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175 and 75 Hour Professional Development Requirement

For specific responsibilities of individuals pertaining to required continuing professional development for certification, please see Maintaining Your Certificate.

• Suggested Guidelines
• Guiding Principles
• Suggested Activities

Suggested Guidelines

These guidelines are intended to assist school districts, teachers and teaching assistants in identifying professional development activities as they prepare to comply with teacher certification requirements requiring continuing professional development.  Holders of the Professional certificate must complete 175 hours of professional development and holders of the Level III Teaching Assistant certificate must complete 75 hours every 5 years in order to maintain certification.   These are guidelines only; authority for decision-making regarding appropriateness of activities as to fulfillment of this requirement resides solely with the local public school district.

The ultimate goal of all efforts in this area is to increase the capacity of teachers and teaching assistants to enable and assist all students to higher academic achievement.

Guiding Principles

The design of professional development should be a result of a district's professional development planning process. It is best done as part of a comprehensive district plan, such as the piloted Comprehensive District Education Plan (CDEP) or New York City's District Comprehensive Education Plan (DCEP). The planning process includes, at a minimum, a collection of needs assessment data, i.e. student and teaching staff needs; root cause identification; proposed activities; identification of resources; and proposed evaluation of the impact of planned activities/approaches. Enhanced teaching and learning is the foundation upon which individuals and districts should plan the content of all professional development.

• Subject matter content of professional development activities/experiences is clearly connected to student achievement of the NYS Learning Standards.

• Professional development activities/experiences are planned with the NYS Teacher Standards as underpinning.

• Professional development activities/experiences should respond to student achievement data including State and local assessments and School District Report Cards.

• Professional development is shaped by teaching staff needs, as evidenced by such data as aggregate results of annual professional performance reviews.

• The professional development planning process is dynamic, reflecting teaching staff and student performance benchmarks of increasing rigor as skill levels are attained.

• Professional development results in a demonstrated increase in teaching staff knowledge and understanding, teaching staff skillfulness, and teaching staff professional values.

• Professional development activities/experiences are assessed on an on-going and continuous basis for intended impact. Defensible evaluation tools/methods must be used to determine modifications to planned activities/experiences.

• Professional development is, to the greatest extent possible, be site-based and connected to daily school experiences.

• Professional development enables the teaching staff to deepen their knowledge base and remain current in their content area and instructional strategies.

• Teaching staff learning opportunities are clearly constructed, based on effective teaching research, and involve educators in the design and implementation of such opportunities.

Content of courses, workshops, and other professional development experiences should be directly related to:

• enhancing teacher/teaching assistant subject matter knowledge,
• teacher/teaching assistant knowledge, use and application of appropriate teaching techniques,
• broadening and enhancing teacher/teaching assistant abilities to apply more accurate and appropriate assessment methodologies, and
• enhancing teacher/teaching assistant skills in effectively managing individual students and classroom in both heterogeneous and homogeneous settings.

Suggested Activities

The following categories of activities are suggestions for meeting the needs of school districts in building teacher and teaching assistant capacity: ( Not all suggested activities are intended for Level III teaching assistants)

• Participating in courses and other learning opportunities delivered from many providers, such as institutions of higher education, teacher centers, BOCES, school districts and independent professional development service providers.

• Coursework linked to improvement of instructional technique or content knowledge, which may or may not be in pursuit of a teaching or advanced teaching degree.

• Completing coursework for more advanced certification or certificates in additional areas or in accordance with teaching assignment requirement for extension to certification.

• Collaborating with other teachers and teaching assistants to examine case studies of student work and development

• Participating in regional scoring of State assessments, assessing student portfolios

• Creating and assessing teacher or teaching assistant portfolios

• Providing Mentoring Service

• Engaging in research projects (includes online research)

• Participation in study (collegial) circles such as "Critical Friends" activities, structured guided reflection activities focused on student learning

• Participating in formal programs of peer coaching or participation in peer review.

• Curriculum planning and development

• Pursuing National Board certification or re-certification (either as candidate or provider of support)

• Sabbaticals (related to content specialty or enhancement of teaching strategies)

• Participating in reviews of class performance data over time to make decisions about one's own professional development, based on student outcomes

• Developing or collaborating on the development of new programs and instructional methods

• Teacher of the Year activities

• NYSTCE "assessor" or test development committee member

• Delivering professional development (e.g. conducting workshops)

• Development of Statewide curriculum
   
• Service as support teacher, helping teacher, or coach

• Service as a cooperating teacher for a student teacher or field internships; including attendant meetings and processes.

• Service as an elected officer in professional organizations

• Service as teacher center director

• Service/designation as Master Teacher

• Service on the State Professional Standards and Practices Board

• Participating in Professional Development School activities or other school-college teacher development partnerships

• Publishing in educational journals

• Developing and presenting a major paper

• Serving on CDEP (Comprehensive District Education Plan) or DCEP (District Comprehensive Education Plan), or School Leadership committees.