National Board For Professional Teaching Standards Research Articles

A Model for Increasing Pre-Service Mathematics HBCU Teacher Effectiveness through National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)

This paper will present a model to increase pre-service mathematics teacher effectiveness with Differentiated Instruction and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) resources. This model can potentially advance knowledge in the field of Educator professional development by providing a model to create, train and support pre-service STEM teachers, content specialists and educational leaders. In addition to potentially impacting college/university teacher preparation, school districts and state/federal entities. This model can be replicated for other content areas.

Teachers Count in the Classroom and in Policy: Legislation, Rules, and Regulations as Pathways in Gifted Education

Policy is a powerful tool that guides many gifted education services and practices in states across the U.S. In addition to student services, policies can govern teacher preparation standards and qualifications for educators responsible for instructional delivery to academically talented learners. Essential to the process, institutions of higher education partner with states to provide standards-based endorsements for gifted education teachers. Arkansas, Iowa, and Kentucky serve as exemplars for enacting policies aimed at increasing the number of educators prepared to teach in the field of gifted education. Key features of their teacher education policies are summarized. In addition to formal teacher education policies, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) offers a certificate in Exceptional Needs: Gifted. The NBPTS pathway creates recognition for a national level of accomplished teaching practice in gifted education also found in state policy.

Transforming the Instructional Leadership Professional Development Landscape Utilizing National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) Resources

Transforming the Instructional Leadership Professional Development Landscape Utilizing National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) Resources

The Application of Early Childhood Professional Teaching Standards in the U.S.: A Comparative Study of a Preschool and an Elementary School Teacher

Although interpreting and applying the professional teaching standards is a complex and active cognitive process influenced by teachers’ knowledge and teaching context, there is a lack of in-depth research into how early childhood teachers’ cognition impacts the way teachers change their beliefs and practices. With a cognitive framework, this study focuses on a preschool teacher and an elementary school teacher’s changing beliefs and practices as they apply Early Childhood Generalist(EC-GEN) Standards during and after the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards(NBPTS) process. The findings from a qualitative comparative study suggest that EC-GEN Standards guided teachers to reflect on child-directed learning, personalized, more meaningful and intentional teaching. Additionally, there were several similarities and differences in how teachers make sense of the EC-GEN Standards by grade/age levels due to their different approaches to teaching. Implications for reinforcing teachers’ professional development and utilizing professional teaching standards as a linkage for Pre-K to grade 3 continuities are discussed.

NEW EVIDENCE ON NATIONAL BOARD CERTIFICATION AS A SIGNAL OF TEACHER QUALITY

Using longitudinal data from North Carolina that contains detailed identifiers, we estimate the effect of having a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) teacher on academic achievement. We identify the effects of an NBPTS teacher exploiting multiple sources of variation including traditional‐lagged achievement models, twin‐ and sibling‐fixed effects, and aggregate grade‐level variation. Our preferred estimates show that students taught by National Board certified teachers have higher math and reading scores by 0.04 and 0.01 of a standard deviation. We find that an NBPTS math teacher increases the present value of students' lifetime income by $48,000. (JEL I20, I21, J2444)

New Evidence on National Board Certification as a Signal of Teacher Quality

Using longitudinal data from North Carolina that contains detailed identifiers, we estimate the effect of having a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) teacher on academic achievement. We identify the effects of an NBPTS teacher exploiting multiple sources of variation including traditional‐lagged achievement models, twin‐ and sibling‐fixed effects, and aggregate grade‐level variation. Our preferred estimates show that students taught by National Board certified teachers have higher math and reading scores by 0.04 and 0.01 of a standard deviation. We find that an NBPTS math teacher increases the present value of students' lifetime income by $48,000.

Implications for educator preparation programs considering competency‐based education

Implications for educator preparation programs considering competency‐based education

National Board Certification and Teacher Effectiveness: Evidence From Washington State

ABSTRACTWe study the effectiveness of teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in Washington State, which has one of the largest populations of National Board-Certified Teachers (NBCTs) in the nation. Based on value-added models in math and reading, we find that NBPTS-certified teachers are about 0.01–0.05 student standard deviations more effective than non-NBCTS with similar levels of experience. Certification effects vary by subject, grade level, and certification type, with greater effects for middle school math certificates. We find mixed evidence that teachers who pass the assessment are more effective than those who fail, but that the underlying NBPTS assessment score predicts student achievement.

<p>Flexible and Job-Embedded Professional Development for In-Service Technology, Design, and Engineering Educators</p>

Technology, design, and engineering (TDE) education teachers have less access to quality professional development than other Science, Technology, and Mathematics (STEM) educators. To address this need, the Transforming Teaching through Implementing Inquiry (T2I2) project created an online professional development system for TDE secondary educators. The online professional learning experiences, defined by National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), reinforce and introduce instructional practices that promote student learning. For this study, two groups of teachers, selected from five states (Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia), completed the T2I2 curricular units and submitted artifacts/evidence of practice. Analysis of the artifacts, using the non-parametric Wilcoxon-signed-ranks Test, provides evidence that the teachers within the pilot studies demonstrated proficient abilities to manage, monitor, and adjust learning environments; contribute to a learning community; and increase their self-assessment following the completion of the curriculum. These results led the authors to suggest further use of the learning platform with in-service teachers in related STEM disciplines that face comparable pedagogical challenges.

