One of the purposes of the Certified AMS Teacher Program is to provide an incentive for the continued professional growth of the educator. In September 2003, the AMS Council approved the addition of a mandatory continuing professional development component for all of the Society’s certification programs to be administered by each program’s respective Boards. To maintain active status, CATs must log a total of 28 professional development points in an online portfolio during a five-year period, which must be submitted no later than the end of the fifth calendar year after the year in which the CAT received their certification or the fifth year after submission of their most recent portfolio. Once a portfolio is submitted, points are zeroed out and the next five year period begins. Each year no less than 5% of all portfolios submitted within the previous calendar year may be randomly selected for audit as a means of evaluating the program. Therefore, please be aware that submitting a portfolio more frequently than every five years may increase your chance of being audited.

Table of Activities with Point Values

The table provides a listing of professional development activities along with their point values. Each activity entered must have occurred within the last five years of your portfolio submission.

Enter your Professional Development Points Here (login page)

To access the tracking system to enter your points, login with the credentials you use for your membership online profile. Once you are in your account, click on 'view and edit' your certification. From there, you are able to add your professional development points. The system will save what you enter as you go along.

Submitting your Points

Once you have entered at least 28 professional development points, and are ready to submit them for review, you simply click on the 'submit' tab. After a successful submission — that is, one with a portfolio containing at least 28 PDS points accumulated in the past five years — a new, clear, portfolio will be initialized and the date for the five-year professional development period will be reset.

Audits

No less than 5% of the portfolios submitted each year will be objectively chosen to be audited as a means of evaluating the program. In addition, an audit of a CAT's portfolio may also be requested, with cause stated, by any member of the Society in writing to the Chair of the Commission on Education and Human Resources, who may summarily dismiss a frivolous request with notice and a statement of reasons to the individual making the request. Either of the audits described above will consist of requesting the audited CAT to provide documentation of his or her portfolio's contents, which will be reviewed by the Board Chair or board member designated by the chair.

Maintaining the list of acceptable continuing professional development activities

The list of recognized professional activities and their PDS values provided in the Table will be reviewed at least annually by the  Chair on Pre-College Education for its relevance to the normal activities of a CAT, and revisions will be made as appropriate. Any active CAT can send a request to the Board Chair to have a specific activity considered for inclusion on the list or for the PDS point value of an existing activity. Each such request will be vetted by the Board on Pre-College Education, who may seek external review and recommendation as it feels appropriate, and a decision on each suggested change will be made by majority vote of the Board.

Questions on professional development activities should be directed to [email protected].