What is it?

At church this weekend I found myself explaining National Board Certification to a few people. I’m realizing that it’s not really a familiar thing outside the world of school. I thought I’d provide the family a cliff-notes  version here (okay, it’s not really a condensed version).

This is mostly from memory, so the facts might be approximate…

Sometime in the 80s, in the Reagan era, a report was published called “A Nation at Risk” which outlined how we were falling behind European and Asian countries in the quality of our schooling, especially in the areas of math and science. This was an impetus to try to improve the public education system by creating a “new” certification which would prove who the “master” teachers are, and give teachers something to strive towards. A private organization comprised of education experts formed a huge document which included the Professional Teaching Standards. This covered all the things you would expect an excellent and effective teacher to be. From this, they formed some assessements which would help to define whether a teacher met those standards or not. The structure of the standards are based on 5 Core Prepositions. They are shown below (yes, I did have to go find these):

	Proposition 1: Teachers are Committed to Students and Their Learning NBCTs are dedicated to making knowledge accessible to all students. They believe all students can learn. They treat students equitably. They recognize the individual differences that distinguish their students from one another and they take account for these differences in their practice. NBCTs understand how students develop and learn. They respect the cultural and family differences students bring to their classroom. They are concerned with their students’ self-concept, their motivation and the effects of learning on peer relationships. NBCTs are also concerned with the development of character and civic responsibility.
	Proposition 2: Teachers Know the Subjects They Teach and How to Teach Those Subjects to Students. NBCTs have mastery over the subject(s) they teach. They have a deep understanding of the history, structure and real-world applications of the subject. They have skill and experience in teaching it, and they are very familiar with the skills gaps and preconceptions students may bring to the subject. They are able to use diverse instructional strategies to teach for understanding.
	Proposition 3: Teachers are Responsible for Managing and Monitoring Student Learning. NBCTs deliver effective instruction. They move fluently through a range of instructional techniques, keeping students motivated, engaged and focused. They know how to engage students to ensure a disciplined learning environment, and how to organize instruction to meet instructional goals. NBCTs know how to assess the progress of individual students as well as the class as a whole. They use multiple methods for measuring student growth and understanding, and they can clearly explain student performance to parents.
	Proposition 4: Teachers Think Systematically about Their Practice and Learn from Experience. NBCTs model what it means to be an educated person – they read, they question, they create and they are willing to try new things. They are familiar with learning theories and instructional strategies and stay abreast of current issues in American education. They critically examine their practice on a regular basis to deepen knowledge, expand their repertoire of skills, and incorporate new findings into their practice.
	Proposition 5: Teachers are Members of Learning Communities. NBCTs collaborate with others to improve student learning. They are leaders and actively know how to seek and build partnerships with community groups and businesses. They work with other professionals on instructional policy, curriculum development and staff development. They can evaluate school progress and the allocation of resources in order to meet state and local education objectives. They know how to work collaboratively with parents to engage them productively in the work of the school.

The process of National Board Certification is basically a giant self-assessment to see if you are meeting these standards. You take video of your classroom teaching, document student growth and your involvement in the families and community. For me that meant creating two DVDs, a storyboard showing student artwork, writing about 100 pages and documenting my involvement in the community for the past 5 years with newspaper articles and other artifacts.

In our school district the administration thought that if they could encourage more teachers to go through this process, teaching would be improved, and the teachers who are already doing these things would be rewarded. In our most recent contract they placed NBCTs at the same spot on the payscale as teachers who hold PhD.degrees. Very few teaches get doctorate degrees because they aren’t very practical and are mostly based on research and theory. The NB Certification is much more suited to a classroom teacher’s professional practice.

For at least 3 years, this opportunity exists in our teacher contract allowing teachers to achieve the highest education level on the pay scale by completing National Board Certification. Our superintendent told me that he’d like 30% of the district teachers to be NBCT. Currently it’s less than 1%.

However, with this incentive, over 100 teachers in our district went through the process this year. I am not sure how many have passed, but they say that it is usually about 40%. I’m curious to know whether it will be higher than that in our district.

As for my experience with the process: I found it to be fairly straightforward and logical. When I had finished my writing, I checked it against the rubrics that were provided and I was able to get a realistic sense of where I stood. When I received my scores, I was where I had expected that I would be, but the wait for that feedback was brutally long.

The 4 entries covered four different art teacher- specific tasks:

A portrait of teaching over time- proving that you plan curriculum so that student grow and progress, and that you individually monitor student progress to help them to grow as individuals

Learning about making art- an entry in which you show how you organize your classroom, communicate with students and assess student progress to make sure that they have equal opportunities to learn.

Learning to study, interpret and evaluate art- an entry where you show your ability lead a discussion with students in which they interact with the artwork in a more interpretive fashion, decoding the visual information they see

Documenting accomplishments- showing how you have been involved outside the classroom to impact student learning through collaboration with peers, families and the community.

Examination- This was a written test in which you respond to questions and images related to art history and aesthetics, it also required that you bring a piece of artwork created with materials that were mailed to you, and describe your creative process.

To pass you needed to get a total score of 275 out of 400. I scored a 336. My strongest section of the assessment was the written examination, in which I had to show my knowledge of art history, aesthetics and my understanding of the art-making process. That was done in a testing center and meant typing for about 4 hours straight.

Personally, I think a great number of teachers in my school are already, naturally, doing all the things held in this certification. I think many effective and hard-working teachers may never go through this process because it may take them away from what they love doing, teaching and being with their families.

As for me, I’m thrilled to have it finished in one year, so I can focus on building a web site (currently under construction) for the art department and prepare to teach the new courses we have added to our curriculum, art history and  film/ new media. In the current economic downturn our district is facing sizeable deficits because of the devaluation of properties, and if the art department wants to survive and thrive, we will need to attract record numbers of students. That’s what I’m focused on working on right now.