PLTW Program Certification

Each high school program is eligible for individual certification. Programs that plan to offer three or more PLTW courses are eligible for certification and may begin the process at the end of the second year of implementation. The certification process includes a Self-Assessment, a site visit, and a final certification report.

Benefits of a Certified Program:

• Demonstrate to industry and post-secondary partners an investment in students and a commitment to student success beyond the classroom.
• Increase likelihood of a teacher from your school being selected as a Master Teacher. Benefits of being a Master Teacher include compensation for professional development and opportunities to field-test new curriculum prior to release.
• Increase potential to receive funding, in some states.
• Grow visibility for the program within the school and community through engaged partnership teams, co-curricular activities, and recognition of programs or schools.

Steps to Certification:

1. Meet or exceed requirements outlined in the Programs Requirements Guide, which include but not limited to:
   • All PLTW program courses offered are taught by teachers who have successfully completed PLTW Core Training sessions for each course they teach.
   • The PLTW classroom equipment and software complies with PLTW specifications as outlined in the Purchasing Manual.
   • All students enrolled in PLTW courses are also concurrently enrolled in appropriate grade level mathematics and science courses.
   • Students have been rostered and have taken End of Course (EoC) Assessments.
   • A Partnership Team supports and interacts with the program and meets on a regular basis with a specific agenda and goals.
   • At least one school counselor and one administrator have attended a PLTW Counselor.
   • An implementation and sustainability plan is in place for the program.
2. Complete the Self-Assessment.
   • Complete the PLTW Engineering Self-Assessment (Click here for the Microsoft Word version) and submit it to certification@pltw.org at least two months prior to the desired site visit date.
3. Schedule your site visit
   • Once you submit your Self-Assessment to PLTW, we provide your information to the appropriate state certification team, which then contacts the school to schedule a visit.

The state certification team reviews the following documents during the site visit. Forms do not need to be completed prior to the site visit.

Sample site visit documents:

• A copy of the completed Self-Assessment*
• Sample Site Visit Schedule
• A map of the school highlighting PLTW classrooms and teacher names*
• Copies of all teacher and counselor PLTW Core Training certifications*
• Engineering Notebook & Equipment Guide
• Engineering Site Visit Guide
• Software Reference Sheet 2014-2015
• Visit Reporting Document (checklist used by site visit team during its visit) (Click here for the Microsoft Word Version)