Report A Legislators' Guide to Board Certification for Teachers

Introduction

The research is clear: teaching is the most important school-related factor that determines student success. Without an effective teacher, students fall behind; with a highly effective teacher, students can make significant gains. To meet our goals for every student to be ready for college and career after high school, legislators continuously work to improve the quality of teaching and to ensure every student has access to effective teachers.  

State budgets remain tight; state legislators continue to look for policies and practices that are wise investments. National Board certification for teachers is one approach many state legislators consider as a key strategy to strengthen teaching.

Other professions ensure a high-quality workforce through board certification, which sets the gold standard for excellence as the expectation for all practitioners. Those professions have each developed a coherent continuum that puts all beginners on the trajectory to board certification. National Board certification is designed to play the same role in anchoring a highly capable teaching workforce. 

State legislators want to be armed with reliable information to make the best decisions about limited state resources. This guide provides the latest information about National Board certification so legislators can determine if this is a tool that can help their state improve student achievement and educator effectiveness. Legislators will learn about the certification process, research on the program’s effectiveness, state policies to support and best use the program and examples of successful implementation.

Overview: The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and National Board Certification

In 1986, in response to the assessment of the quality of education in America in “A Nation at Risk,” a broad coalition of stakeholders came together to develop solutions that would strengthen education systems. Their report, “A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century” called for the formation of a national board as a key strategy for improving the quality of teaching. In 1987, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was founded.

The NBPTS’ mission is to advance the quality of teaching and learning by: 

• Maintaining high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. 
• Providing a national voluntary system to certify teachers who meet these standards. 
• Advocating related education reforms to integrate National Board certification in American education and to capitalize on the expertise of National Board Certified Teachers. 

The National Board worked with master teachers and other education experts to develop standards for accomplished teaching. Based on these standards, the National Board currently offers 25 different certificates across a variety of grade levels and subject areas. This voluntary, advanced certification does not replace teacher licensure awarded by the state. Instead, it complements licensure by offering a rigorous teacher credential that is recognized nationwide.  

Board certification consists of four components that collect standards-based evidence of accomplished teaching practice:  

1. Content Knowledge
2. Differentiation in Instruction
3. Teaching Practice and Learning Environment
4. Effective and Reflective Practitioner

Trained teachers in the candidate’s certificate area score the submitted components against professional teaching standards. 

In 2015, the National Board revisited the certification process, gathering feedback from National Board-certified teachers and others to learn what worked well and what needed to be improved. This led to a redesign of the certification process to make it more accessible, flexible and affordable. Teachers can complete the process over one to three years at a pace that fits their schedule. They can also pay as they go. The fee was reduced to $1,900, plus a $75 registration fee. Beginning in 2022, NBPTS expanded eligibility so that teachers can begin the process for certification while working to meet the requirement of three years of experience.

Once a candidate passes the assessments, the teacher becomes a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT). The certificate is valid for five years, when a teacher enters the Maintenance of Certification process.

Does it Work: What Does the Research Say? 

While many schools, districts and individual teachers attest to the positive impact of board certification, the NBPTS and education researchers have been eager to confirm and measure this success. Legislators, too, are curious about whether this is a wise investment, especially during these fiscally challenging times.  

After nearly 20 years of research, the picture is becoming clearer. Over the past decade, research from states across the country has showed that students taught by Board-certified teachers learn more than students taught by other teachers. Estimates of the increase in learning by students of NBCTs are an additional one to two months of instruction. The positive impact of having a National Board-certified teacher is even greater for minority and low-income students. 

Emerging research has also identified a number of other positive impacts of National Board-certified teachers. Evidence from Kentucky and Chicago finds that National Board certification is an effective signal of teacher quality across locales, test types, and subject areas. This research also found that National Board certification effectively “screens” applicants; in other words, that teachers who achieve National Board certification produce larger student gains when compared to teachers who pursue but do not achieve board certification. 

In San Francisco, a study found that students of novice teachers mentored by National Board-certified teachers had significantly higher achievement than students of novice teachers mentored by teachers without National Board certification. Additionally, a Washington study found that NBCTs are significantly more effective than non-NBCTs at facilitating students’ self-efficacy. 

National Board Meeting Challenges in Today’s Classroom

Today more than 133,000 teachers are National Board certified nationwide. National Board-certified teachers are teaching in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. These states have the highest percentage of Board-certified teachers: North Carolina (23%), Washington (20%), South Carolina (17%), Mississippi (15%), and Wyoming (12%). Nearly 50% of National Board-certified teachers nationwide are working in Title I eligible schools.  

