Board Seeks Help in Updating National Standards

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) will soon begin updating the standards that establish what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do in several fields and it's looking for outstanding practicing teachers to help.

Nominations are now being accepted for members to serve on standards committees for the following areas:

• World Languages Other than English/Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood 
• World Languages Other than English/Early and Middle Childhood
• Early Adolescence/Math
• Adolescence and Young Adulthood/Math

Nominations for these committees can be sent by email to Mary Lease of the National Board. The deadline for submitting nominees is Jan. 31, 2008.

The now widely respected NBPTS standards are developed by a committee of outstanding educators who are broadly representative of accomplished professionals in their field. While the majority of each committee is made up of classroom teachers, other members may include experts in child development, teacher education and relevant disciplines. The committee provides recommendations to the National Board and advises those involved in developing the corresponding assessment.

Detailed information on what the National Board's standards are and how they are developed and maintained is available here on the NBPTS Web site.

Standards Committee Membership Duties:

• Committees are charged with the responsibility to evaluate the existing standards to determine whether the standards document offers an up-to-date representation of accomplished teaching in the field and what, if any, revision is warranted.
• The majority of the 8-12 member committees must be classroom teachers who spend at least half of their time working with students in the appropriate discipline and developmental level.
• Remaining members may be other educators with expertise in the teaching field, such as district and state staff developers and curriculum specialists, and college and university professors of education.
• Committees will reflect the nation's regional and ethnic diversity as well as the range of teaching contexts and professional views that exist about what constitutes accomplished teaching.
• Committees will meet for several weekend days in Washington, D.C. (travel, lodging, meals and an honorarium provided). There could be up to five meetings during the course of a year.
• Members will take part in online discussion boards between meetings to continue the work of updating the standards (stipend provided).
• The committee will respond to public comments on the committee's draft which will be released for that purpose prior to final approval by the NBPTS Board of Directors.

Committee Member Qualifications:

• Outstanding educator
• Comprehensive knowledge of subject matter
• Extensive knowledge and practical expertise of good teaching
• Current knowledge of research and of national, state, and local standards in the field
  Able to articulate the view of peers
• Positively impacts professional community
• Able to collaborate with others in both face-to-face and online environments.

NEA Sponsors National Board Certified Teacher Summits

Finding Ways To Raise Student Achievement with Accomplished Teachers  

One of the obstacles to raising student achievement is that not enough accomplished teachers—including National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs)—are working in low-performing, high-priority schools. While students in these schools clearly could benefit from the expertise of such teachers, the research shows that these high-needs schools tend to have more beginning teachers and teachers with less than full credentials—and significantly fewer NBCTs and other highly experienced and capable teachers.

What will it take to attract and retain NBCTs and other accomplished teachers in high-needs schools?

NEA set out with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) to address this issue by cosponsoring a series of state-level summits -- National Board Certified Teacher Summits -- to generate state-specific recommendations on supporting and staffing high-needs schools. The summits captured the voices of National Board Certified Teachers in conversations about school, district, and state education policies focused on meeting the needs of high-priority schools.

The series of state summits held in North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Washington, Wisconsin, and Mississippi culminated in the National Strategy Forum on Supporting and Staffing High-Needs Schools Oct. 4-5, 2007 in Asheville, NC. NEA and NBPTS are working with the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy to host the conference.

The October Forum was intended to initiate the development of a national strategy that focuses on what states need from the national level to support and staff high-needs schools. It brought together teams from the seven summit states, representatives from a number of national organizations, Congress persons and Congressional staff. A full report is expected by the end of October.

A paper- - Recruiting and Retaining Quality Teachers for High-Needs Schools: Insights from NBCT Summits and Other Policy Initiatives (PDF, 227KB, 23 pages )  -- served as the basis for the discussions at the National Strategy Forum.

The paper was prepared by the Center for Teaching Quality, which has been providing technical assistance to the joint NEA/NBPTS effort. It draws "on the best available empirical evidence, key case studies, and the insights from some of the nation's most accomplished teachers to suggest how we may build on the foundation of existing programs."

The paper also distills the ideas from most of the state-level summits (the Wisconsin and Mississippi reports were not yet available when it was written) into five broad recommendations.

State Summit Reports

Each Summit report, which offers concrete recommendations on ways to support excellent teaching in that state's most challenged schools, was distributed to policy makers all over the state. Here are the reports from Summits:

North Carolina

Every Child Deserves Our Best (February 2006) ( PDF, 1.21MB, 28pp)— Full report on the North Carolina Summit.

