Incremental Credentialing Framework. Building on an Incremental Credentialing Framework developed during Phase I (2019–2021, funded by Lumina Foundation), Phase II research (2021–2025, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, #R305T210063) supported 20 higher education institutions across Colorado, New York, and North Carolina in developing and piloting incremental credentials. The study pursued two primary lines of inquiry: a feasibility study examining the supports and constraints that institutions encountered in developing and sustaining incremental credentials, and a comparative interrupted time-series (CITS) analysis (using ITSA command) of learner-level outcomes: enrollment, persistence, progress, and completion. Credential-level analyses explored variability in structure, credit status, naming conventions, and pathway design.