National Board Teacher Certification

Should You Consider National Board Certification?

With a discussion of the renewal of No Child Left Behind on the horizon and the growing movements toward elimination of tenure, it may be time to take a look at national board certification.

The National Board for Professional Teacher  Standards (NBPTS) is a nonprofit organization that was established in the 1980s to create a set of high standards for teachers.  They developed a rigorous assessment program that is comprised of four portfolio assessments including classroom videos of student work samples as well as a battery of written assessments.  At the present time, fewer than 10% of the teachers in this country are national board certified.

The cost of the program is very high.  There is $65 processing fee and a total assessment fee of $2500. Several states (North Carolina, Florida and others) have incentives and scholarships to help defray the costs of certification. In some states there are bonuses and salary increases for those candidates who successfully complete the assessment program.  There is also an option for graduate credit.

National Board Certification is valid for a period of ten years and is accepted in all 50 states. If you tend to move around the country, this certificate can reduce the red tape as you try to transfer a certificate from one state to another.

When evaluating your participation there are a number of issues to consider.

1)      Am I willing to invest the time (and money)? The total assessment program takes up to three years to complete.

2)      How will National Board Certification make me a more effective teacher?

3)       How will the students benefit from this?  You may wish to take a look at current research on this to see if there is a direct correlation to national certification and student performance on standardized tests.  I mention this since student test performance is one of the important criteria used in determining a school’s AYP under the No Child Left Behind Act.

As always, your comments are invited.  Please let us know if you have completed the assessment.  Has it been worthwhile? Are you students benefiting from your efforts?

For more information check out the website http://www.nbpts.org/

Michelle Rhee- Pariah or Messiah?

Who is Michelle Rhee? 

For those in teaching profession it is difficult not to have an opinion about Michelle Rhee.  There essentially is no middle ground. You are either fascinated by her zeal and her take charge persona to make a difference in our nation’s public schools or you are an avowed enemy, especially if you are in a teachers union. Ms. Rhee gained a great deal of national attention when she was appointed chancellor of Washington D.C. public schools in 2007.  This is a system that by my conjecture should be the best in the country- a model showcase in our nation’s capital.  Instead, DC schools are among the worst in the country on many fronts, dropout rate, school violence, as well as performance on standardized tests.  Rhee, a political appointee, vowed to close underperforming school, fired more than 200 teachers she deemed ineffective, and favored adopting a merit pay system tied to student performance on standardized tests.  Her three year tenure came to an end when Mayor Adam Fenty lost a primary bid for re-election.

Rhee’s educational background is not that of a professional educator. Her graduate degree from Harvard University' s Kennedy School of Government is in public policy.  Many teachers don’t believe that she truly understands the battles classroom teachers face on a daily basis. They consider her tactics to be heavy handed.  It is difficult to change an entrenched culture and make a major overhaul in public education without getting all of the constituent groups( particularly teachers) to buy into what you are doing.  Just ask New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  He has built his hard handed reputation by blaming the NJEA (teachers union) for the ills of the state’s public schools as well as the state’s pension fund shortfall.  He also tried to blame the union for New Jersey not receiving federal Race to the Top funding.  He is currently attempting to eliminate tenure among the state’s public school teachers ( This is an issue that can be debated at another time). Interestingly enough, Michelle Rhee showed up last week as a guest of honor on the dais as Christie gave his State of the State speech before the state legislature in Trenton. Additionally, recently sworn in Florida Governor Rick Scott has tapped Rhee to serve on his education transition team.

What else is Ms. Rhee up to?

Recently Michelle Rhee announced that she has established an organization, Students First. According to recent news reports she has raised over $1 million and obtained over 100,000 followers. Her ultimate goal is to raise $1 billion and use the funds to focus on the teaching profession and parent involvement in education.

Dr. Benjamin Rush, a physician in colonial Philadelphia and a signer of the Declaration of Independence wrote that he believed that America would only succeed as a democracy with an educated population.  The success of public education in this country and the direction in which it travels will require the involvement of all participants, administration, teachers, students and parents. Unfortunately, the  education of America’s children has become politicized and while no elected official ever states that he or she is against education, schools and teachers are perennial targets. Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch stated that “public schools cannot be reformed without public support.”

 ( Photo Credit- Iris Harris- US Dept. of Commerce)

Teaching Geography- Finding Your Way

Teaching Students Geography- Where in the world are we?

