Our nation suffers from 19th century thinking when it comes to preparing educators for the increasingly collaborative work of teaching and learning. Many outstanding programs have been established to push education forward, but short of a few largely for-profit corporate efforts to recognize educators using digital tools effectively; there remains no consistently recognized way for these leading educators to certify themselves as 21st Century professionals.

Leading Edge Certification is that certification. Created through an alliance of nonprofits, universities and educational agencies, the certification will provide five different roles over the course of five years.

Leading Edge is an internationally recognized certification program, created collaboratively by many stakeholder groups, managed by an alliance of these groups and shared freely across the globe. Certification and actual professional development is delivered by eligible alliance members.

Participating educators become “Leading Edge Certified” upon the program’s successful completion. The program would offer five certifications, launched over the course of the next five years, following the proposed schedule:

• Online Teacher (2011)
• Administrator (2012)
• Classroom Teacher* (2013)
• Teacher Librarian (2014)
• Leading Educator (Professional Developer) (~2015)

*Including face to face and blended (hyrbrid) learning environments

The project's development was supported through seed funding from several agencies, including: Computer-Using Educators, Orange County, Santa Clara, San Diego, Contra Costa and Alameda County Offices of Education, California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP), the Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership (TICAL) and Lesley University. 

The project's deployment phase is self-sustaining through certification registration fees and limited ongoing support from core alliance members. Computer-Using Educators acts as the fiscal agent for the program.