Mar28

bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible. – javier pascual salcedo

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i went to apply for

my professional recertification

a requirement

from the state

board of education

every five years

whether it’s needed it or not

where i account for

 my continuing education

my ongoing development

as a teacher

but

they had changed the system

without any notice

and

when they tried

to explain it to me

 i was hopelessly confused

so

they sent me

the following emails

to clear it all up

and

my brain

could not even

begin to process

the information

and

i thought

maybe it’s a test

but

i have no answers

i wish it was multiple choice

and now

 i need a translator

and

a miracle.

legos-paperwork1

If you have been awarded State Continuing Education Clock Hours (SCECHs) since January 1, 2010, and they are not displayed on this page, you need to add your Personnel Identification Code (PIC) to your Secure Central Registry (SCR) account. You can locate your PIC number by clicking on Manage Demographics on the left navigation panel on this page. The PIC number is required to link your SCECH information in the SCR to your MOECS account. Once your PIC is in the SCR, any SCECHs earned through the SCR should appear in MOECS within 3-4 business days. To visit the Secure Central Registry (SCR) please go to http://solutionwhere.com/mi_sbceu/welcome.asp.

• The SCR started collecting SCECH data on January 1, 2010. If you were awarded State Board Continuing Education Units (SB-CEUs) prior to January 1, 2010, they are not available for viewing in MOECS, and you must add them. To add your SB-CEUs earned prior to January 1, 2010, select Add at the bottom of this screen and fill in the required information.

• For SB-CEUs awarded prior to January 1, 2010, you will need to maintain the paper record of your SB-CEUs for audit purposes. If your certificate is audited, you will be asked to send a copy of your official record of your SB-CEUs to the Michigan Department of Education, Office of Professional Preparation Services. 
If you feel that SCECHs awarded since January 1, 2010 are missing from the SCR, contact the sponsor of that SCECH program.

In order for the SB-CEUs (now known as SCECHs) that you have completed after January 1, 2010, and are listed in your Secure Central Registry (SCR) record, to import into your MOECS online certification record you must go into your demographics page on MOECS, copy the PIC number from your demographics page and then log into your record on the SCR and enter that same PIC number in your SCR record.  Approximately 3-4 business days after you do that, all SCECHs that are listed in your SCR record will also be listed in your MOECS online certification record. This should allow you to log back into MOECS and apply for your renewal successfully.

The renewal of a Professional Education teaching certificate requires what equates to 150 clock hours by completing 6 semester hours (1 semester hour equals 25 clock hours) OR 150 SCECHs* (State Continuing Education Clock Hours) OR 150 Michigan district-provided professional development hours** (1 PD hour equals 1 clock hour) OR a combination of the two/three. The required credit hours, SCECHs or district-provided professional development hours must be completed after the issue date on your current Professional Education certificate and within five years preceding the date of application for the renewal.

Semester hour credit must be 6 credits in a planned program completed at a regionally accredited teacher preparation university/college in the United States OR 6 credits appropriate to the grade levels and content endorsement(s) on the certificate completed at any regionally accredited community college or 4-year university/college in the United States.

In regards to SCECHs, only Michigan SCECHs are acceptable.  Regular CEU’s, professional development hours, contact hours, clock hours, etc. are not acceptable towards renewal (unless you have requested, and been granted approval, that these type credits be converted to Michigan SCECH hours via a request to your district SCECH Sponsor made 45 days prior to the activity).

For non-traditional SCECH activities; i.e., Supervising a Mentor Teacher, Supervising a Student Teacher, Serving on a State Board-Appointed Advisory Board, arrangements must be made either prior to the activity or during the semester of the activity with your district SCECH Sponsor if you wish to earn SCECH for these activities.

In regards to district-provided PD hours, there is no longer a cap of 30 district-provided PD hours per school year that may be used towards certificate renewal.  The cap was removed via a Waiver that was requested and approved by the Michigan Department of Education on June 20, 2014.

Semester hour credit may be taken an approved teacher preparation institution or any regionally accredited college/university in the United States. If you have an out-of-state college/university in mind, please check with our office to make sure that they are regionally accredited before committing to classes that you plan to use towards Professional Education certificate renewal credit.

Graduate or undergraduate level credit is acceptable.  Semester hour credit is accepted from a community college as long as it is a regionally accredited community college in the United States.

University/college on-line courses are acceptable as long as they are education-related, the credit will be issued in semester hour credits, and the credit will be issued on a transcript from a regionally accredited university/college in the United States.  Again, if you find an on-line course that you are interested in but do not know if they are regionally accredited, please contact our office.

On-line SCECH credit is acceptable as long as it is issued from a valid Michigan SCECH sponsor.   For a list of valid Michigan SCECH sponsors and approved program offerings, please visit the SCECH website at:  http://www.getmipd.com

Credit must be education-related and appropriate to the grade level and content endorsement(s) of your professional education certificate. Technology courses are acceptable.  General education courses are also acceptable; i.e., classroom management, diversity in the classroom, bullying, etc.

