PDP Certification

The Professional Development Plan (PDP) is NCATA's volunteer certificate program which encourages teacher assistants to further their training. The program tracks the training teacher assistants receive from community colleges, local districts and NCATA conferences and awards certificates based upon their progress at seven different levels.

PDP is a tool for NCATA members and non-members to use in order to reach their full potential as instructional assistants contributing to student achievement. PDP certification was used as teacher assistants worked to meet the regulations of the No Child Left Behind legislation, which required them to be "highly qualified" by the end of the 2005-2006 school year.

For more information, you can click on "download" below and print the PDP booklet or save it to your hard drive. You can also email the PDP Chair, Carolyn Hendricks, (chendricks AT teacherassistants.org) or NCATA's PDP Administrator, Joy Cole (jcole AT teacherassistants.org).

All downloads require Adobe® Reader®. To download Adobe® Reader®, please click here.

Success in a Nutshell: Keeping Your PDP Active

Once you have PDP certification, you must do 2 things to keep it active:
1) renew your NCATA membership annually and
2) renew your PDP certification every 5 years by submitting at least 64 hours of continuing education that you’ve had since your last certification.

The renewal fee is $45. You will be sent a letter from NCATA headquarters reminding you that it’s time to renew. You must complete a PDP application each time you renew or upgrade your PDP Certification. The membership application and PDP application are 2 different forms. You can find the PDP application below. Print the application to send in with your papers. The PDP booklet also contains a timeline, other helpful forms, and important information about the requirements for each level of certification.

The PDP committee reviews the PDP files 3 times/year – usually September, November & February. It is helpful to the committee to get your PDP files in early rather than waiting until the DECEMBER 31 deadline. Please read page 7 for the application instructions and check to be sure all papers you send in are signed (not a computer signature), dated, with course name, clock hours and your name on them. (Keep in mind that any college class counts for 16 contact hours per 1 semester hour, but using college hours requires a sealed official transcript.)

If your school system keeps a record of your continuing education hours, you may submit that printout – signed by your principal – rather than sending an individual “certification of credit” for each of those classes. This will help with the storage of the PDP files, so we are encouraging you to send this if at all possible.

Take time to print and read the PDP Booklet carefully before sending in your application! Your PDP certification is a great way to document your value to administrators, supervisors, and other educational professionals. Get started today!