Tips for educators to meet the English Learner Professional Development requirement
All educators with elementary, math, science, social studies and English language arts endorsements are required to complete Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Education training or professional development (PD). This new requirement was adopted by the State Board of Education in June 2018. Below are some tips and reminders about how to ensure educators are meeting this requirement.
How to check if you need this professional development?
Educators can look at their current teaching license to check if they already meet the requirement. If an educator has either of the following endorsements on their teacher license, the educator is not required to complete the additional CLD training.
- CLD (or related, such as ESL) endorsement, or
- English Learner Professional Learning Designation Met=yes
If educators don’t have these two endorsements on their teaching license there are multiple pathways to meet this requirement.
For educators that already have some relevant PD completed
WIDA is offering six free self-paced, online eWorkshops through Monday, Aug. 31 that total 34 hours and are aligned to the CDE standards for CLD professional development. For more information about accessing this free PD opportunity, visit the Office of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education webpage.
For educators that don’t have any of the relevant PD completed
There are 21 programs approved by CDE offering 45 hours of the required PD around the state that educators can choose from. Additionally, 14 districts are approved to offer the full 45 hours of required PD to their educators. The list of these programs can be found on the Approved English Learner Professional Development Programs webpage.
For educators currently enrolled in a teacher preparation program or who have recently graduated
All approved educator preparation programs in Colorado must have the CLD standards in place by Spring 2020. Upon completion of an educator preparation program that has been verified by CDE to meet the new standards, educators will receive an Approved Program Verification (APV) form denoting that the educator has satisfied the new CLD requirement.
For detailed information on the requirement for educators, visit the EL PD Information for Educators webpage. A tutorial video is also available for educators about how to meet the requirements.
For questions or comments, contact Jennifer Simons at simons_j@cde.state.co.us or 303-866-6793.