Licensure Info

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is responsible for licensing all professional educators including teachers, psychologists, guidance counselors, nurses, speech language pathologists and many other professional positions in the Westwood Public Schools. You can apply for your license and maintain your license through your ELAR account at DESE.  

The most up to date information on licensure can be found on the DESE website.  Here are some helpful links as starting points:


Advancing, Extending or Renewing a License


Recertification Guidelines 

Types of Massachusetts Licenses 

(In addition to the information below, you can find more information on types of licenses and general regulations from DESE here.)


Temporary: You are a licensed teacher from another state and have taught under that license for at least three years. This license is good for one year and is not renewable.  You must take the Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure (MTEL) which consists of the Communication and Literacy and subject matter tests.


Provisional: You have not completed a teacher training program at the undergraduate or graduate level, but passed the MTEL tests.  This license is good for five years, and it not renewable.  Within the five years, you must complete a teacher preparation program.  Some licenses require a competency review such as special education, school guidance counselor, school psychologist and other specialist licenses.


Initial: You have completed teacher preparation program at the undergraduate or graduate level.  This license is good for five years, and can be extended for an additional five years.  In order to move to the professional license, you must teach under that license for at least three years, complete a mentor/induction program, 50 hours of mentoring beyond the mentor/induction program, and a Master's degree containing 12 credits in your license content area.  If you already hold a Master's degree, you must demonstrate that you have taken 12 graduate credits in your content area (i.e. if you are a math teacher, you must complete 12 graduate credits in mathematics - not pedagogy). 

Educators who hold an initial license will notice an asterisk under the expiration column. The asterisk indicates your license is valid for five years of employment. The clock begins when you start working under your initial license. If you do not teach immediately, or take a leave from your position, you have five full years of employment to work under that license.


Professional:  This is the level of licensure that all educators aspire to and are required to reach.  The professional license is good for five years, regardless of employment status. Every five years, you must renew your license and certify that you have completed 150 PDPs. As of July, 2017, these PDPs must come from the areas outlined by DESE below: 

(a) At least 15 PDPs related to SEI or English as a Second Language.

(b) At least 15 PDPs related to training in strategies for effective schooling for students with disabilities and instruction of students with diverse learning styles. 

(c) At least 15 PDPs in the content area of the license.

(d) At least 15 PDPs in pedagogy.

(Note: A minimum of 10 PDPs must be earned in a topic to count the PDPs toward license renewal.) 


In addition to the Primary License, educators may renew additional professional licenses by obtaining an additional 30 PDPs with at least 15 PDPs in the content area(s) of any additional license(s) to be renewed.

Tracking PDPs 

Every educator holding a professional license is required to maintain an Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP) outlining your professional goals and how they connect to the school and district goals. The Plan allows you to record and track your PDP's. Your Self-Directed Educator Growth Plan (part of the evaluation process) may be used as your IPDP.  Your evaluator's signature on the growth plan will serve as approval of the IPDP.  

Please note:  It is the individual educator's responsibility to keep track of his or her activities and accumulation of PDPs toward renewing a license. The district does not keep track of this information.  You may find a log useful for keeping track of your activities on early-release days.  Be sure to record other workshops, courses, etc. that you complete and to keep samples of the resulting work products.  This documentation will be necessary in the event of an audit by DESE.

Audit Information

It is important that you keep good records of your professional development activities. Though the license renewal process typically does not require that records and artifacts be submitted to DESE, each year DESE randomly selects some renewal applications for audit. If you are audited by DESE, you will need to have documentation of your activities and products on file.  

We suggest that you log all of your early-release day activities and have provided a template for doing so.  In addition, familiarize yourself with the documents that you will need to produce in the event that you are audited by DESE. If you file the items below each year, you will save yourself lots of work and frustration should you receive the DESE License Renewal: Professional Development Audit letter at any time in your career.


If you receive a certified letter from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) with the heading, "Re: License Renewal- Professional Development Audit," you will need to be able to produce the following: