# Certification Readiness — Infinite Sandbox Mentor

Version: 2026-07-22.3  
Status: experimental, unreviewed, and not certified

This document is a readiness map, not an approval or certification claim. Passing the automated tests proves that the programmed safeguards and metadata are present. It does not prove usability, standards alignment, accessibility, learning effectiveness, legal compliance, or certification.

## What can apply to the product

### Digital Promise: Responsibly Designed AI

Official requirements: https://digitalpromise.org/product-certifications/responsibly-designed-ai/

| Requirement area | Current artifact | Current status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Public privacy and data-use information | `PRIVACY.md` | Implemented; legal and deployment review required |
| Public security and incident-response information | `SECURITY.md` | Implemented; operational review required |
| Bias monitoring and two remediation examples | `AI_BIAS_AND_OVERSIGHT.md` | Implemented; external fairness evaluation required |
| Direct concern reporting | B exports a non-identifying JSON report | Partial; a deployed product still needs a developer receipt and response workflow |
| Label AI-generated content | Every teaching display begins with `AI MENTOR` | Implemented; user testing required |
| User or educator override | V skips the active recommendation without assessment penalty | Implemented; user testing required |

### Digital Promise: Research-Based Design, ESSA Tier 4

Official requirements: https://digitalpromise.org/product-certifications/research-based-design-essa-tier-4/

| Requirement area | Current artifact | Current status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Logic model supported by at least five empirical citations | `RESEARCH_BASIS.md` | Draft implemented; expert review required |
| At least five research-linked design decisions | `RESEARCH_BASIS.md` | Draft implemented; expert review required |
| Well-designed qualitative learner or educator study | `QUALITATIVE_STUDY_PROTOCOL.md` | Protocol only; study has not happened |
| Public access to the research basis | `RESEARCH_BASIS.md` | File is ready to publish with the build |
| Signed FERPA letter | `FERPA_READINESS.md` | Not completed; authorized adult/organization and legal review required |

### Digital Promise: Learner Variability

Official requirements: https://digitalpromise.org/product-certifications/learner-variability-certification/

The build includes user-controlled support and pace, reduced-motion styling,
non-visual announcements, responsive tutorial hints, an adaptive challenge
policy, and dedicated coarse-pointer controls. Terrain editing still lacks a
remappable keyboard action and validated assistive-technology parity; this is
an explicit accessibility gap. Practitioner collaboration, mobile-device
testing, and evidence that learner/educator feedback changed the product remain
external requirements.
See `LEARNER_VARIABILITY.md`.

### ISTE Seal

Official overview: https://iste.org/iste-seal

ISTE uses outside reviewers to examine standards alignment, usability, and digital pedagogy. This build creates candidate evidence but has not undergone that review. Commercial use of ISTE Standards may require permission; do not reproduce or claim official alignment without following https://iste.org/permissions-licensing.

## Middle-school pathway

The middle-school profile uses a grades 6–8 candidate crosswalk. It emphasizes concrete models, criteria and constraints, comparison, and revision.

- NGSS MS-ETS1 source: https://www.nextgenscience.org/dci-arrangement/ms-ets1-engineering-design
- CSTA review source: https://csteachers.org/2017standards/standards-alignment-review/
- Current state: candidate mappings only.
- External gates: qualified grades 6–8 educator review, current CSTA crosswalk process, accessibility audit, safeguarded learner study, and outcome study.

## High-school pathway

The high-school profile uses a grades 9–12 candidate crosswalk. It increases quantified criteria, alternative designs, evidence, and tradeoffs.

- NGSS HS-ETS1 example source: https://www.nextgenscience.org/pe/hs-ets1-1-engineering-design
- CSTA review source: https://csteachers.org/2017standards/standards-alignment-review/
- Current state: candidate mappings only.
- External gates: qualified grades 9–12 educator review, current CSTA crosswalk process, accessibility audit, safeguarded learner study, and outcome study.

CSTA reported that its standards-alignment service was paused while its standards were being revised. Recheck the official page immediately before applying and rebuild the crosswalk against the then-current standards.

## College pathway

The college profile supports complex problem solving, experimentation, uncertainty, limitations, safety, ethics, and tradeoffs. These are supporting-tool candidates only.

- ABET engineering criteria: https://www.abet.org/accreditation/accreditation-criteria/criteria-for-accrediting-engineering-programs-2026-2027/
- ABET computing criteria: https://www.abet.org/accreditation/accreditation-criteria/criteria-for-accrediting-computing-programs-2026-2027/
- Quality Matters Higher Education rubric overview: https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/rubric-standards/higher-ed-rubric

ABET accredits eligible college programs, not games. A college must decide how this tool fits its curriculum, collect direct and indirect outcome evidence, use results for continuous improvement, and seek the applicable program review. Quality Matters reviews complete course design; this game alone cannot receive course certification. Its official overview says a course must meet all essential standards and at least 85 percent of available points.

## Automatic instructional bands

There is no level selector. The mentor starts with the middle-school challenge profile and can move upward only after repeated completed assessments across different concepts. A move to college requires more independent evidence and demonstrated performance. Several support-needed outcomes can move the next task down one band.

The band is never represented as the player's real age, grade, intelligence, disability, or mastery. Input device, movement speed, and edit speed are excluded. Every transition is written to the local audit record in `level.dat`.

## Required work before an application

1. Publish these documents on the same public site as the product.
2. Add a real in-product concern submission channel that the developer receives and tracks.
3. Have qualified educators separately review all middle-school, high-school, and college content.
4. Obtain current standards permissions and external alignment reviews where applicable.
5. Conduct human accessibility testing against WCAG 2.2 with keyboard and assistive technologies.
6. Complete safeguarded usability and qualitative studies for each band; obtain consent/assent and institutional approval as required.
7. Use validated measures in a later quantitative effectiveness study if pursuing a stronger ESSA evidence tier.
8. Have an authorized adult/organization and qualified legal counsel review COPPA, FERPA, state student-privacy duties, terms, security, and the FERPA letter.
9. Submit to the appropriate organization and wait for its decision before displaying a certification or seal.

The certification snapshot embedded in every `level.dat` file preserves the version, target requirements, known gaps, research basis, and non-certification claim used during that session.