Arkansas Department of Education
Professional Development Assurances
Arkansas Tech University

All colleges, departments, divisions, organizations, and/or faculty at Arkansas Tech University desiring to provide Professional Development programs certified by the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) must follow the procedure as outlined below:

  1. All professional development programs must meet the Rules Governing Professional Development as specified by the ADE.  The  rules are located at http://arkansased.org/about/pdf/current/ade_207_professional_development1009_current.pdf
     
    1. 3.01 Professional Development —a coordinated set of planned learning activities that are based on research, are standards-based and continuous.
    2. 3.08 “Approved Professional Development Provider” –means  any organization which provides content for professional development credit, whether delivered in a face-to-face, televised or internet modality,   and

                                                               i.      whose content has been approved by the ADE to meet:

1.       annual professional development credit requirements

2.        imposed upon licensed teachers and administrators

3.       by Arkansas Statutes and ADE Rules.

    1. The term: “Approved Professional Development Provider” does not apply to:

                                                               i.       an Arkansas public school district that provides a professional development program solely to its own personnel

                                                              ii.      or to an Education Cooperative, ADE, AR Dept of Workforce Education and the AR Dept of Early Childhood which provide professional development statewide.

    1. 3.11 Professional Development Program (“Program”) means a course of instruction intended to provide content which fulfills the requirement for professional development credit for teachers and administrators licensed by the ADE.
    2. 5.0 Professional Development Criteria

                                                               i.      5.01 Professional development is the means by which educators acquire or enhance the knowledge, skills, and expectations necessary to increase student learning and must meet the following criteria.

                                                              ii.      All approved professional development shall be aligned to the following Standards developed by the National Staff Development Council:

1.       Context Standards

2.       Process Standards

3.       Content Standards

4.       It is the responsibility of the PD Provider to be familiar with all of the current ADE Rules governing professional development.

                                                            iii.      All Approved Professional Development must meet at least ONE of the Standards

5.       5.03 - All approved Professional Development, whether designed for the individual, school or district, shall be based on the improvement of student achievement on State assessments and increasing student achievement and academic performance.

6.       5.04 - Approved professional development takes on many forms & may be earned in the following ways:

7.        5.04.01 - Conferences, workshops, institutes

8.        5.04.02 – Mentoring / peer coaching;

9.        5.04.03 - Study groups / learning teams; and

10.    5.04.04 - National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification;

11.     5.04.05 - Distance learning / on-line opportunities;

12.     5.04.06 - Internships; and

13.    5.04.07 – State / district / school programs;

14.     5.04.08 – College / university course work;

15.     5.04.09 - Action research; or

16.     5.04.10 - Individually-guided as noted in the individual professional development plan
 

2.       How to receive ADE certification code number for a program of professional development:

a.       No less than 30 days in advance of a planned professional development event, the provider must complete and submit an Approval Form to Steve Zimmer, Director of the Math & Science Institute.

b.       Download the “ATU PD_Provider_Approval_Form_2010”document from the website of the Math & Science Institute, http://www.atu.edu/msi.   It is available as either a MS Word document or as a PDF document.

c.        Complete all appropriate sections and return the completed form to Steve Zimmer by mail (Math & Science Institute; Tomlinson 113; 1507 N. Boulder Ave; Russellville, AR 72801) , fax (479-964-0542) or by email (szimmer@atu.edu).  Electronic submission of the document will be considered as a signed document by the sender of the document.

d.       Within 30 days, the requestor shall be notified of the results of the application for approval.  If approved, an ADE Professional Development Approval number will be provided.  The number will consist of two parts.  The first part will be a 13 digit number and an alphanumeric extension code unique to the particular PD program.

e.       All certificates provided must contain the entire approval number including the extension code..

f.         A sign-in attendance sheet must be submitted following the program verifying the attendance of each person receiving the PD credit and the total number of PD hours awarded. 

g.       For a program that continues over multiple days, a sign in sheet shall be submitted for each day of the program. 

h.       If the program is a graduate class, a copy of the final roll sheet indicating full completion of the class is required along with a statement of the number of PD hours awarded to each person.

i.         If a participant in a PD program leaves early, they must sign out indicating the time at which they left and the number of PD hours awarded must reflect this also.