Who do I contact to receive a Salary Advancement Review?

Thank you for reaching out to Professional Learning. Unfortunately, although Professional Learning supports the salary advancement process, we do not review or process applications for Educational Salary Advances.  This process is handled by the APS Human Resources Community Assistants. Please contact the Human Resource Community Assistant assigned to your community directly for help with this process.

What is the Salary Advancement Guideline?

HR NEWS on Salary Advancement Guideline published on August 26, 2022 Volume 21, Issue 2 states licensed employees are eligible for educational salary advances after completing 15 semester credits of college coursework under the following guidelines noted in Article 12 of the Master Agreement: 

• Credits are those completed after the teacher’s most recent and highest degree conferred

• Credits are earned from a four-year degree-granting and regionally accredited institution (Courses completed at a two-year degree granting regionally accredited institution are accepted if completed after August 20, 2008, and are guaranteed transferable to a Colorado four-year degree-granting and regionally accredited institution). 

• Courses that are not authorized for re-licensure credit in Colorado cannot be used for educational advances.

To be considered for educational salary advancement, mail your transcripts to 15701 E 1st Ave Suite 112 Aurora CO, 80011 or call 303–365-5823 to schedule and have them dropped off. Copies will not be accepted and cannot be used as a placeholder while waiting for the official transcripts. Authorized electronic transcripts from the school are accepted. If there are not enough credits to advance to the next lane they will need to be returned. Educational salary advances will become effective on the first day of the month following the month the transcript was received. Licensed employees are eligible to turn in transcripts for salary advancement throughout the school year until the last day in April. The Compensation Office will begin accepting transcripts again July 1st for the next school year. Please click here for Out of District Deadlines.

• • Please Note: For Salary Advancement Purposes, contact hours will be converted into semester credits. 15 Salary Advancement Contact Hours = 1 Semester Credit. To determine the number of semester credits completed on an APS Record of Professional Learning, divide the total number of salary advancement contact hours by 15. 

For example 183 salary advancement contact hours/15 = 12.2 Semester Credits. 

Finally, remember the APS Record of Professional Learning contains the entire history of professional development with APS, and some coursework listed might already be accounted for in a previous application for Educational Advancement. Please contact an HR Community Assistant for more information. 

For professional learning courses, licensed employees should make sure all credits are listed in Performance Matters. When calculating Performance Matters contact hours please use this formula:  15 Salary Advancement and CDE Renewal contact hours equals 1 semester credit. Teachers are responsible for turning in an official PowerSchool transcript which can be accessed through the system. After logging into PowerSchool follow this path for transcript information:

Click on Transcript > Click on Print PDF > Download to your desktop for future viewing or to attach to an email. 

To be considered for educational salary advancement, mail or drop off an official transcript to the Human Resources Office located at ESC 1, 15701 E. 1st Ave., Suite 112. Copies will not be accepted and cannot be used as a placeholder while waiting for the official transcripts. Authorized electronic transcripts from the school are accepted. If there are not enough credits to advance to the next lane they will need to be returned. 

Educational salary advances will become effective on the first day of the month following the month the transcript was received. Licensed employees are eligible to turn in transcripts for salary advancement throughout the school year until the last day in April. The Compensation Office will begin accepting transcripts again 0n July 1st for the next school year. Click Here to view the licensed salary schedule. 

How do I apply for an Educational Advancement?

1. You can earn Salary Advancement Credit in three ways. 

   1. You can earn salary advancement credit for any meetings or courses you attend in APS (if they are accounted for in PowerSchool) that are outside of your official duty day, unless you are being compensated in another manner.

   2. You can earn credit by taking coursework from providers outside of the APS System and submitting those courses to the professional Learning Department for Out-of-District credit review.

   3. You may take coursework from an accredited institution or university and provide transcripts directly to HR for credit. 

   4. You may submit any combination of the previous learning experiences to qualify for Educational Salary Advancement.

2. If you have any Certificates of Completion you received for completing coursework OUTSIDE of Aurora Public Schools, you will need to apply for Out-of-District Credit in PowerSchool. This is for Certificates ONLY.   Please be aware that not all course providers are accepted and you should review the pre-approved and denied provider lists before taking any courses. 

   2. 1. Once you have earned enough credits to apply for salary advancement. You will need to access a copy of your APS Record of Professional Learning before you contact your Human Resources Community Assistant. If you have submitted Out-of-District Credit applications, you will need to wait to download your transcript until after the applications have been processed. 

      2. To access your PowerSchool transcript: Log on to PowerSchool > Click on Transcript in the menu bar at the top > Click on Print PDF > Download to your desktop for future viewing or to attach to an email.

3. Official College Transcripts should be sent directly to your Human Resources Community Assistant.