SELECTION CRITERIA table
| Category | Element | Minimum Standard |
| Pedogogy and materials quality | The use of sound, evidence-based pedagogy in the development and implementation of the materials. |
Commit to making steady progress to tag resources with the appropriate educational standards (up to 5). This requirement only applies if we provide an applicable standard. You are encouraged to provide information for additional standards in your description. All products must have a meaningful description. Example: "Fun game to teach math facts" would NOT qualify." "Fun game to teach multiplication math fact fluency" with standards tagged would qualify. As would "fun game to teach multiplication math facts using CVI design for low vision students." Be specific about how it meets the needs of students if it is not a general education product. Resources that teach basic reading skills for English-first learners must follow the science of reading principles. Sight word resources should focus on phonics-based learning of high-frequency words. |
| Materials align with any research cited. | If there is a claim of research alignment, a review of the materials establishes that the research underlying the concept is implemented in the materials. | |
| Factual accuracy. | All factual claims are accurate and verifiable from reputable sources. | |
| Does not use discredited or harmful methods. | In particular, reading instruction methods such as guessing proven to have adverse outcomes on reading are prohibited. We will not accept reading materials based on the following philosophies: whole language method, look-say, whole-word, balanced literacy, cueing, and embedded phonics. | |
| Credentials |
Has completed an appropriate degree, training, or certification for the claimed expertise. and provide proof of at least three years of active classroom or therapy experience. If the Publisher produces materials in an area with enhanced credentials or special training (such as Reading Intervention, CVI, or SLP), the Publisher has received the applicable credential and has maintained it if active maintenance is required. If the author is retired, the author must demonstrate how they have remained informed of current developments in the practice area. Publishers must have three years of experience delivering services or instruction in the listed area. If the publisher claims exceptional credentials, such as significant experience as an author in the education or textbook space, the Publisher provides proof of such credentials. |
Includes a description, where applicable, of the relevant credentials to create the materials in all author descriptions and the requisite experience. Satisfactory proof of the claim such as current credentials. If credentials are not current, must proof that they were not lost for disciplinary reasons and that the Publisher has taken steps to remain current in the field (such as teaching at the university level or attending continuing education programs. Publishers may not include material outside of their credential or experience level in the Boom Passport catalog. Those will need to be excluded. For example, if a Publisher has an elementary education certificate and homeschools through high school, only the elementary materials can be included in the Passport catalog. |
| Materials added to the Passport catalog are correctly tagged by subject and tags align to the Publisher's credentials and experience. |
Subject category tagging must follow the requirements for special categories specified in our Optimizing Your Content article. Premier Publishers may not use category tags that do not align with their credentials and experience. For speech-language pathologists, if the material would be searched for and used by a speech-language pathologist and was created by a speech-language pathologist - it must be tagged "Speech and Language" and may not be cross-tagged as Special Education & ABA. Only trained and certified Occupational Therapists with the required three years of experience may use the "Occupational Therapy" subject tag. Subtags under Occupational Therapy such as "Handwriting" may be selected if you have the requisite experience and you do not tag the top-level Occupational Therapy subject. Special Education Educators may use the subtag of Pre-Vocational skills under the Occupational Therapy category, but should not select the top-level Occupational Therapy category when using the Pre-Vocational skills subcategory. |
|
| Other claims | Publisher makes no claims that cannot be verified. All claims are subject to audit at any time. | |
| Profile completed. | Publishers must complete their profile the Settings/Grade page of the Boom account by answering all of the following that apply: Subjects I teach, Grades, Author Grades, Role that best suits you. | |
| Design Quality | Images are self-made or licensed and credited. | All images used are either self-made or licensed and credited. Use of Pixabay, Canva, Pexels, FreePix, or other stock sources will require proof of a license to use the materials for commercial use. AI images must follow our AI guidelines and must be disclosed as AI-generated images with the generating tool named in the product acknowledgements. |