Accomplished Teaching, Learning and Schools (ATLAS)

The Accomplished Teaching, Learning and Schools (ATLAS) database is a valuable teaching tool that takes some of the mystery out of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification process, and provides pre-service and novice in-service teachers with a repository of best practices to use as models while they develop their own teaching practices. The database was specifically designed for Colleges and Schools of Education in higher education, state departments of education, and school districts to support the professional development of pre-service and in-service teachers. The content of the database is dependent on the subscriber’s geographic location, but includes over 1,000 cases aligned to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and its Five Core Propositions and six other collections including edTPA, InTASC, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), TeachingWorks High-Leverage Practices, Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English Language Arts/Literacy and Math, Deeper Learning Competencies, and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. All cases include a 15 to 20 minute video of an accomplished teacher facilitating a lesson in his or her own classroom, written commentary analyzing the planning, instructional context, and effectiveness of the lesson, and additional background information and instructional materials to provide context for users to understand each case. All case materials were included in portfolios submitted by National Board Certified Teachers during their National Board candidacy. Despite its restrictive contract provisions, ATLAS’s content, intuitive user interface, powerful advanced search feature, and interactive tools make it a highly recommended resource for Colleges and Schools of Education within higher education, state departments of education, and K-12 school districts.

Performance Assessment of Teaching

Recent challenges concerning the quality of teachers and the programs that prepare them have resulted in responses from professional organizations that have been more widespread and intense than in the past (Robinson, 2011; Wiseman, 2012). The Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation (BRP) formed by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the merger of NCATE and Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) into Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) to improve teacher education (Cibulka, 2011), and the Teacher Performance Assessment Initiative which emerged from collaboration between the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT), the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) member institutions (Robinson, 2011) are examples of ways that professional organizations have responded to the challenges. In general, calls for performance assessments of teaching to provide both formative and summative information about the quality of teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher preparation programs pervade the current discourse on education at every level, including schools and districts, institutions of higher education, state and national policymaking entities, and professional organizations. As a result, a number of performance assessments have emerged that can provide feedback to teacher education programs about the strengths and weaknesses of their candidates as well as evidence for licensure and certification of teachers. For example, Education Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) was designed to provide information for program improvement through the use of a common set of performance assessments for preservice teachers and has also been adopted by states and districts for summative evaluation purposes (http://edtpa.aacte.org/). The multiple performance measures in systems like edTPA improve upon value added models (VAM) by providing information on teaching quality, not just teacher quality or teacher effectiveness, and provide information sooner than might be accomplished by use of VAM alone (Newton, 2010). For this theme issue, we invited research and conceptual articles related to teacher performance assessments specifically as they affect teacher education, including validation studies of measures used in the assessments. We posed a series of questions that we considered important for researchers to address related to performance assessments, including the following: What are the relationships between current performance assessments and teacher education, either conceptually or in terms of outcomes? What do we know about the use of performance assessments in the context of teacher education, and what do we need to know? How do performance assessments of teachers in schools map onto assessment of teacher education programs, or how don't they? What differences may exist across novice teachers and expert teachers with respect to performance assessment, and how does that impact their professional learning? What are the implications of the relationships between for-profit companies, university teacher education programs, researchers, states, and professional organizations with respect to performance assessments of teachers? What is the relationship between assessment criteria and the research on teaching and learning, and what are its implications for teacher education? How do states make decisions to move to statewide teacher assessment systems? What potential conflicts of interest may exist among various stakeholders in performance assessment efforts? How do policies related to performance assessment of teachers affect opportunities for teacher learning? What can we learn from the history of past efforts to evaluate beginning teachers? What is different this time? What do we know about the validity and reliability of performance assessments and why does this matter? …

Self-Organized Communities of Practice in Physical Education

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was created in 1987 with the purpose of establishing standards for instruction for K–12 teachers within the U.S. The NBPTS was tasked with identifying and certifying teachers who met their standards. In the current article, we theorize on the potential avenues by which the NBPTS is currently establishing a Community of Practice (CoP) through its certification process. We examine pertinent literature and the certification process to support our theorization. In order to achieve this aim, Complexity Theory and Communities of Practice Theory serve as a lens for the explanation of CoPs among National Board Certification Candidates.

