Arkansas Nonpublic School Accrediting Association

What are the current requirements for renewing an AR Teaching License?

Teachers seeking to renew an AR Teaching License will be required to have 60 professional development hours per year to renew their teaching license. The number of hours required for a given teacher will depend on when they renew during the next five years.  For example, if my license expires at the end of the 2006-07 year, I would need 30 hours per year for the first four years and 60 hours for the fifth year.  Under the new rules and regulations, the requirement for technology training is still six hours of the sixty.
  

Will ANSAA schools be required to have 60 hours of professional development per year? ANSAA Standards 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 refer to in-service / professional development but do not state a required number of hours.  Some schools may want to add more in-service days to their yearly calendars to help teachers meet the requirements for renewing Arkansas Teaching Licenses (60 professional development hours per year); again this will be left to individual ANSAA schools. The private schools are not required by law to add 5 more in-service days to the yearly school calendar.

How will professional development hours be tracked in the nonpublic schools?

Check with your superintendents on the method that will be used to verify the hours within in your school system.

What areas will the state accept as professional development hours?

All professional development hours are to relate to the improvement of student achievement. Any of the following activities may be counted if they relate to that goal: conferences, workshops, institutes, individual learning, mentoring, peer coaching, study groups, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification, distance learning, internships, and approved college/university course work consistent with National Staff Development Council Standards.

How many professional development hours can be counted as college/university course work?

No more than 30 of the 60 hours required can be college/university course work.

A three hour graduate-level college credit course counts as 12 hours of professional development, provided the college credit is related to and enhances the teacher's knowledge of the subject area in which the teacher is currently teaching or is part of the requirements for the teacher to obtain additional certification.

What focus areas are accepted for professional development?

The following twelve areas are accepted for professional development; at least 6 of the 60 required hours must be in educational technology.

1. instructional strategies
2. assessment
3. advocacy/leadership
4. systemic change process
5. standards
6. frameworks and curriculum alignment
7. supervision
8. mentoring/coaching
9. educational technology
10. principles of learning/developmental stages
11. cognitive research
12. building a collaborative learning community

Do professional development requirements different for classroom teachers and school administrators?

All administrators will be required to have no less than three hours of professional development designed to enhance understanding of effective parent involvement strategies and the importance of administrative leadership in setting expectations and creating a climate conducive to parental participation. Administrators also need professional development hours in data disaggregating, instructional leadership, and fiscal management. 

Do classroom teachers also need professional development hours in effective parental involvement strategies?

Each teacher shall be required to have no less than two (2) hours of professional development designed to enhance understanding of effective parental involvement strategies. These two (2) hours may be included in the 60 hours required for professional development.

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