Between the years 2012 and 2016, the Department has trained over 36,000 teachers and administrators in SEI as part of the Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners (RETELL) initiative. The RETELL initiative represents a commitment to address the persistent gap in academic proficiency experienced by ELL students. For the purposes of the SEI Endorsement requirement, core academic teachers are defined in 603 CMR 7.02 and include teachers of students with moderate disabilities, teachers of students with severe disabilities, subject area teachers in English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, civics and government, economics, history, and geography and early childhood and elementary teachers who teach such subjects.
There is no regulatory mandate requiring all educators to possess an SEI Endorsement in order to renew a Professional level license. The determination on whether or not an SEI Endorsement is required for the renewal of an educator’s license depends largely on the area of the license (core academic) and if the educator has had an ELL in their classroom. Most core academic teachers who had access to a Department-approved SEI course will need to have acquired the SEI Endorsement in order to renew their Professional level license.
The period in which the core academic teacher had access to the Department-approved SEI course is referred to as a cohort year and typically an educator’s cohort year runs from July 1st of one year to August 31st of the following year. According to the regulations, CMR 14.07(2) educators assigned to a cohort must earn the SEI endorsement within the time period designated for their cohort, or else lose the ability to renew his/her license until the endorsement has been obtained, absent a showing of hardship. The educator’s file will hold a “RETELL/SEI Restriction” until he/she obtains the endorsement. A RETELL/SEI Restriction is the status of an educator’s licensure file in ELAR due to failure to obtain the SEI Endorsement.
NOTE: If you were mistakenly identified in a specific cohort year as a core teacher who served one or more ELLs, or as a building administrator who supervised core academic teachers with one or more ELLs in their classroom, a letter from your Administrator or Human Resources Director, on official school letterhead stating this error is required. If your letter is approved, the RETELL/SEI restriction will be removed from your ELAR account. Letters may be uploaded to your ELAR profile or mailed to the Licensure Office.
“Carrying Over” PDPs earned through the completion of Department-approved SEI course of study.
Educators who hold a core academic teacher license, as defined in 603 CMR 7.02, and who obtained the SEI Endorsement through the Department-approved SEI course of study, (a no-cost course or for-cost course) will earn PDPs for successful completion of their SEI Endorsement course. The table below outlines how many PDPs can be claimed for each respective SEI course. Not only will these PDPs be considered as professional development related to the content of the educator’s license, but some educators may be able to utilize the PDPs earned towards their next renewal cycle, or distribute the SEI PDPs in multiple renewal cycles (current and next cycle) if they so choose. NOTE: Carrying over PDPs is allowed one time!
Depending on how close an educator may be to his/her scheduled renewal of the Professional level license and his/her progress in meeting the requirements to renew that license, an educator may not need to utilize all or any of the PDPs earned through the SEI course of study. As a result, the educator may “carry over” PDPs earned from the Department-approved SEI Endorsement course towards renewal from one cycle to the next, one time only. When an educator chooses to carry over PDPs earned in one renewal cycle to the next as a result of completing a Department-approved SEI course, the educator must maintain the records for both cycles to ensure their eligibility to carry over the PDPs.
Example: A supervisor/director of science who renewed his/her Professional level license by 06/30/16, was part of the 2013-14 cohort, had already accumulated 135 PDPs prior to the beginning of the SEI course and is 15 PDPs short of the required needed 150 PDPs. Upon successful completion of the SEI course (Full Course), the Supervisor/Director obtained the endorsement and was awarded 67.5 PDPs. The educator may apply 15 PDPs (out of the 67.5 PDPs earned from the course) towards the 9/17/16 renewal and will be able to carry over and apply the remaining 52.5 PDPs towards the next renewal of the Supervisor/Director license due to be renewed again in June of 2021. See Table 2 on the following page for additional information.
The information above is from the November 2017 DESE Recertification/Renewal Guidelines.