The Impact of National Board Certification on Burnout Levels in Educators

Teacher retention has become a major issue facing policy makers as our nation's school-age population continues to grow while the teaching workforce continues to decline because of attrition and an aging workforce. Common reasons cited by teachers for leaving the profession can also be linked to burnout. This study examined burnout levels in a specific subset of teachers—those who achieved certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). The potential benefits to teachers who pursue NBPTS certification include professional pride, recognition of outstanding teaching practice, new leadership roles and responsibilities, and higher salaries (Shapiro 1995). Some of these potential rewards seem to address a number of the factors that are related to the onset of burnout, and therefore may not only alleviate burnout but also impact retention rates. The study found that National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) demonstrated significantly lower levels of burnout in two of its three dimensions.

Perspectives on decisions of researchers who examine the efficacy of the advanced certification system of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

Hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private funding have been spent to develop, research, and evaluate the assessment system of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). In an effort to determine if this has been money well spent, the U.S. Congress commissioned the National Research Council (NRC) to develop a framework that could be used to evaluate advanced-level certification of teachers. The framework (2008) was first applied in an evaluation of NBPTS. Drawing on the recommendations outlined in this framework, this article expands the discussion of the complex relationship between teachers’ NBC status and student outcomes by offering explanations of the contexts and logic for many of the research decisions that have been made.

The Cost Effectiveness of 22 Approaches for Raising Student Achievement

Review of cost-effectiveness studies suggests that rapid assessment is more cost effective with regard to student achievement than comprehensive school reform (CSR), cross-age tutoring, computer-assisted instruction, a longer school day, increases in teacher education, teacher experience or teacher salaries, summer school, more rigorous math classes, value-added teacher assessment, class size reduction, a 10% increase in per pupil expenditure, full-day kindergarten, Head Start (preschool), high-standards exit exams, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification, higher teacher licensure test scores, high-quality preschool, an additional school year, voucher programs, or charter schools. Limitations of the study are discussed and the findings are interpreted with regard to studies of the effect of performance feedback on student motivation and perceptions of control over academic outcomes.

The Cost-Effectiveness of NBPTS Teacher Certification

A cost-effectiveness analysis of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) program suggests that Board certification is less cost-effective than a range of alternative approaches for raising student achievement, including comprehensive school reform, class size reduction, a 10% increase in per pupil expenditure, the use of value-added statistical methods to identify effective teachers, and the implementation of systems where student performance in math and reading is rapidly assessed 2-5 times per week. The most cost-effective approach, rapid assessment, is three magnitudes as cost-effective as Board certification.

Dollars, Distinction, or Duty? The Meaning of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards for Teachers’ Work and Collegial Relations

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is the most prominent contemporary effort to professionalize teaching. Along with identifying exceptional teachers, the NBPTS seeks to alter teachers’ work by establishing a cadre of expert teachers capable of and obligated to leading school improvement efforts. This article reports findings from a mixed methods study of teachers’ responses to the NBPTS in four urban elementary schools. Drawing on institutional theory, the authors find that whether and how the NBPTS enters teachers’ work depends on the interplay of professional logics, district and state policy, occupational sentiments, and local school organization.

Increasing the Ranks of Excellent Teachers? State-Level Policies and the Rate of National Board Certification Among Teachers

Elementary and secondary students in America are increasingly outperformed by their international peers, as evidenced by abysmal graduation rates in some of the nation's largest school districts. Research demonstrates that teacher quality is a significant predictor of student achievement and that students of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) perform better on standardized tests than students of non-NBCTs. Understanding National Board Certification (NBC) is becoming ever more important as school reforms target teacher quality as a means to improving student performance. This research aims to understand state policies and incentives that aim to increase NBC rates.Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Education Week, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and Education Week, this research focuses on two research questions: Do NBC rates vary by state? And, if so, what are the determinants of NBC rates? Specifically, the paper investigates the impact of financial and non-financial supports and incentives outlined in state education department regulations and state laws, which influence the rate of NBCTs in states throughout the U.S. In addition to connecting and expanding upon existing research, the results contribute to the ongoing debate about the role of National Board Certification in school reform and our understanding of policy decision-making processes. We conclude with a discussion of the findings and their relevance for education policy.

Performing “Teacher”: A Case Study of a National Board Certified Teacher

In a longitudinal, cross-disciplinary study of teachers’ experiences with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification process in Georgia, discourse related to the notion of performance surfaced in the data in a variety of ways. A poststructural perspective suggests an explanation for how teacher performances are enabled and limited through what it means to be “teacher” in this society.

The effects of NBPTS‐certified teachers on student achievement

AbstractIn this study, we consider the efficacy of a relatively new and widely accepted certification system for teachers established by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). We utilize an extensive database covering the universe of teachers and students in Florida for a four‐year span to determine the relationship between NBPTS certification and the impact of teachers on student test scores from both low‐stakes and high‐stakes exams. Contrary to some previous studies, we find evidence that NBPTS certification provides a positive signal of a teacher's contribution to student achievement only in a few isolated cases. However, our results do reinforce evidence from previous research that the process of becoming NBPTS certified does not increase teacher productivity. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.