| Minimum store size | 50 decks, with at least 25 decks with accessibility elements | |
|
The products have a consistent and common visual design. |
The materials have a consistent and common visual design in each material. There are no discordant design elements. There may not be routine formatting errors in covers or decks, such as text overflow, blurry images, or distorted images. If errors are identified, the Publisher demonstrates prompt error correction. | |
| The design is age and subject-appropriate. | The materials' design should be appropriate to the targeted developmental age of the students to whom they are directed. | |
| Accessibility | At least 25 decks in the Publishers Passport catalog use two or more accessibility features in the student player or the Publisher has been granted an exception because the nature of the materials created address a different disability and adding all accessibility features would defeat the purpose of the material. In such cases, Publisher is expected to all forms of accessibility that would not cause the resource to fail of its educational purpose. |
Publisher has at least 25 decks that meet two or more accessibility criteria (motor, visual, and audio) available in their catalog. Publisher is making steady progress to opt out decks that are not able to be made accessible with a goal of having all decks properly labeled by March 31, 2026. |
| Author Reputation | No strikes | Publishers who have received strikes for violating the acceptable use policies or other applicable terms are barred from the program. With sufficient passage of time (at least one year), Publishers who have been barred may be considered at the discretion of the Integrity team. Among other factors, Integrity will evaluate whether errors were inadvertent or deliberate, the level of cooperation in correcting materials, the seriousness of the offense relative to school requirements, and the risk to Boom of a repeated offense. The decision of the Integrity team is final and is not subject to appeal. |
| No controversy |
Publishers must not engage in conduct detrimental to supporting education in any setting, including criminal, harassing, or inflammatory conduct. Boom may investigate allegations of unbecoming conduct and determine in its sole discretion whether or not the Publisher may remain in the program after the investigation. |
|
| Compliance | No HREF links (hyperlinks) in publisher or product descriptions. No reference to other marketplaces. |
Any live links added to author or product descriptions make an author immediately ineligible for the program due to security commitments. References in the description, biography, or other location to any external marketplace will immediately make a Publisher ineligible. The only permitted reference to an external marketplace are links added to image acknowledgments to comply with credit requirements imposed by the image author. |
| No advertisements in decks. | Any links to videos that serve an advertisement are immediately disqualifying. No YouTube videos. | |
|
No content that teaches a religion as a religion. |
This program targets secular purchasing entities that require content to be secular. While it is acceptable to include objective religious studies and surveys of world religions content, Publishers must exclude from the catalog any theological content. Theological content teaches a religion's theology to convert or educate adherents into the religion. Publishers who make theological content can participate if they exclude all theological content from the Passport catalog. | |
| Not biased or discriminatory. |
Content must not make claims that are biased or have discriminatory content. Materials may not contain outdated content, such as the use of offensive terms to describe American and First Nations Indigenous peoples. Materials may not contain explicit or implicit bias against a class. No content may assert the superiority of a class of individuals over other classes based on immutable characteristics such as race or sex. |
|
| Controversial topics. | Content on controversial topics must be fact-based and informative. It should not suggest that the student should feel guilt or shame. | |
| Other failures to meet the needs of public schools. | School regulations and laws change from time to time. If a rule or law changes that makes content no longer suitable, it will be withdrawn from the program. We reserve the right to add suppression lists to exclude select content from access in select locations. |
COMPENSATION EXAMPLE table
| Boom Passport Sample Publishers | Boom Passport Sample Customer | Content Used by Customer | Month of Use by Customer | Who Gets Paid | When Paid |
|
Kinder Cards - PreK to 1st resources SLP Cards - Speech resources |
Giga School | Kinder Cards SLP Cards |
September to June | Both Kinder Cards and SLP Cards | October to July |
| Therapy Now Co | SLP Cards | All | Only SLP Cards | Monthly (One Month After Use) | |
| Summer Fun Camps | Kinder Cards | May to August | Only Kinder Cards | June to September |