More than 20,000 National Board-certified teachers are teaching math and science at the middle and high school level. Additionally, in order to achieve National Board certification for teaching in the elementary grades, for teaching students with disabilities, or for teaching English Language Learners, teachers must demonstrate the knowledge and skills to teach foundational math and science to students. Nearly 53,000 teachers have achieved National Board certification in these areas. Lastly, more than 5,000 teachers have achieved Board certification in career and technical education.  

Board-certified teachers are often leaders in their profession. According to a 2019 survey of National Board-certified teachers, more than 60% of NBCTs have worked or are currently working as a mentor for new teachers, over half have worked or are currently working as a cooperating teacher, 44% have been or are currently department chairs, and 30% have served in staff development roles. Board-certified teachers also serve as principals, superintendents, state government officials, state departments of education staff and college faculty. 

However, National Board-certified teachers only represent 3.9% of the teaching profession. In contrast, in medicine over 80% of physicians are board-certified. Medicine achieved this by building a professional continuum, where every step of a physician’s career from the first day of preparation is geared toward eventually reaching the highest level of accomplishment—board certification. Similarly, the National Board is working to anchor National Board certification in a professional career continuum that begins with strong teacher preparation, continues systematically through the novice phase, and leads to accomplished practice and the opportunity to serve in leadership roles. This structure is similar to how other high-performing countries prepare, develop and support their teachers.

The Professional Career Continuum for Teachers

Source: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

Policy Options for Legislators

For years, state policymakers have recognized the significance of National Board certification as a strategy to strengthen and support the teaching profession. Legislators want the best teachers in the classroom, and many see this as an effective way to get them there. Legislators can leverage National Board certification through three policy priorities:

• Build the pipeline to accomplished teaching and National Board certification.
• Raise teaching standards by investing in National Board certification.
• Spread the expertise of National Board-certified teachers.

Build a Teacher Pipeline

The current teacher pipeline struggles to support teachers to become excellent in their practice. National Board certification can help teachers, parents and policymakers define and determine teaching excellence. It also can provide a clear career trajectory for teachers to reach excellence, similar to doctors, architects and engineers. Board certification can be the gold standard to which new teachers aspire from the moment they enter the profession.

Legislators can consider the following policies related to Board certification to build a strong pipeline:

• Support beginning teachers by requiring a new teacher’s development to include a residency year with a reduced teaching load and intense supervision, and by expanding induction programs for novice teachers.
• Use National Board certification as a qualification or preference for clinical faculty at teacher preparation programs, cooperating teachers who work with student teachers, and mentors who work with novice teachers.

Invest in Board Certification

Thirty-four states currently encourage teachers to become National Board-certified by providing assistance with application fees and/or financial incentives for achieving certification. Mississippi, for example, offers a $6,000 annual salary increase for the life of certification, and Maryland offers a $10,000 salary increase and coverage of certification fees. Fifteen states offer additional salary to National Board-certified teachers working in high need schools as a way to attract accomplished teachers where they are needed most. California provides $25,000 to National Board-certified teachers working in high need schools in return for five years of service. Many states allow teachers to use National Board certification to achieve the highest or mastery level of state licensure, which often provides for additional salary.

These incentives have been effective. States with the most assistance, support and salary increases have the highest number of board-certified teachers. For example, North Carolina’s teachers receive a 12% salary increase for being National Board-certified and, as a result, approximately 23% of North Carolina’s teachers are Board certified. Washington provides over $5,000 annually and an additional $5,000 for those teaching in high-need schools, with 20% of teachers with National Board certification. In South Carolina, teachers receive a $5,000 stipend for the life of the license and, across the state, 17% of teachers are National Board-certified. Legislators in these states credit their aggressive approach to their success in ensuring that more students in their states have access to these accomplished, highly effective teachers.

