Local Professional Development Committees are important legal entities through which educators govern their professional development for continuing licensure and practice in Ohio. OEA believes in, and strongly supports, the local professional development committee as integral to teaching quality, school improvement, and student success.

In early November 2009, TeacherMagazine.org held an online chat with Jim Burke, an English teacher at Burlingame High School in California and founder of the English Companion Ning, and Karl Fisch, director of technology at Arapahoe High School in Colorado, author of the blog The Fischbowl, and creator of the viral video, Did You Know?, which has been viewed by millions, to discuss the intersection of professional development and teacher social networking, and its role in teacher learning and career satisfaction.

Ohio Senate Bill 2 directed the Educator Standards Board (ESB) to define a master teacher in a manner that can be used uniformly by all districts and to adopt criteria to use in determining whether a person is a master teacher. Successful completion of the Master Teacher Portfolio is one requirement for both the Senior Professional abd Lead Professional licenses.