• Every Child Deserves Our Best (Summary)— Six main points and recommendations made at the North Carolina Summit.
  
  
• NCAE News Bulletin ( PDF, 758KB, 2 pp) (October 2005)— Report on the North Carolina Summit that summarized the ideas generated there. 

Oklahoma

Supporting and Staffing High-Needs Schools (March 2006)— Full report on the Oklahoma Summit.

Wisconsin

Top teachers explore solutions to biggest education issues (August 2006) -- Report with summaries of ideas and recommendations generated by participants of the Wisconsin Summit.

Ohio

Closing Achievement Gaps and Staffing High-Needs Schools (November 2006)— Full report with recommendations from the Ohio Summit.

South Carolina

Supporting and Staffing High-Needs Schools (February 2007)— Full report with recommendations from the South Carolina Summit.

Washington, Mississippi

(Reports not yet available)

Related Links

» A Shared Responsibility—Staffing All High-Poverty, Low-Performing Schools with Effective Teachers and Administrators (May 2005). This report addresses the range of interconnected conditions that cause the staffing gap. From the Learning First Alliance, a partnership of 11 national education organizations, including NEA.

The premise of the report: "We cannot solve the staffing problems simply by producing a greater number of teachers or by moving existing ones around.  Educators are not troops recruited and deployed by some centralized authority, but rather professionals who respond to opportunities for employment within national, state, and local labor markets. Our goal must be to abolish so-called 'hard-to-staff schools' by making today's high-poverty, low-performing schools the kinds of places where our best educators will want to work."

» Recruiting and Retaining National Board Certified Teachers in Hard-to-Staff, Low-Performing Schools—Silver Bullets or Smart Solutions (  PDF, 159KB, 13 pp) (May 2005). From the Center for Teaching Quality, a research-based advocacy organization.  

If you have questions about these National Board Certified Teacher Summits, e-mail Susan Carmon, NEA Teacher Quality department.

Every Child Deserves Our Best

Recommendations from North Carolina's National Board Certified Teachers

This report, published by NEA, the North Carolina Association of Educators, and the Center for Teacher Quality, is a provocative list of ideas and policy recommendations that came out of a day-long summit of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) from across North Carolina. The recommendations summarize the need for accomplished teachers, administrative and teacher leadership, and adequate resources to meet the learning needs of students.

Read the entire report,  Every Child Deserves Our Best  (PDF, 1 MB, 28 pgs ), or scan the main points below:

1. Ensure that all administrators will use the skills and knowledge of NBCTs and other accomplished teachers

Accomplished teachers cannot have a positive impact on any school unless they are given the latitude to use their expertise. We need to find more ways to have accomplished teachers work in partnership with administrators to solve teaching and learning problems.

2. Create opportunities for all teachers to teach effectively in high-needs schools

We already know some of what's needed to be effective in schools that serve high-needs populations -- smaller class sizes, better equipment (such as science lab supplies) and books, and curriculum and instructional supports.

On top of these basics, NBCTs and other accomplished teachers who work in high-needs school need to be able to use their own professional expertise as well as have access to new technologies and more time to work with their colleagues in analyzing student work, planning lessons, and building better relationships with students and families.

Recommendations: Give NBCTs and other accomplished teachers in high-needs schools the flexibility to use research-based practices that go beyond scripted curricula. Provide additional teacher-driven professional development in high-needs schools that addresses the needs of second language and other diverse learners. Provide protected, uninterrupted, common planning time of 7 hours per week per teacher so colleagues can share ideas, materials, activities, etc., by teams, subject areas, and grade levels.

3. Develop NBCTs as leaders for high-needs schools

NBCTs are proven teaching experts. “Going through the National Board process pushes teachers to think about their teaching and make better decisions for their students, but that does not automatically make them ready to be teacher leaders for a highneeds school.”

Allow NBCTs to serve as full-time mentors, coaches, or in other specified school leadership positions without losing their 12 percent salary incentive.

4. Create an array of incentives to attract NBCTs and other accomplished teachers to high-needs schools

if policy makers want to attract accomplished teachers to high-needs schools, they need to do more than offer financial incentives, which are necessary but not sufficient. More professional development, smaller class sizes, additional teaching assistants, and an array of financial perquisites should be put on the table. stigma of working in a low-performing school

that the incentives needed to recruit and retain a well-prepared 22-year-old novice to a high-needs school is not the same as the incentives required to attract and retain a 45-year-old National Board Certified Teacher or a 58-yearold retired teacher who could be lured back into service. A younger teacher may want a salary bonus while an older one may want to beef up his or her retirement package.

