Credits for Teachers

Credits for Teachers (CFT) sells self-paced online professional development courses for K-12 teachers, with graduate credit transcripted through university partners. Its tagline says it "helps K-12 educators build their careers with flexible, high-quality online professional development", built around the teacher's own schedule. The reader is a working teacher who needs graduate credits for a salary lane change or a license renewal, or professional development hours for a district, and wants to earn them from home without a fixed class schedule.

The entry also sits in the continuing education category, because CFT offers a Continuing Education option without university credit alongside the graduate versions, and runs a Master of Education pathway with one of its partners. The home page claims 2,000+ teachers served, a 4.9-star rating on Google and "$70M+ In Teacher Salary Increases"; those are the company's own figures.

How a course works

A teacher registers and pays on the CFT site, and the FAQ says course materials are emailed within 24 hours, so work can start right away. Courses are 100% online and fully self-paced: there are no deadlines inside the window, and the teacher has up to 6 months from registration to complete and submit all assignments. Assignments are submitted through Schoology for most university partners; CSU Pueblo students submit by email.

Grading is done by CFT. The FAQ says to allow 10 to 14 business days for grading after submission, after which CFT issues a certificate of completion and sends the final grade to the university partner. The university then takes another 10 to 14 business days to post the grade, and the FAQ tells teachers to budget about 4 to 6 weeks in total from submission to a transcript they can order. The partners page gives a shorter estimate, up to 5 business days for grading, "often faster". The site says most teachers finish their first course in 4 to 6 weeks.

Course content is built around practical classroom strategies. Each course includes an implementation component in which the teacher applies, or plans to apply, the new strategy. A teacher does not need to be in the classroom to enroll: courses can be done over the summer or during a leave of absence, and in that case the implementation part asks how the strategy would be used in a future classroom. Preview syllabi are available for many courses, in the Adams State, UMass Global and Continuing Education versions and the Master's level CSU Pueblo versions.

The catalog

The shop page says 30+ courses are available. Topics named across the FAQ and home page include differentiation, classroom management, co-teaching, brain research and brain-based learning, growth mindset, reading comprehension, standards-based grading, safe learning environments, effective discipline and teaching English Language Learners. The ELL course covers lesson planning, vocabulary development and scaffolding so ELL students can work with grade-level content.

The home page features six courses, each "Starting at $199" for 3 graduate credits: Self-Care: Healthy Strategies for Excellence, aimed at avoiding teacher burnout; Communicating with Parents & Families; Growth Mindset in the Classroom; Love & Logic, on developing student responsibility; Building Relationships with Students; and Improve Motivation & Behavior With Classroom Structures.

Pricing and fees

The base price is the CFT registration fee: $199 for a 3-credit course, and the FAQ says a selection of courses is also offered as 1-credit options for $69. The Continuing Education option, without university credit, costs $199.

University fees depend on the partner, and the FAQ sets them out:

• Adams State University: $55 per credit, paid directly to the university.
• UMass Global: $70 per credit, paid directly to the university.
• Valley City State University: $50 per credit, included in the course fee.
• CSU Pueblo: $65 per credit, included, plus a separate course material fee.

Course materials are included in the registration fee for every partner except CSU Pueblo.

The refund terms are specific. Under the "No-Risk Guarantee", a teacher can cancel within 30 days of registration for a full 100% refund, as long as no work has been submitted; once any work is turned in, refunds end even inside the 30 days. Within the same 30 days a teacher can exchange a course for another at the same price with the same partner, or move to a different university partner, again only if no work has been submitted.

University partners and credits

CFT works with four universities, all described as regionally accredited: UMass Global (WASC Senior College and University Commission), and Valley City State University, Adams State University and Colorado State University Pueblo (all Higher Learning Commission). The site calls regional accreditation "the gold standard in U.S. higher education".

Registration differs by partner. For UMass Global, Adams State and CSU Pueblo, the teacher registers on the university's own site, usually before the end of the semester. For Valley City State, CFT handles the registration and grade submission, and VCSU emails transcript access within 2 to 4 business days.

A standard 3-credit course through Adams State or UMass Global equals 45 semester credit hours, or 45 PD units or seat hours. CSU Pueblo courses carry 115 credit hours for the same 3 semester credits, and they are the "Master's version": they count toward both a salary lane change and CSU Pueblo's online M.Ed. The FAQ notes that some districts count credit hours rather than semester credits, which can make the CSU Pueblo version more valuable.

The M.Ed. with CSU Pueblo is the only full degree on offer. The partners page lists a total program cost of $11,764 for 38 credits, studied remotely while teaching.

CE courses give a certificate of completion from CFT but no university transcript, and the FAQ says they are usually not accepted for salary lane changes and may or may not count for license renewal.

Tools and support

Free tools sit around the catalog: a 2-minute Salary Roadmap Quiz that places a teacher on a salary stage and suggests the next step, a Salary Calculator comparing lanes over a 25-year career, and a District Approval & Salary Scout tool that finds a district's salary schedule and drafts an HR email in under 30 seconds. A state requirements section covers every state. The partners page shows an illustrative chart of 25-year career earnings, from $1.93M with a BA alone to $2.55M at MA+90, which it says is based on real district salary schedules.

Support is by live chat, which the FAQ says runs 24/7, a contact form answered within 1 business day, and phone at (720) 619-1721 during business hours.

Who it suits

CFT suits a K-12 teacher who has checked with HR that graduate credits from one of the four partners count, and who wants the cheapest route to a lane change: $199 plus, for two of the partners, a per-credit university fee. The self-pacing and 6-month window suit a teacher fitting coursework around a school year. A teacher heading for a master's degree can start with CSU Pueblo courses and carry them into the M.Ed. A teacher who only needs PD hours can take the $199 CE option.

It suits less well a teacher in a hurry, since grading and transcript posting can take weeks, or one whose district accepts only specific providers. The FAQ itself advises confirming with the district before enrolling. Course creators and training teams are not the audience: this is a credit catalog, not a platform for building courses.