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/