Among the recommendations: Create an array of incentives for different NBCTs and other accomplished teachers to consider in order to move to high-needs schools—including retention bonuses, relocation reimbursement, tuition-free advanced degrees at state universities, housing subsidies (mortgage reduction, teacher housing villages, etc.), state income tax credits, state university scholarships for children of recruited and retained teachers, and early retirement incentives (if teachers go to and stay in high-needs schools for at least five years).

5. Create the conditions to develop NBCTs inside of high-needs schools

North Carolina needs a specific program to grow and utilize NBCTs from within high-needs school communities.

Recommendation: Provide opportunities for new and/or underprepared (e.g., lateral entry) teachers to team-teach with NBCTs for their first year.

6. Build awareness among policy makers, practitioners, and the public about the importance of National Board Certification in the service of high-needs schools.

a comprehensive plan for North Carolina school districts that invests federal, state, and local dollars in the most effective strategies to address the problems. In addition, too few policy makers and local education leaders understand what NBCTs know and can do—both in determining how students need to be taught and in shaping policies and programs that will successfully recruit and retain good teachers for our most challenging teaching and learning environments

Recommendation: Expect each state-elected public official and/or lawmaker to spend time with NBCTs and other accomplished teachers, both in school settings and at the policy table.

NEA, AFT Offer Guide to National Board Certification Process

If you are considering becoming a candidate for National Board Certification, check out A Guide to Understanding National Board Certification - 2008 Candidacy Cycle (PDF, 3MB, 74 pages), a joint project of NEA and AFT (American Federation of Teachers).  This publication, intended to complement the materials provided by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, capitalizes on the experiences of those who have already earned this credential. It includes tips for staying organized, creating a schedule, understanding the National Board standards, assembling your portfolio, creating your videotapes, and documenting your accomplishments. The guide also includes exercises designed to help you practice the skills you will need to complete the National Board Certification Process. You also will find hints and advice from National Board Certified Teachers.

Covering the Cost of National Board Certification

NEA Member Benefits offers a low-cost loan program to help members cover the assessment fee for National Board Certification during 2006-2007.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards keeps an up-to-date list of scholarship and financial supports available to candidates on its Web site.

Company Funds Scholarships to Science Teachers Seeking NBC

Educators considering applying for National Board Certification (NBC) in middle school or high school science may be eligible for financial assistance from the GlaxoSmithKline Endowed Scholarship Fund. Scholarships will be awarded by December 31, 2007.

With the announcement of the fund that was launched with a $1 million endowment, GlaxoSmithKline joins the growing ranks of major corporations that are support high quality teaching through the National Board Certification program.

For more information about becoming a candidate for National Board Certification, including how to seek the GlaxoSmithKline scholarships and other financial assistance resources, visit the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Web site here .

NEA Members Offer Tips for Candidates

Several NEA members who have achieved National Board Certification have developed a set of tips about how to prepare for the Assessment Center portion of the process.  The Assessment Center portion consists of a full day of assessment exercises that are focused on content knowledge. There are six 30-minute prompts to validate that the knowledge and skills exhibited in the candidate's portfolio are, in fact, accurate reflections of what candidates know and can do. They also provide an opportunity to demonstrate knowledge and skills not sampled in the portfolio.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Web site is the definitive source of information about the National Board Certification process. Some key areas to visit:

• Candidate Resource Center -- for those just considering the process as well as those who are retake candidates
• NBPTS standards -- what constitutes accomplished teaching in every subject and for students at all stages of their development
• certificates -- classified by developmental level and subject area
• state or local incentives -- fee support, salary supplements, license portability, etc. to teachers seeking National Board Certification.

Certification Candidates Converse Online

There are a great many online discussion groups available to candidates who want to share with and learn from their fellow candidates. The following groups -- which are not sponsored or endorsed by NEA -- are organized by specific certificate area:

• EAYA Art (Secondary)
• EMC Art (Elem/Middle)
• Career and Technical Educational (CTE)
• Adol./Young Adult - English Language Arts
• Early Adolescence - English Language Arts
• English
• English New Language - ENL
• Exceptional Needs
• Florida Candidates and Mentors - NBPTS Florida
• Foreign Language - World Languages
• Early Adolescent Generalist
• Early Childhood Generalist
• Library Media
• Library Media (Education Place)
• MC GEN - NBC
• MC GEN - NBC II
• Middle Childhood/Gen
• AYA - Math
• Early Adol. Math
• Early Adolescent Math
• Music
• Physical Education
• Early Adolescent Science
• Adol/Adult Science
• AYA Social Studies
• Early Adol. Social Studies
• Vocational

NEA Resources

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Here are the answers to frequently asked questions about the National Board Certification program and process.

