Appendix D: Policy Categorization Methodology Differences from 2020 to 2025

The approach we used to categorize ongoing professional development and license renewal policies in this report shifted from our approach 2020 in several ways, and for several reasons.

First, in the 2020 tally, we counted policies that incorporated micro-credentials for any general professional learning in the ongoing professional learning category, because nearly all were for a non-specified topic. Even though much of the ongoing professional learning that micro-credentials were used for could also likely be used to satisfy license renewal requirements, states’ intentionality about their use for license renewal was murky, so we only counted policies in the license renewal category if the state specified the "exchange rate" for earned micro-credentials in its license renewal currency (e.g., one micro-credential = 10 professional learning points).

However, in the 2025 tally, we only counted policies that incorporated micro-credentials for professional learning on curated topics (e.g., the science of reading) in the ongoing professional learning category, because (a) many states are now leveraging micro-credentials for very specific professional learning goals in a way they were not in 2020; and (b) most states are now explicit about the ability to use micro-credentials to meet professional learning requirements for license renewal, even if they do not specify the license renewal currency equivalence, so these instances are counted in the license renewal category. The license renewal category now also includes states that explicitly allow LEAs to count micro-credentials for this purpose (since, in some states, LEAs determine what types of professional development their educators submit for license renewal). Appendix B provides a full definition of the curated professional development and license renewal policy categories, as well as examples of the types of policies that would be categorized in each in the 2025 tally.

Combining these two categories of state policies related to ongoing educator professional learning (whether general or specific, for license renewal credit or not) provides a more comparable state tally from 2020 to 2025. The “overall professional learning” subtotal is not equal to the sum of the “license renewal requirements” and “ongoing” categories because several states have policies in both categories—one in 2020 (Tennessee), and five in 2025 (Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, and Rhode Island).

For a more apples-to-apples comparison to the 2020 license renewal tally, the eight states that define a specific exchange rate for converting earned micro-credentials to the currency used in their license renewal policies (e.g., one micro-credential = five continuing education units) or otherwise explain how earning micro-credentials counts toward meeting relicensure requirements (e.g., one hour of professional learning = one professional learning credit) in the 2025 analysis are indicated with an asterisk (*) in the table in Appendix E.