Tag Archives: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

* #teamNBCT: renewal

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As we come to the end of a week’s celebration of National Board Certification, how apt to consider the renewal process.  I have already renewed my certification once and look forward to another renewal opportunity in about 5 years.

Why should National Board Certified teachers renew their certification?  First, I would ask anyone to explain why they shouldn’t renew!  This certification is far more rigorous than at the state level.  It’s my hope that all educators and licensing agencies across the country would recognize the NB process as the ultimate professional achievement.

Why renew if you have retired from fulltime teaching?   I will renew because I am a lifelong learner and still have room to grow.  I owe it to my students, whether I’m teaching part-time or fulltime, to be the best teacher I can be.  If I should ever stop teaching, I will continue to share my experiences and support others; current National Board certification both validates and encourages my attempts to give back to the field of education.

This week’s reflection on National Board certification has helped me better appreciate the countless hours that others have poured into this endeavor.  To those with the vision, the determination, and the willingness to score all these portfolios- thank you for advancing our awesome profession!

* #teamNBCT: mentors

In honor of this week’s celebration of 112,000+ National Board Certified Teachers, I will focus on what NB certification, the gold standard for the teaching profession, has meant to me.

One of the most satisfying aspects of becoming certified has been the opportunity to mentor other teachers through the same process.  I found it interesting that I could mentor folks from general ed to PE to special ed.  In all cases, I was looking for those 5 core propositions and knowledge of the standards unique to their fields.  Sure, I had to keep referring to the standards, but what a privilege to walk alongside those marvelous teachers!

All candidates must videotape at least once for their portfolios, which made for fascinating viewing and analysis.  The cool part was that even those inevitable glitches did not spell doom.  In fact, if teachers can see where and how they “missed” something, it becomes an effective part of the NB process.  I would have been a little worried if someone didn’t catch the kid facing the wrong way throughout a lesson.  And that brings back a memory….

Years before my own certification, I used videotaping routinely to observe my own behavior and that of the kids.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t as eagle-eyed as I became during the National Board experience.  I remember a principal asking me to share a classroom video of my self-contained class with uncertain parents of a prospective student.

I pulled out a video (filmed with parents’ permission!) and we watched a 20 minute segment.  The couple who observed were reassured and entertained, but all I could see was a kiddo with his finger up his nose the ENTIRE lesson!  Yikes!  Somehow, that had escaped me, both during teaching and when I’d observed the video itself.

The bottom line is that all my mentees received NB certification.  And there were no kids with wayward fingers on their videotapes.

* #teamNBCT: professionals

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In honor of this week’s celebration of 112,000+ National Board Certified Teachers, I will focus on what NB certification, the gold standard for the teaching profession, has meant to me.

When I first heard about the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, I was a bit doubtful that it would impact the teaching profession.  I’d been around long enough to know that my salary didn’t reflect my graduate degree and experience, that I had no opportunity for advancement unless I became an administrator (heaven forbid!), and that I would work many more hours than a 9-to-5 profession.  And what did novice teachers face?  Exactly the same, if they actually stayed in the profession.

What could the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards offer?   It has helped reshape our profession into a Profession.  I couldn’t have imagined the effect of a certification process that is clearly associated with better student outcomes!  And salary!  And improved resources and support for novice teachers!  But not shorter working hours, at least for me.  That’s why my dearest teaching widower spent so many nights with me at school.  Even NB certification has not fixed that glitch in my approach to preparation.

I am particularly thrilled that NBCTs have impacted the performance of minority and low-income students.  Do we have miles to go before we rest?  Indeed.  I’ve written at length about the racially predictable test scores and low minority achievement which plagues our country.  (As we go brown and gray in the US, it won’t be minority achievement anymore.)  Our failure to teach ALL of our kids is dreadful.  How can we encourage blacks and Hispanics to enter the teaching profession?   The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards could reverse the current trend of fewer minority and male teachers with higher standards, higher salaries, and support for novice teachers.  I hope I am around to see that happen!

 

* #teamNBCT: effort

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In honor of this week’s celebration of 112,000+ National Board Certified Teachers, I will focus on what NB certification, the gold standard for the teaching profession, has meant to me.

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned the effort required to attain National Board certification.  It was seriously grueling, in part because I started the process in the second half of the school year.  Organized teachers start to prepare before the year even begins.  Even with a full year’s focus on the process, the effort required is daunting.

Is it worth the effort to become National Board Certified?  Oh yes!  The effort, and its consequent reward, comes first as teachers dive into the NBCT 5 core propositions:

Proposition 1: Teachers Are Committed to Students and Their Learning
Proposition 2: Teachers Know the Subjects They Teach and How to Teach Those
Subjects to Students
Proposition 3: Teachers Are Responsible for Managing and Monitoring Student Learning
Proposition 4: Teachers Think Systematically About Their Practice and Learn from Experience
Proposition 5: Teachers Are Members of Learning Communities.

Next, teachers explore and apply (and read and reread and analyze and reread) one of 25 unique standards for their certification area.  Here’s a link to the Exceptional Needs Standards.  It’s 79 pages of gold!  The bar is very high but well worth the effort.  It’s been a few years since I read this document, so this is a perfect opportunity for me to appraise my teaching compass.

The National Board certification process is a marathon of alignment, exploration, validation, and presentation.  I lived and breathed that process, discovering that I was solidly on track in many areas and relatively weak in others.  I applied considerable effort to understand the complex questions and develop portfolios to demonstrate my skills.  And there were glitches.  On steroids following a serious poison ivy encounter, I compulsively cleaned my classroom and threw away important documentation of my achievements.  In one portfolio, I realized I’d misunderstood the primary question only a few weeks before the submission deadline.  About that same time, I was waiting in my car when a dump truck plowed into me and the doctor advised me not to sit at a computer for a few weeks!   Crazy suggestion!

