Ongoing Professional Development for Licensure Renewal: Has That Much Really Changed? 325professional growth plan. CEUs are earned in the context of the individual professional
growth plan. Renewal activities are evaluated by local education agencies to ensure their link
to school improvement plans and district professional development priorities (16 North
Carolina Administrative Code 06C .0307, effective 2006).
The North Carolina policies related to the development and licensure of school
administrators are largely consistent with best practice recommendations. Hence,
investigation of the licensure renewal practices of administrators in North Carolina can
provide important insights into the effectiveness of state policy development in this area.
METHODOLOGY
The question driving this qualitative study was: How do local school administrators
interpret and fulfill the requirements for certificate renewal after obtaining the full
administrator certificate? To answer the question, a semi-structured interview protocol was
developed (Seidman, 1991). The interview protocol had three parts. The first part contained
questions related to the respondent’s current licensure status, years as an administrator, and
years in his or her current administrative position. The second part of the protocol contained
questions related to professional development practices, especially those related to licensure
renewal. The final section of the protocol contained questions and probes specifically related
to the state licensure renewal policy.
The sample for this study included building-level administrators, the central office
director of human resources, and the associate or assistant superintendent in charge of
professional development in each of two districts. The ten building administrators were either
principals or assistant principals at either the elementary, middle, or high school level in one
of two local school districts from one geographic region of the state. The building-level
administrators ranged in experience from 1 to 24; years as local administrators, all but one of
the building-level administrators had been in their current position no more than two years.
The data were analyzed for the degree to which respondents understood the state licensure
policy or could describe experiencing procedures in their district that were consistent with the
licensure policy. District-level responses were analyzed to determine the degree of ownership
for the policy assumed by the local district, how policy compliance was monitored and
maintained, the degree of alignment of the policy, its implementation and other local efforts.
Findings and interpretations were then reviewed by the peer-reviewer who is also an
administrator in one of the target districts.
FINDINGS
The State Policy and Licensure Renewal
Overall, administrators know very little about the state licensure structure. Only one
administrator knew the name of his license. When asked what type of license they had, most
responded with their endorsement areas, “principal,” “C&I,” or “superintendent.” As one
principal noted: “I don’t know what kind of license I have. I had a permanent New York
license that I sent to the Board, and they got my [state] license for me.” Several asked if the
question was related to their graduate degree. In contrast to the name of the license,
administrators all knew when their current license was due to expire and how many years they
had left before the license had to be renewed.