About forty years ago, I was teaching a middle school social studies class about Vietnam and the ongoing war. A few of them talked about being against it and several  students  were offering opinions about  whether the US  should be involved . I pulled down my trusty wall map of the world and held out my pointer and asked if any student could locate Vietnam on the map. Not one of them could.  Geography doesn’t get the classroom attention it should.  That is probably true for social studies in general as it is not a subject that is a component of many state assessment tests.  As a result students are woefully behind in the subject. With the advent of GPS devices and computer programs like MapQuest, students today don’t even need to know how to read a road map. They simply obtain the turn by turn directions or the voice in GPS tells them where to go.

The teaching of geography need not be boring. There are a number of excellent web sites with lesson plans, downloadable maps, and activity sheets for practically all grade levels. Here are a few suggestions.

National Geographic   (http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education)

Here you will find a wealth of information and materials for classroom use. Lessons are broken down by grade level and come complete with student objectives, a list of materials required and a link to the National Geography Standards. Take a look at the “most popular” link.( Hint-  it deals with the Middle East.)

Smithsonian- ( http://smithsonianeducation.org/educators)

This is another outstanding site that is filled with resources, lessons, plans and links to standards. Not just for geography only, this site also provides information for professional development for teachers.

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)www.education.noaa.gov

This government  agency web site , run by the US Department of Commerce has a great color photos and ideas  for teaching about weather, climate change, ecosystems, and a great deal more.

Rand McNally (www.randmcnally.com/edcuation).

Yes, the company that makes many of the maps in your classroom also has a web site for teachers. While this is a commercial site and wants you to purchase maps and such for your students, you can still obtain much useful information.

(photo credit- NOAA)

National Security and No Child Left Behind

No Child Left Behind Revisited

 The No Child Left Behind Act has been quite controversial to say the least. There has been a great deal of criticism from many fronts, not the least of which has come from teachers unions. Apparently there have been some unintended consequences occurring since the law’s enactment. An editorial that appeared in the Naples Daily News (Fl) on December 29, 2010, entitled,”Poor Education now poses threat to national security “noted that a five year study had been completed of 350,000 applicants who took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) in order to enlist in the United States Army. This series of tests measures basics skills in mathematics, reading and science. The results of this study indicated that 25% of those test takers failed the tests. All of the participants were high school graduates. The study also pointed to high rate of obesity in potential enlistees.

Because of the AYP requirements for school districts under the NCLB, classroom teachers are taking an inordinate amount of critical in class time teaching to state assessments, shortchanging students in other important academic preparations.  The editorial went on to indicate that this lack of preparation for the military could have national security repercussions in the near future.

It is foolish, to say the least , that a student’s performance on a single test, or an entire school for that that matter, should be a determining factor in a school districts’ success. This is an inherent flaw in NCLB. There are segments of the law that I agree with- especially the “highly qualified “provision. All teachers need to be competent in the subject(s) that they teach. We owe our children nothing less.

The Daily News editorial should be a sobering reminder that if we truly want to maintain a free and safe nation, we need to make certain that our children and all future generations of students are prepared to face the challenges that surely lie ahead.

Teaching About Martin Luther King

The Teachable Moment for Dr. Marin Luther King

January 17th, 2011 is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. The day is meant to commemorate the life and accomplishments of one of this country’s pre-eminent civil rights leaders. Born on January 15, 1929 King went on to become a minister and civil rights leader who worked tirelessly for the causes of equality and equal justice in the US. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

Martin Luther King Day represents a teachable moment on several fronts with ample cross- over activities for Black History Month as well as a look at the Civil Rights Movement in the US. There are also opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching units.

At the high school level, students can study King’s speeches, most notable of which is the “I have a Dream” speech. Students can discuss the effectiveness of the speech and devise a list of what makes an effective and memorable speech. The speech can be heard and played in the classroom by going to www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

In one high school in New Jersey, students were asked to research King’s quotes on the internet and discuss them in class. They then took their quotes to their art classes where they learned calligraphy and created posters of their quotes. These calligraphy quotes were posted throughout the school building.

One helpful web site that we recently came across is The Teachers Corner www.theteacherscorner.net).

Here you will find lesson plans, poster ideas, worksheets, printable crossword puzzles and much more that can be used to develop exciting lessons for MLK Day.

 To get a unique  prespective on Dr. King's life and  how he impacted the Civil Rights Movement, I recommend the award winning best seller "Walking with the Wind" by John  Lewis (c.1988  HArcourt, Brace Pub Co.). Lewis is a distinguished US congressman from Atlanta and marched with King across the infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.