State legislators who want to support National Board certification at the state level may wish to consider the following policies to support and encourage teachers to become National Board certified:

• Reward and retain accomplished teachers through differentiated pay by embedding compensation increases for National Board-certified teachers into the salary structure, or otherwise offer salary increases for the life of the certificate.
• Offer additional salary for National Board-certified teachers who serve in low-performing, hard-to-staff schools.
• Provide resources to help teachers with the cost of certification, including allocating state professional development funds for fee reimbursement, making federal funding available to support certification and creating loan programs to cover the cost of fees.
• Invest in support programs that provide candidates for National Board certification with mentors and cohort-based support groups.
• Strengthen the state licensure system by creating voluntary pathways for teachers who achieve and maintain an active National Board certificate to receive professional or advanced licenses and/or renew their licenses.
• Publicly recognize teachers and principals who achieve certification and provide leadership opportunities to leverage their knowledge and skills.
• Grant National Board-certified teachers who are licensed in other jurisdictions professional licenses without imposing additional conditions.

Spread the Expertise

One early concern with the program was that National Board-certified teachers often did not spread their expertise to less-effective colleagues and did not become leaders in their profession. The National Board has worked over the past few years to correct this effect by encouraging and preparing National Board-certified teachers to take positions of leadership and participate in policy development at the district and state levels. At the school level, teachers can spread their knowledge and skills to their colleagues and help develop the next cadre of accomplished practitioners. At the district and state level, National Board-certified teachers can transform isolated pockets of excellence into system-wide improvement.

State legislators who wish to spread the expertise of National Board-certified teachers can consider the following policies:

• Expand career lattices to include a variety of teacher leadership roles. Priority for these roles can go to National Board-certified teachers, with options for them to serve inside and outside of the classroom.
• Encourage and fund leadership development activities for National Board-certified teachers to build leadership knowledge and skills.
• Mobilize National Board-certified teachers to address state or district instructional priorities, such as the implementation of new student learning standards or new teacher effectiveness systems.
• Create or augment the role of professional standards boards to give educators decision-making authority on policies governing professional teaching practice. Board-certified teachers should serve as a majority of the members of professional standards boards.
• Create formal roles for teachers to serve in statewide leadership roles, for example as a Teacher Advisory Council. Set a preference for National Board-certified teachers when appointing teachers to such roles.

Note: Text formatted in Italics indicates the provision is in administrative rules/regulations, not in statute.

Examples of Success 

Putting teachers on the trajectory to National Board Certification earlier in their careers

Effective Sept. 19, 2022, the National Board modified its eligibility policy to allow teachers to begin the certification process before completing three years of successful teaching. While this change allows candidates to begin the process earlier, educators must complete three years of teaching employment to become National Board-certified. This will provide teachers the opportunity to accelerate their professional learning, anchor their teaching practice in the National Board’s standards for accomplished teaching, and become National Board-certified as early in their career as they believe they are capable of doing. A pilot in Kentucky, funded by a portion of the state’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund money, supports up to 100 Kentucky early career teachers to pursue National Board certification over two years.  

Growing National Board Certified Teachers in rural communities 

In the Permian Basin, a coalition of 19 leading energy companies, the Permian Strategic Partnership, is supporting the growth of National Board-certified teachers to get 5% of the teaching workforce to pursue Board certification.  

In Eastern New Mexico, teachers in six districts are plugging into remote support sessions facilitated by a statewide network.  
In West Texas two larger districts are working with an external provider offering virtual support sessions that the districts supplement with their activities.  

Increasing diversity through growing National Board-certified teachers of color 

The teaching workforce does not reflect the diversity of our student population in part because teachers of color exit the profession at disproportionately higher rates than white teachers. While many efforts at diversifying the profession are focused on recruiting teachers of color into the profession, a number of projects support current teachers of color to grow their practice and become National Board-certified.  

In Mississippi, the Technology Integration for Mississippi Educators project is designed to dramatically increase the number of NBCTs, including more National Board-certified teachers of color, and equip them with technology training.  In California, the California Teachers Association, the UCLA National Board Project, and the National Board Resource Center at Stanford have partnered to support cohorts of Black, Indigenous and people of color teachers committed to earning National Board certification and serving as teacher-leaders in their communities.  

Business Community Investing in National Board Certification

The Huntsville Committee of 100 in Alabama established the Raise Your Hand campaign to add 500 new National Board-certified Teachers to Huntsville area school systems. The business community has pledged to raise $1 million to support this initiative through its philanthropic arm, the Creative Cities Fund. The campaign is 66% to its fundraising goal and almost halfway to its goal of 500 new National Board-certified teachers.  

Acknowledgements 

NCSL is grateful to the staff at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards for their assistance and support of this publication. They provided resources and important, useful feedback to ensure the accuracy and transparency of this publication.