All current DESE regulations are available on their website.
A common misconception about PDPs is that they are only for educators who have already received their Professional license. All educators may earn PDPs and those with Preliminary license may use these towards their competencies or in application for a Performance Review Program for Initial Licensure (PRPIL).
June 2017 Board Regulation Changes
In June 2017, in an effort to further streamline the licensure system, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to approve new regulations impacting educator licensure, program approval and license renewal. As a result, effective July 28, 2017, the minimum required content and pedagogy distribution of PDPs for all academic educators renewing a Primary area Professional level license has been amended. Within the required 150 PDPs necessary to renew a Primary area license, all academic educators will now only need a minimum of 15 PDPs in content, compared to the previous minimum of 60 PDPs in content. In addition, 15 PDPs in pedagogy is required along with the afore mentioned 15 PDPs in SEI or ESL and 15 PDPs related to effective schooling for students with disabilities and instruction of students with diverse learning styles. The remaining 90 PDPs is left at the discretion of the educator and the employing school district. This new distribution of PDPs should allow educators with a professional level license to focus on professional development that will have a larger impact on their teaching and the needs of their students. In addition to the changes to renewing a Primary area, similar changes were made with the requirements to renew an Additional area Professional level license. Educators renewing an Additional area will continue to need 30 PDPs; however, only 15 of those 30 PDPs will need to be in the content area of the additional license.
Primary area:
· At least 15 PDPs in content (subject matter knowledge)
· At least 15 PDPs in pedagogy (professional skills and knowledge)
· At least 15 PDPs related to Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) or English as a Second Language (ESL)
· At least 15 PDPs related to training in strategies for effective schooling for students with disabilities and the instruction of students with diverse learning styles
· The remaining required 90 PDPs may be earned through any combination of “elective” activities that address other educational issues and topics that improve student learning, additional content, or pedagogy.
Additional area:
A minimum of 30 PDPs: Of the 30, at least 15 PDPs in content are required. The remaining 15 PDPs may be earned through either “elective” activities that address other educational issues and topics that improve student learning, additional content, or pedagogy. The renewal of an Invalid Additional area license requires 150 PDPs.
According to the guidelines of 2000/2016 "In an effort to ensure that all activities are professionally relevant and academically meaningful, certain activities that in the past were eligible for PDPs are no longer eligible. For example, PDPs will not be awarded for attendance at a professional conference or participation in a self-directed study group" (p. 11).
"Educators who participate in school- and district-based in-service programs that focus on strengthening professional knowledge and skills in content areas are eligible to receive 1 PDP per clock hour. Educators may receive PDPs after the successful completion of a professional development program (minimum of 10 hours on a topic) with an observable demonstration of learning that could include a written product or other documentable product" (p. 13).
This documentable product should be something that can either be used in the classroom/workplace or that reflects the experience of sharing in the workplace. This could be in the form of a lesson plan, a unit template, or a reflection/documentation on the experience of bringing back the learning and sharing it in-district.
For example: After attending a workshop the teacher returns to the grade-level meeting and presents to her colleagues on what she learned and makes a small binder of the handouts that she believes could be used in all of the classrooms. She then writes a brief reflection on this process.
Please see the lesson and unit templates below for guidance on creating lessons or units. These are not required forms but are recommended.
Nevertheless, the most common use for PDPs is for relicensure (Professional License Only)
PDP activities include: Mentoring, Cooperating Teacher, Creating a School-Based Activity following attendance at a professional conference, Curriculum Development, Published Written Materials, Graduate-level courses
Graduate level courses = 22.5 PDPs per semester hour
"Educators may count PDPs from school-based activities toward the recertification content requirement when the activity is directly related to the content area of the certificate" (p. 14).
In North Reading our PDPs are tracked through My Learning Plan on either the Blue (school day) or Yellow (graduate credit) forms.
The critical tests for all professional development activities should be:
Are they intellectually challenging, do they add to the participants’ repertoire of skills and content knowledge, do they enhance their contributions to the school community, and do they lead to improvement in teaching practice?
National Governors’ Association Report (1995)