K-12 Staff Education and Certification

The K-12 staffing data, also known as the Registry for Educational Personnel, contain individual-level records on all education personnel for the academic years 2011-12 through 2018-19. While these data include information on employees from any educational entity in Michigan, the level of information recorded is not uniform for all employees. Private schools, for example, are able but not required to participate in the data collection. Additionally, for some positions (i.e. non-instructional) only a limited number of fields are required to be reported, regardless of the type of entity. These data are contained in nine datasets, which we categorize into the following three broad topical areas: Assignment, Employment, and Demographics; Education and Certifications; and Mobility. Note that some of these datasets could be used by researchers as a standalone product, but others should not due to differences in how and when districts record terminations and leaves of absence. We describe each of the datasets in more detail on its section page.

The education and certifications datasets contain information about staff members previous and ongoing education, certifications, and professional development activities. Information on specific institutions in which education and/or certification were received is limited to Michigan educational entities. Data from the 2003-2004 school year forward are available. Future year's school year data will be added on.

Endorsements

Highlights

Record Level: Staff by collection by certification 
Record Count: 5.7 million observations 
Years Covered: 2012-Present 
Population Coverage: Staff of Michigan K-12 educational institutions

The endorsement dataset covers the certificates, permits and approvals held by staff within the public K-12 system. These endorsements are classified into one of eight groups using the LICENSE_CATEGORY variable. These groups primarily identify teachers, nurses, psychologists, counselors, administrators and CTE instructors. Certificates are used within the State of Michigan to license teachers. Permits are the only exception to having a fully certified teacher in a classroom and are used by districts primarily with respect to substitute teachers. Approvals are very similar to permits but for special education teachers. Interested researchers should review our more detailed explanation of education credentials in Michigan.

Professional Development

Highlights

Record Level: Staff by year by certification 
Record Count: 6 million observations 
Years Covered: 2004-Present 
Population Coverage: Staff of Michigan K-12 educational institutitions

The Michigan Department of Education tracks staff professional development in two data systems (Michigan Online Educator Certification system (MOECS) and Registry of Educational Personnel (REP)). The professional development dataset combines information from these two systems. It contains information on the type of professional development, the duration of the training, and where the training took place. Unlike other datasets which are collected at the semester level, only the year in which the professional development (PD) took place is provided.

Districts are required to offer at least 5 days of PD per year (380.1527) whereas the teachers are required to participate in at least 150 hours of PD per year for certification purposes. Districts are required to offer additional hours to new teachers (in their first 3 years) (380.1526). All teachers, progressing from the Standard Certificate to the Professional Certificate, are required by law (380.1531) to take an approved course in the diagnosis and remediation of reading disabilities and differentiated instruction. The “year” is considered to begin on July 1 and end on June 30, coinciding with the school year.

Currently, there is no method to track all professional development that schools offer. They are only required to report parts of it, and in different places. Similarly, some teachers do more DPPD than is required, but do not enter it into the system because they have already met the requirements for certificate renewal/progression. Therefore, the professional development dataset does not provide the complete data. Educators enter their information directly into the MOECS system. Therefore, some misspellings are expected. When a college name is not spelled correctly or is abbreviated, the IPEDS code is also missing. Data for "DATE_COMPLETED" are reported only in MOECS and are not available in REP and so this field is not included in the PD data.

Professional development (provided to new teachers) that meets the following criteria may be used by teachers to renew or progress their teaching certificate:

• aligns with the requirements of Section 380.1526; and
• supports the educator’s development in the profession; and
• is above and beyond the professional development provided to ALL teachers under Section 380.1527; and
• earned university credit or SCECHs in accordance with the Education-related Professional Learning hours defined in Teacher Certification Code.

Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC)

Highlights

Record Level: Staff by MTTC examination 
Record Count: 1 million observations 
Years Covered: 1992-Present 
Population Coverage: MTTC test takers who had previously been assigned RPICs

The MTTC dataset holds teacher assessment history for the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC) from 1992-present. This is a test-level file with one observation for each time a teacher attempted an MTTC test. Specific data points include the date the test was taken, the scaled test score, whether a teacher passed the test, and the institutions to which the teacher had their scores sent. Tests began as a requirement with the passage of PA 282 of 1992 (MCL 380.1531). The basic skills examination was repealed with PA 233 of 2018 (MCL 380.1531).

Results from employed instructional staff, substitutes and some non-instructional staff and administrators are included. The State of Michigan receives data from the MTTC test contractor, Evaluation Systems Group of Pearson and maintains a comprehensive database of all MTTC test takers from February 1992 to present. However, the data herein do not cover that full population.