What reward was gained from my effort to organize and present my teaching skills, to incorporate new techniques, to analyze, to write, and to videotape?  My teaching advanced to a new level.  Seriously.  I felt both exhausted and exhilarated as I completed the process, like standing on a mountain top and surveying the complex and sometimes rocky path that led me there.

* #team NBCT: reflections

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In honor of this week’s celebration of 112,000+ National Board Certified Teachers, I will focus on what NB certification, the gold standard for the teaching profession, has meant to me.

It’s been 16 years since I was first National Board Certified as an Exceptional Needs Specialist.  I applied for certification in the 2nd year of that category’s availability, with only one other special ed teacher in my district having completed the process.  I had little idea what impact this certification would have upon my practice or how much effort would be required!

Why was it worth becoming National Board Certified?  I had started teaching in 1970 and much of my career had been reactive.  I was desperate for solutions, so I read, took classes, and experimented with approaches.  I participated in many leadership roles related to special education.  My kids made progress but I was always searching for that magic bullet, a perfect set of materials or scope and sequence.

What was missing in my practice?  REFLECTION.  In the busyness of teaching, I was assessing student performance but didn’t spend much time analyzing my teaching practices.  Sure, if I had a terrible-horrible-no good-day day, I would dissect every word and action.  But that wasn’t the daily norm for me.  During and after the NB process, I couldn’t and wouldn’t go back to that “disaster” style of analysis or a fruitless search for the perfect curriculum.  I now spend much more time thinking about where the kids and I are going and how my decisions impact student learning.  I’m processing information on a deeper level and encourage kids to do the same.

Did I enjoy that learning curve on reflection?  Honestly, it was a bit too steep for comfort, but I needed to be shoved out of my “routine” teaching.  The NBCT process changed my trajectory forever.  It’s delightful to reflect on my teaching practice and see how mindfulness is the new normal for me!

* What is National Board Certification?

NBPTSWhat is National Board Certification?  I’ve been asked what this process entails and what impact it has upon teaching.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was organized in 1983 to address “a rising tide of mediocrity” in education (see A Nation at Risk for the archived document).   The actual certification process began in 1993; the organization added special education certification in 1995.  National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) may qualify under 25 certification areas.  The following propositions are core beliefs of the National Boards organization and certification process.  They may sound rather simplistic, but I’ve written and edited hundreds of thousands of words about them!

  • Proposition 1: Teachers are committed to students and  their learning.
  • Proposition 2: Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.
  • Proposition 3: Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.
  • Proposition 4: Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.
  • Proposition 5: Teachers are members of learning communities.

In 2013, over 100,000 teachers in all 50 states were National Board Certified in at least one area.  There is only one special education certification, but it includes five specialty areas.  A candidate for certification must choose one of these:

  • Deaf/Hard of Hearing (birth to 21+ years). Teachers in this path work with students from birth to 21+ years of age with any degree of hearing loss, from mild unilateral to profound bilateral loss, in self-contained to home or generic education environments, and via multiple languages and communication modes.
  • Early Childhood (birth to 8 years). Teachers in this path work with students from birth to 8years of age with special needs. These teachers may serve families with children who have special needs in a family-centered approach to early intervention, children who are at risk for special needs, and children with a wide range of special needs.
  • Gifted and Talented (3 to 18+ years). Teachers in this path work with students with gifts and talents from 3 to 18+ years of age.
  • Mild/Moderate Disabilities (5 to 21+ years). Teachers in this path work with students from 5 to 21+ years of age with mild to moderate cognitive disabilities. The students served by these teachers may have learning disabilities, mild to moderate mental retardation, attention deficit disorders, developmental delays, autism, emotional disturbance, behavioral disorders, or health impairments.
  • Severe and Multiple Disabilities (5 to 21+ years). Teachers in this path work with students from 5 to 21+ years of age with a range of cognitive abilities, often accompanied by sensory, physical, emotional, and/or health impairments. The students served by these teachers may have severe or profound mental retardation, traumatic brain injury, uncontrolled
    seizure disorders, dual sensory impairments, autism, neurological impairments, physical impairments, and/or health impairments.
  • Visual Impairments (birth to 21+ years). Teachers in this path work with students from birth to 21+ years of age with visual impairment. The students served by these teachers may have low vision or severe to total visual impairment.

The certification process is extremely rigorous and challenging.  After being certified myself, I have mentored numerous teachers from a wide variety of certification areas, which has given me a decent overview of the process.  It takes almost a year to complete a portfolio, which includes videotapes and documented evidence of performance.  The portfolio is distributed to trained scorers around the nation; each section of the portfolio is reviewed by two or more scorers.  Finally, a teacher must take a comprehensive online assessment.  Teachers are notified of their scores in the fall of the next school year.  Some states provide financial support for the process; others may reward certified teachers with a bonus or salary increase.  Every ten years, NBCTs must renew their certification in order to continue as Board Certified.

The following information was copied from the NBPTS website:  Nationwide, nearly 50 percent of NBCTs work in high-poverty schools. They are also among the nation’s leaders in math and science. Since 2008, more than 30 percent of all winners of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching are NBCTs.  In 2008, a comprehensive meta-analysis of 11 studies conducted by the National Research Council concluded “the evidence is clear that National Board certification distinguishes more effective teachers from less effective teachers with respect to student achievement.”  Most recently, a 2012 study by Harvard University’s Strategic Data Project found that students of NBCTs in the Los Angeles Unified School District made learning gains equivalent to an additional two months of instruction in math and one month in English Language Arts.

I do believe the NB certification process promotes better teaching.  It requires much analysis of instruction, research-based practices, and self-reflection.  The process also requires significant stamina to complete while also teaching kids every day.