NEA, AFT Provide Guide to Certification Process for 2006-2007

A Candidate's Guide to National Board Certification 2006-2007 is designed to help candidates complete the National Board Certification process. This guide, a joint project of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, is intended to complement the materials provided by the National Board. It "capitalizes on the experiences of National Board Certified Teachers and others engaged in candidate support, sharing practical advice about how to approach the National Board's assessments and understand exactly what is required to successfully complete them."

Loans Available from Member Benefits

NEA Member Benefits offers a low-cost loan program to help members cover the assessment fee for National Board Certification.

Teacher Talk: Weighing In on National Board Certification

Seeking National Board Certification represents the highest form of professional development and its value can be found as much in the process as the outcome. As part of the assessment process, candidates must deconstruct and analyze their teaching, which helps them better assess their effectiveness in improving student learning. These same skills also help prepare NBCTs to mentor other teachers.

Here are stories from colleagues around the country who decided to take on this professional development challenge.

Meet Teachers Who Have Achieved Certification

Minnesota teacher Julie Hutcheson-Downwind chronicled her journey from novice teacher to NBCT.	"Colleagues look at board-certified teachers in new ways," says Kentucky's Rhonda Hale.	Barbara Grogg of Delaware describes the NBC process as more meaningful than her master's degree.
Tom White of Washington state enjoyed the challenges of National Board Certification.	Katherine Wright Knight of Arkansas advises those considering NBC: "Try it, you'll like it!"	National Board Certification was a pivotal point in the career of Colorado's Linda Edwards.

Advice From Others Who Have Achieved Certification

Here are tips from teachers who have gone through the NBC process —and lived to tell about it!

Research on National Board Certification

More than 150 studies, reports, and papers have been commissioned on the National Board Certification process, and more studies are underway. This growing body of research, which clearly demonstrates the impact of National Board Certification on teaching and learning, underscores the importance of NEA's support for National Board Certification.

Key Studies and the Findings

Details on all of the studies noted below are available in the Research section of the NBPTS Web site.

Appalachian State University (April 2005): This study found that NBCTs developed and implemented instructional plans and assignments aimed at fostering deeper student understanding, and students taught by NBCTs achieved deeper learning than students of non-board certified teachers. The study found a statistically significant difference between the depth of student learning of NBCTs and teachers who had attempted but did not achieve certification. The study examined the teaching practices of 64 teachers in 17 states. The study is mentioned in this NBPTS release.

CNA/Miami-Dade Research (November 2004): Miami-Dade math teachers who had achieved National Board Certification helped their students achieve larger testing gains than did colleagues who had not earned certification, even when other factors that could have resulted in high scores were taken into account. The study also found  that NBCTs are particularly effective with students with special needs, and provides some evidence that Black and Hispanic students may also receive extra benefits. Read the NBPTS release.

Arizona State University Study (September 2004): This study found that students taught by NBCTs in 14 Arizona school districts outperformed their school mates on a widely use standardized educational test. In addition, researchers found that the gains went beyond higher test scores, with learning gains equivalent on average to spending more than an extra month in school each year. Read the NBPTS release.

University of Washington/ Urban Institute (March 2004): An independent, multi-year study of more than 600,000 records of North Carolina students found that teachers who achieve National Board Certification do a measurably better job in the classroom. Students of NBCTs improved an average of 7 percent more on their year-end math and reading tests than students whose teachers attempted but failed to gain certification. This performance differential was most pronounced for younger and lower-income students whose gains were as high as 15 percent. Read the NBPTS release.

The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning (June 2002): A study of more than 500 NBCTs in California concluded that those who achieved certification believed they benefited personally (86 percent) and professionally (82 percent) from the process.

Education Resources Group (Fall 2001): In a national survey of certification candidates, teachers overwhelmingly reported that the process of National Board Certification helped them become better teachers and improved their interactions with students and parents. Some 96 percent rated the process as excellent, very good, or good professional development

Yankelovich Partners (February 2001): A survey of some 2,500 NBCTs found that nearly all of them share an overwhelming desire to be active outside of the classroom and to improve teaching and learning.

