St. Paul Public Schools Continuing Education Committee

St. Paul Public Schools Continuing Education Committee verifies and approves clock hour requests as part of the license renewal process through the Minnesota Department of Education.

Clock hours are participation hours in planned professional development. Clock hours are granted for experiences that help maintain and improve professional skills and abilities.

Important note:  We are not responsible for tracking clock hours or liable for lost clock hour documents.   Please submit copies and keep the originals for your records. 

Standard license

To renew a standard five-year teaching license, you must earn 125 clock hours and meet the six required areas during each five-year licensure period.  If you are looking for courses to help you obtain your 125 required hours, please visit http://thecenter.spps.org/More_PD_Resources and click ONLINE COURSEWORK at the bottom of the page for some suggestions. The following are the six required areas and possible trainings offered through SPPS that would fulfill these requirements:

R          Positive Behavioral Intervention Strategies 

PBIS courses taken with your school or the district, any responsive classroom training, Non Violent Crisis Intervetion courses, or other courses that address behavior issues will be accepted.

S          Accommodation, Modification and Adaptation of Curriculum, Materials, and Instruction

Any courses with content around differentiation of instruction, equity, Multi tiered systems of support, etc. will be accepted.

T          Reading Preparation 

Can be obtained at http://spps.k12ceus.com. If you have reading components on your transcript, you need not participate in the reading course mentioned here. 

U          Key Warning Signs for Early-Onset Mental Illness in Children and Adolescents 

Can be obtained by attending a two hour course presented by the Special Education Department.  If you are an SPPS employee, please register for this course through PD Express.  If you are not a district employee, please contact Amy Riley at 651-767-8330 in the Special Education department to register for this course. You can also find a similar mental health course on line at http://professionallearningboard.com.

V          Technology (goes into effect for licenses that expire in 2012) 

Multiple courses presented by Technology.  If you are an SPPS "regular" employee, please register for these courses through PD Express.  If you are a temporary or non district employee, contact the Laurie Brazman at 651-744-1359 for more information on these courses.

W         Reflective Statement of Professional Accomplishment and Assessment of Professional - 1 typed page

            Growth (goes into effect for licenses that expire in 2013)

A written statement prepared by the teacher that demonstrates reflection on his or her professional accomplishment and includes a self-assessment of his or her professional growth using one of the following types of evidence:

·         Support for student learning

·         Use of best practices techniques and their applications to student learning

·         Collaborative work with colleagues that includes examples of collegiality

(i.e., attested-to committee work, collaborative staff development programs, professional learning community work)

·         Continual professional development

(i.e., job-embedded or other ongoing formal professional learning, including coursework)

Note: Other similar professional development efforts may be used by teachers who were employed for only a portion of the 5-year renewal period immediately preceding the license renewal (i.e., substitute teachers or teachers who taught for only one of the five years in the renewal period).

Please include your Reflective Growth statement in the packet you give to the licensing committee. For questions, please contact becky.brown@spps.org

Note: Please view your pdexpress transcript or out of district clock hour sheets to find completed trainings related to the above topics. The opportunities above are offered to those who have no other course work in these areas and are not specific to relicensure.

Important note:  Effective date for Technology is for licenses expiring in 2012 and effective date for Reflective Statement is for licenses expiring in 2013.

Downloadable documents

Clock Hour Form

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Six Required Areas

MDE Checklist

PD Express

PD Express is a database where SPPS employees can view and register for professional development courses offered by SPPS.  To access PD Express, please log onto http://pdexpress.spps.org/

Ø  User Name = Your Employee ID #

Ø  Password = staff  (If your user name is your Campus ID, your password is your employee i.d. #)

Ø  Click on “Courses” and “Courses Catalog”  (There is a place on the greetings page where you can click to have your user name and password emailed to you if you are not sure what it is).

Ø  View courses in list or calendar format

Ø  To register, click on a course and follow the instructions to register

If you have any specific questions about PD Express, please contact Laurie Brazman at laurie.brazman@spps.org or 651-744-1359.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please set a course tab in pdexpress to reflect your current 5 year licensing period. Setting the tab ensures correct clock hour calculation on your transcript and makes cross checking quicker for the licensing committee. Directions for tab setting can be found under the Resource tab, 'additional resources' on your home page. 

If you are looking to obtain clock hours and are not a district employee, please click here http://thecenter.spps.org/More_PD_Resources and choose the last option on the page "On-line course work."  Clock hours are not restricted to these links, they are simply suggestions for continuing course work. District employees may use the link as well.

For information on license renewal,  visit the Minnesota Department of Education website at: http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/Teacher_Support/Educator_Licensing/index.html

If you have any questions regarding the St. Paul Public Schools Continuing Education Committee and/or license renewal, please contact Kelly Motz at kelly.motz@spps.org or 651-767-8205.

Clock hour form
 http://hr.spps.org/uploads/license_renewal-clock_hour_form.pdf

Frequently Asked Questions
 http://hr.spps.org/uploads/frequently_asked_questions.pdf

Six Required Areas
 http://hr.spps.org/uploads/six_required_areas.pdf

MDE Checklist
 http://hr.spps.org/uploads/mde_checklist.pdf