Keep in mind that all coursework/SCECH credit/district-provided professional development hours must be completed and credit/hours awarded before your renewal application may be processed. Once all credit/hours have been awarded, application for renewal is made through the Michigan Department of Education online certification application website at http://www.michigan.gov/moecs You will now make application for your renewal online, pay (via a credit or debit card) online and also print off your renewed certificate from your home/office printer.

The soonest you may apply to renew a Professional Education certificate is January 1st of the year the certificate is due to expire.

Please do not submit any college/university transcripts, SCECH documentation, or district-provided professional development forms to our office at any time.  You may hold on to this information for your records.  Should you ever be audited by our office after renewal, we would request those documents from you at that time.

Now that application/payment/printing of your certificate is done online, there is 1 day processing time.  However, again, all credit must be complete before you make application for your renewal.  The renewal fee is $160.

*State Board Continuing Education Units (SB-CEU’s) are now known as State Continuing Education Clock Hours (SCECH’s)
**Must be completed while employed in a public/charter school district.

—

the regulatory systems in place disincentive innovation.

it’s intense to fight the red tape.

– travis kalanick

—-

image credit: google images

64 responses »

  1. “1 semester hour equals 25 clock hours”
    Dare we contemplate how many clock hours of earnest, taxpayer funded meetings and e-mails the wonks who would otherwise not have a job that wrote this garbage took to come up with this?
    You are not alone. Here in the UK there is an organisation named the Plain English Campaign (motto: Fighting for Crystal Clear Communication since 1979). Though it is almost certainly a non-state funded body, national and local government as well as industry now uses its services and values its endorsement . As it has an international division (yes, isn’t life wonderful to know that there are folks that care) I will forward the gibberish to the organisation and maybe they will send the heavies round to the Michigan board of education to give them a talking to.
    Nihil desperandum though. Plain English even give out awards for the worst of this ordure. If you want to see the horse doo that other incontinent bureaucrats dump on the world, go to
    http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/campaigning/awards/2012-awards/golden-bull-awards.html after you have completed your SCECHS for the SCR and paid your $160 for the privilege.

    Liked by 2 people

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  3. Oh dear darling…I feel for you! I started to read and gave up! Reminds me of the marriage legalities ..I have to February to complete 5 hours and I’m already stressing. Good luck..one line at a time perhaps? I’m sure you will do it. ☺️

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  5. You’ve hit on one of my pet peeves here. In countless professions now, people have to take an exam in order to practice in it but, in truth, the studies do little to make them any better or worse in their job. Then there are the refresher papers you talk about here, which add more mindlessness to professional pomposity. The greatest training in teaching is to teach surely. A million years ago, I spent a year studying to become a qualified librarian, at great expense, and passed the course with some colours and was free to work in a library with the same skill as I had done before the course, but after wasting quite a lot of money Grrrrrr

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  7. Good luck! I know my husband and other teacher friends have to collect continuing education credit. He said in his district (here in NJ), he submits his hours to someone who sends it to the state, so fortunately, he doesn’t have to deal with the re-certification. He does have to deal with other educational gibberish though. . .and those “in-service” meetings. . .

    I couldn’t even get through those e-mails. Ridiculous!

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  9. What insanity. Nursing’s relicensing requirements are like this also. That there are even people paid to come up with this stuff is sad. The CEU hoop-jumping requirement is kind of a racket too.

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  10. OMG. That’s incredible Beth. Given that the purpose of writing is communication, it would be fair to say that is not even writing – it is just an accumulation of letters.

    Liked by 2 people

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  12. After the first few words “If you have been awarded State…..” I had severe brain damage. You poor thing Beth ! These instructions may be understandable if you smoked weed. The writer does ! 😉 ❤

    Liked by 1 person

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  13. This may need a course to get through the process. In the ‘old days’ in Ohio, I would go up to the board office of the school I was working in, ask for someone’s time and they would help interpret the paperwork. I had a professional license in elementary for years, ended up easily renewing, it was the switch from El Ed to Preschool Special Needs, an Early Intervention Specialist that was my career undoing. Oh well, I am sure you will find a way to get yours renewed and all will be well with the kinders and your life!

    Liked by 1 person

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  16. I have 300 hours of ESOL training and many other state required courses. This is on top of my Master’s Degree in English Language Arts. About a year ago, the state decided it wanted its teachers to have even more training or they could not renew their teaching certificates. As I’m retiring at the end of 2015-16, I decided that 12 years of teaching is enough.

    The gobbledygook sent to you is enough to give me a headache. Best wishes, Beth. It seems the state is really trying to do all it can to discourage those already in the profession. That’s sad.

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  21. OMG–my eyes glazed over while reading the first awful paragraph! What silliness. Sadly, they have the power to make people waste their time trying to figure it out. 😦

    Liked by 1 person

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  23. I just found out my professional certification institution has split off, so I now have two certifications for this cycle, but going forward I can only have so many overlapping credits and of course get to pay two cert fees. :/

    Liked by 1 person

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  32. I want to meet the person(s) who came up with this system……………INSANITY!!
    Its’ almost May. I hope you were able to find your way through the muck and mire
    and get the credits you so richly deserve!!!!!

    Liked by 1 person

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