University of North Carolina at Greensboro (October 2000): This was the first comprehensive study to compare the teaching practices of NBCTs with other teachers, and to compare samples of student work from classrooms of the two groups of teachers. The findings: Teachers who have achieved NBC significantly outperform their peers who are not Board Certified on 11 of 13 key dimensions of teaching expertise.

Kids learn more from teachers
with National Board Certification

New research underscores the importance of NEA's support of and promotion of National Board Certification. The results of the first large-scale study of National Board Certification and student achievement shows that the NBPTS assessment process successfully identifies more effective teachers.

The study -- "Can Teacher Quality Be Effectively Assessed?" -- shows that students of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) improved on elementary math and reading tests more than pupils whose teachers did not achieve National Board Certification. The effects of NBCTs on students who were younger or low-income were even greater.

The researchers studied more than 600,000 student records from students in North Carolina schools and found that children learn more from National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs). 

National Board is identifying more effective teachers

"Our findings appear to confirm that NBPTS (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards) is in fact succeeding at identifying those teachers who are more effectively producing student learning gains," according to the study by Dan Goldhaber of the University of Washington and The Urban Institute, and Emily Anthony of The Urban Institute. 

The researchers said their study has important public policy implications. 

 "To begin with, this is the first large-scale student study that appears to confirm the NBPTS assessment process is effectively identifying those teachers who contribute to relatively larger student learning gains. 

"This finding is important both because it provides some indication of a positive return on the investment in NBPTS, and, on a more fundamental level, it demonstrates that it is actually possible to identify teacher effectiveness through NBPTS-type assessments."

The researchers measured the effectiveness of NBCTs by studying the annual test scores of North Carolina students in grades three, four and five from three academic years: 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99. 

National certification is 'gold standard' for teaching

Data for the project came from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, which has an accountability system that allows researchers to link student and teacher records over time. 

Goldhaber and Anthony were able to successfully link more than 600,000 student records in reading and math to individual teachers, thus yielding pre-test and post-test scores. 

"This independent research is welcome news and it confirms what we have always known:  National Board Certification is the gold standard in teaching and teachers who earn this distinction are among the most effective teachers in our classrooms today," says NBPTS Board Chair Roy E. Barnes.  "The study provides state and national policymakers with proof that National Board Certification is a smart investment."

For more information on this study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, visit the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Web site.

Background Facts on National Board Certification

National Board Certification (NBC) is an advanced teaching credential and a challenging professional development experience offered by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). NBC is a voluntary certification system based on high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.

Established in 1987, NBPTS is governed by a 63-member board of directors, a majority of which must be regularly engaged in classroom teaching. Twenty-six NEA members, including President Reg Weaver, Executive Committee Members Michael Marks and Becky Pringle, and National Teacher of the Year Betsy Rogers of Alabama, are now serving on the Board. Classroom teachers influence all aspects of the National Board's work, from standards setting to assessment development, including the scoring of all candidate performances.

Assessments Offer Unique Form of Professional Development

Achieving certification means successfully completing an innovative two-part assessment process which spans several months: a portfolio of materials to demonstrate how candidates' teaching meets National Board standards and an assessment center experience where candidates respond to computer prompts about subject matter and classroom situations, based on the standards developed for their field.

Teachers report that National Board assessments are challenging and time consuming, but provide a unique form of professional development that improves their teaching practice. Candidates analyze their teaching in relation to National Board standards and provide written reflections about the impact of their own teaching strategies on student learning. Many teachers describe National Board Certification as the most valuable professional development experience they have ever had.

States and districts are increasingly recognizing the unique professional development value of NBC and are providing incentives, supports, and recognition for teachers who seek it. Fee payment is key to encouraging teacher preparation, along with release time and mentoring and support during the process.

Various Kinds of Support Available to Candidates

Association leaders and staff recognize that National Board Certification is improving teaching practice, elevating the profession, and addressing members' professional development interests. NEA, as well as its state and local affiiates, offer significant support for candidates by way of grants, workshops, and materials.

Some state affiliates have secured supportive legislation that pays fees and provides release time to candidates. Others have organized Association networks and support groups to assist members who become candidates. Many local Associations are using the collective bargaining process to secure release time, fee payment, mentoring/assistance and salary recognition for teachers who participate in the NBC process.

NBPTS itself recognizes the importance of supporting educators who go through this rigorous assessment process. Its Web site highlights the support that locals and states are offering to prospective candidates.