Professional Development for Florida Teachers
High-quality, straightforward, and cost-effective online courses for Florida Teachers. Let us show you how we can help you improve your teaching effectiveness, maintain your teaching license, and advance your teaching career.
Florida Teacher Certificate Renewal
Florida teachers can utilize Model Teaching university-partnered courses to earn academic credit for their license renewal or salary advancement needs. All Model Teaching university-partnered courses provide graduate-level semester credit for license renewal or salary advancement purposes. You may choose any Model Teaching university-partnered courses of interest or enroll in our credit course bundle pack (including the 6-credit bundle). Model Teaching offers the most cost-effective way to earn credits, and hundreds of FL teachers use our courses every year to renew their teaching certificate.
What Are the Florida Certificate Renewal Requirements?
Florida Professional Certificates are valid for five (5) years. To renew, educators must submit the renewal application/fee and complete the equivalent of six (6) semester hours during the certificate’s validity period; this must include at least one (1) semester hour (or credit) in Teaching Students with Disabilities (SWD). Some educators also have one-time content add-ons inside their renewal: (a) certain certificate holders must complete 2 credits in reading grounded in the science of reading, and (b) those holding Educational Leadership must complete 1 credit in Florida’s leadership standards.
General License Terms:
- Teaching Certificate Term: 5 years
- Credits Required: 6 semester credits
Additional Requirements:
- Students with Disabilities (SWD): Complete 1 credit in the SWD content area. Model Teaching offers multiple courses to cover this requirement. See below.
- Reading (RDG) “science of reading”: Complete 2 credits in the content area “science of reading”. Model Teaching offers multiple courses to cover this content area.
Acceptable Credits for Florida Certificate Renewal:
FL accepts several types of continuing education and other activities/certifications in order to renew your Florida teaching certificate.
- Accredited Semester Credits: (grade C or better; letter grade required). (What We Recommend, See Below)
- Passing a Florida Subject Area Examination (SAE): in a coverage on your certificate (counts as 3 semester hours)
- National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS): A valid NBPTS certificate renews the corresponding Florida subject; the Exceptional Needs Specialist certificate also satisfies SWD credit.
- Teaching a college-level course at an acceptable institution: (credit may be accepted as equivalent to completing the course).
How Model Teaching Can Help
Model Teaching offers graduate-level courses and clock-hour PD that Florida educators commonly apply toward the required six semester hours. It’s straightforward to target the recurring SWD component within your 6 credits and, if applicable, choose courses aligned to the science-of-reading requirement (RDG).
How Our Courses Work
Quick FAQs
All Model Teaching university partners are regionally-accredited universities that offer our courses in partnership for graduate-level, academic, and/or post-baccalaureate credit. FL accepts Model Teaching credit courses to fulfill the full 6-credit requirement, including the SWD and reading requirements. Also, most states and school districts allow teachers to earn this type of credit as part of advancing in the salary scale. Please check with your district’s policies regarding continuing education for salary advancement prior to enrolling.
We recommend choosing any of our regionally-accredited university-partnered courses or course bundle packs. These courses are offered in partnership with regionally accredited universities and include an official transcript. Florida license renewal also requires completion of one credit in the content area of “Students With Disabilities”, and your renewal may also require courses on the science of reading. Several of our courses include this content area credit, as well as all of our University-Partnered Bundle Packs (See Below)
We highly recommend any of our Build Your Own Credit Bundles
The most cost-effective way to earn credits is by enrolling in one of our course bundle packs (see below).
Please refer to our course menu for a listing of graduate-level courses. Within each course page, you will have access to a syllabus that you may download.
Yes, all university-partnered graduate-level courses will include access to an official transcript from the university. This will include semester credits listed with letter grades. You may submit this transcript to the FL DOE to meet your renewal requirements.
We recommend you take one of the below Model Teaching courses from any of our University Partners to satisfy the SWD requirement:
We recommend you take one of the below Model Teaching courses from any of our University Partners to satisfy the Science of Reading requirement:
Our two university partners, UOP and VCSU, have provided pre-written letters for all current reading courses, ready to be sent to Florida for pre-approval, if you wish to seek it. You can download the letter for the university of your choice here:
UOP Reading Courses Verification Letter >
VCSU Reading Courses Verification Letter >
You can register for our 6-credit bundle and select these SWD or Reading courses in your bundle package in order to meet this requirement.
Salary Advancement Courses For Florida Teachers
Model Teaching partners with regionally-accredited universities across the country to provide graduate-level courses to thousands of K-12 teachers and educators every year. Generally, school districts across the country provide various salary scale advancement opportunities to teachers that often includes participation in graduate-level professional development. Our university-partnered, graduate-level courses are an excellent and cost-effective way for you to earn the continuing education academic credit you need.
