Renew a Professional license with 60 professional development points or two years of qualifying experience, recorded in TNCompass.
Tennessee counts professional development points (PDPs), and the number depends on which license you hold. To renew a Professional teacher license you earn 60 PDPs within the validity period. To renew a Practitioner license you earn 30 PDPs.
There is a second route most summaries leave out. Rule 0520-02-03-.03(9) lets a Professional license be renewed either by earning 60 qualifying PDPs within the validity period or by demonstrating two years of qualifying experience as an educator within that period. A teacher who has been in the classroom through the cycle may already satisfy renewal without counting a single hour.
PDPs must be earned during the validity period of the license being renewed, and educators enter their own into TNCompass, where district staff approve or deny them against state guidelines. Evaluation PDPs arrive automatically, but only once the rating is finalized, so check what is actually in TNCompass before you rely on it. Miss the deadline and the license expires, though a grace period runs until October 1 following expiration, provided the requirements themselves were completed before the period ended.
One clock hour of qualifying professional learning is one PDP. The activity has to develop content, pedagogical or pedagogical content knowledge, enhance educator effectiveness, or build competency in student social and emotional health and well-being.
One semester hour credit is 10 PDPs. A semester credit hour audited is 5 PDPs. Official transcripts are the documentation.
One micro-credential earned is 6 PDPs. One continuing education unit is 5 PDPs.
Initial certification is 30 PDPs. Renewal of that certification is 15 PDPs.
This is the part most Tennessee educators miss. An overall level of effectiveness rating from an approved Tennessee evaluation model earns points with nothing to submit - TDOE issues them automatically in TNCompass once the LOE is finalized, and points may be accrued annually. The timing is the catch.
TDOE names these specifically, and each one catches somebody out every cycle.
Your required 30 hours of in-service per contract year are not automatically PDPs, and they are not excluded either. TDOE: if the topic is related to improving educator effectiveness and is approved by your district, those in-service hours may be used for PDPs.
Professional teacher license: 60 PDPs, or two years of qualifying experience within the validity period. Practitioner teacher license: 30 PDPs on renewals after the first.
Start with your evaluation ratings, which TDOE issues automatically once the LOE is finalized, then add clock hours, coursework, micro-credentials, CEUs and National Board certification. Check TNCompass rather than assuming: evaluation PDPs must actually be present there to be accepted, and the most recent year may not have posted yet.
Educators submit their own PDPs. District staff approve or deny them against state guidelines, and where an educator is not staffed in a Tennessee public school at the time of application the department reviews them. Keep certificates and transcripts, or use TDOE's PDP Verification Form where no certificate exists.
If you miss it, the grace period runs until October 1 following expiration, but the requirements themselves must have been completed before the validity period ended.
Sixty professional development points to renew a Professional teacher license, and thirty to renew a Practitioner teacher license. The points must be earned during the validity period of the license being renewed.
Yes. Rule 0520-02-03-.03(9) allows renewal either by earning sixty qualifying professional development points within the validity period or by demonstrating two years of qualifying experience as an educator within that period.
Yes, and they need no documentation - but the timing matters. An overall level of effectiveness rating from an approved Tennessee model earns 20 PDPs for a score of 5, 15 for a 4 and 10 for a 3; at a priority or focus school a 5 earns 25 and a 4 earns 20. TDOE issues them automatically in TNCompass once the LOE is finalized, which sometimes does not happen until the fall after the completed school year. Educators whose license expires on Aug. 31 should not count on their last year of evaluation scores, and evaluation PDPs must be present in TNCompass to be accepted.
One clock hour of professional learning is 1 PDP. One semester hour credit is 10 PDPs, or 5 if audited. One continuing education unit is 5 PDPs. One micro-credential is 6 PDPs. National Board certification is 30 PDPs initially and 15 on renewal.
The license expires at the end of the validity period if renewal requirements are not met, but educators who fail to apply in time have a grace period until October 1 following expiration. An application in that window has to show the requirements themselves were completed before the validity period ended.
Yes. Select Tennessee and the system tracks progress toward 60 or 30 PDPs, applies the conversions, and keeps the certificates and transcripts you need when entering points in TNCompass. Because evaluation ratings earn PDPs here, the same platform that runs your observations and evaluations already holds the evidence behind part of the renewal.
Not in Tennessee? Find requirements for your state.
Evaluated in Tennessee? See how Tennessee teacher evaluation works, and how the evidence connects to the record you keep for renewal.
Part of EX in Education
PDP tracking is one part of how districts support educators. In EX in Education, it connects to the bigger picture: walkthroughs, coaching, evaluations, goals, PD, recognition, surveys, and retention. Bring your own process, or start from a template, then run it across every school so every educator moves from hired to thriving.