The Mississippi Department of Education is acquiring a new system to replace the current Educator Licensure Management System (ELMS).
The Mississippi Educator Career Continuum Archive (MECCA) System will serve as more than just an educator licensure application processing system. MECCA will be a customized cloud-based, all-in-one, single sign-on educator workforce information system that serves as a hub that captures the lifecycle of a Mississippi educator from recruitment to retirement. Particularly, the MECCA System will aid the MDE in efforts to supply fair solutions to local school districts and targeted supports to teachers and administrators on their journey to effective practice while ensuring the safety and welfare of the children in Mississippi schools.
MECCA will include four portals –
- Portal 1) Educator Preparation, Educator Licensure and Educator Misconduct Evaluations
- Portal 2) Educator Effectiveness (Professional Growth System (PGS) Training and Observation)
- Portal 3) Educator Talent
- Portal 4) Accreditation
PORTAL ONE: Educator Preparation, Educator Licensure and Educator Misconduct Evaluations
The Educator Preparation section of Portal One will serves as a means for educator preparation providers (EPPs) to recommend candidates for initial licensure. Candidates will be able to apply to the recommendation made by the institution in addition to applying for certain supplemental endorsements independent of the EPP and maintain the license in accordance with renewal requirements. EPPs will have the ability to submit required data needed for annual reporting directly into the MECCA system allowing the MDE to compile the information and produce reports more efficiently.
The Educator Licensure section of Portal One will include the submission and processing of licensure application requests; application tracking feature from the point of submission to completion; auto-issuance of certain license types that require no human touchpoint; development, dissemination, analysis, and reporting of relevant educator workforce survey data required by Federal Law/State Law/Board Policy or Public Records Requests.
The Educator Misconduct Evaluations section of Portal One will allow document submission with data reporting tool. Local districts and other organizations required to report alleged infractions will have the ability to submit certain documents necessary for reporting infractions as required by State Law and State Board of Education policy.
PORTAL TWO: Educator Effectiveness Portal
The Educator Effectiveness Professional Growth System (PGS) training and observation tool will include an embedded data collection and reporting tool/dashboard. This portal will also provide access to on-demand professional learning opportunities that can be assigned by the observer upon conclusion of the observation session. The professional learning opportunities are aligned to the PGS standards and allow for the engagement in MDE-approved professional development that targets areas for growth, or such professional learning can be self-selected by the educator at any time to be used for licensure renewal. An archive of observation records will be made available to the educator for accessing during subsequent years.
PORTAL THREE: Educator Talent Portal
The Educator Talent Portal will serve as a tool that will aid in targeted talent recruitment that will help the MDE Office of Teaching and Leading Team and Mississippi local school districts’ Human Resources staff transition from manual, reactive processes for recruiting prospective educators to an automated, streamlined process that will improve productivity and create a pathway for proactive recruitment for public school districts and other schools across the state. Prospective and practicing educators, local school districts, and educator preparation providers will be able to create profiles within the portal to market availability for employment, launch targeted recruitment campaigns, market educator preparation licensure-track programs, respectively, and so much more.
PORTAL FOUR: Accreditation Portal
The Local School District Accreditation Portal will serve the purpose of conducting virtual audits of certain accreditation standards that do not require a physical presence in the local school district. The portal will provide information related to years of experience for those educators serving in or have served in Mississippi school district(s) starting with the first year of the implementation of the MECCA System which will eliminate the requirement of having to submit the Verification of Experience form when applying for certain license types. An educator’s assigned schedule for any time served, i.e., current year or past year(s), will be captured and available during subsequent years; this information will be captured for current/past districts of service starting with implementation of MECCA System.
New Licensure System Launch and Temporary Shutdown of the Educator Licensure Management System (ELMS) Scheduled for January 2 – 16, 2023
Portal One, Educator Preparation, Educator Licensure and Educator Misconduct Evaluations, of the new MECCA system is projected to launch Jan. 17, 2023. This will require a complete shutdown of the Educator Licensure Management System (ELMS) for final user acceptance testing (UAT) and preparations to deploy Portal One of the new MECCA system. The complete shutdown of the ELMS system is scheduled to take place Jan. 2 – 16, 2023.
Completed licensure applications, which includes all supporting documentation required for the requested licensure category, submitted on or prior to Dec. 26, will be processed within ELMS. Licensure applications submitted between Dec. 27, 2022 and Jan. 1, 2023, will be migrated to Portal One of the new MECCA system and reviewed beginning Jan. 17, 2023.
Projected Launch Dates for Each Portal
- Portal One: Educator Preparation, Licensure, and Misconduct Evaluations Portal – Projected January 2023
- Portal Two: Educator Effectiveness (Professional Growth System (PGS) Training and Observation) – Projected Summer 2023
- Portal Three: Educator Talent Portal – Projected between Fall 2023 and Spring 2024
- Portal Four: Accreditation – Projected between Fall 2023 – Spring 2024
See memo here Memorandum – Launch of Phase One of New Educator Information System_Fin 112022.
Should you have question, please contact Dr. Cory Murphy at cmurphy@mdek12.org or Tamika Lipsey at tlipsey@mdek12.org.
Please communicate this very important information to ensure all education stakeholders are aware of the new system that is being developed and that there will be a temporary shutdown of the current licensure system between Jan. 2 – 16, 2023, in preparation for the launch of phase one of the new educator information system.