Study Sheds New Light on Board Certification. Some of the best
and brightest teachers further their careers and broaden their
skills by pursuing certification from the National Board of Professional
Teaching Standards.
A recent study by UW-Madison Education Professor Carolyn Kelley
and doctoral student Steven Kimball found that the Board certification
process had a significant beneficial effect. Teachers achieving
Board certification gained confidence in their teaching abilities,
honed teaching skills, and gained significant opportunities for
exercising leadership in their districts, states, and the profession.
The study also found, however, that the effects of Board certification
have not yet had a major influence on the broader professional
school community. Conducted by WCER's Consortium for Policy Research
in Education (CPRE), the study examined the effects of Board certification
on teacher, school, and district functioning and examined the
effects of linking pay to Board certification.
The sites researched in Kelley and Kimball's study included two urban districts with an average of 47,000 students, a rural district enrolling about 900 students, a small city district with about 8,500 students, and a small town district with about 2,000 students. Kelley notes that, as in any qualitative study of this nature, the findings are not generalizable beyond the population studied. However, the information can provide insight into the process and experiences of these teachers and districts and can provide information to ground future work.
A New Paradigm for the last 50 years the single-salary schedule
has been the bedrock of the teacher compensation system, Kelley
says. This system rewards teachers for years of experience and
the accumulation of credits and degrees. But policymakers are
now looking for ways to better link the salary schedule to the
development of the specific knowledge and skills needed to achieve
educational goals and quality teaching as defined by the district,
the state, and/or the profession.
The CPRE study examined the growing practice of knowledge- and
skill-based pay (KSBP) and, in particular, the most common knowledge-
and skill-based pay innovation, pay bonuses for teachers certified
by the NBPTS. Kelley says two factors make KSBP powerful:
1. Its focus on teacher quality highlights the importance of better using available resources, such as pay, to focus and enhance teacher learning throughout the teaching career.
2. The development of the NBPTS, the work of the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), the Praxis assessment series, and the Charlotte Danielson Framework rubrics (1996) have produced widely accepted measures of teacher performance that are being used as the foundation for a pay system linked to teacher knowledge and skills. In theory, KSBP contributes to the improvement of student learning directly by enhancing teacher knowledge and skills. It contributes indirectly by creating a shared vision of the effective instruction that focuses and shapes teacher professional development and by promoting professional learning communities within schools, in which teachers can share knowledge, skills, and problems of practice.
Incentives for Participating
The CPRE study found that many teachers sought Board certification because they wanted to affirm or confirm that they were accomplished teachers. Others spoke of certification as a personal challenge and a next step after pursuing a master's degree a form of professional growth and development. Candidates also spoke about the desire for career advancement within teaching and opening doors for careers in administrative or leadership.
Most of the teachers mentioned that a combination of factors led them to pursue certification. The use of monetary awards by states and districts appears to be having substantial effects in attracting teachers to consider pursuing Board Certification. Monetary awards signal policymaker and administrator support. As examples, Wisconsin offers a $500 one-time bonus, Idaho offers a salary supplement of $2,000 per year over five years, Louisiana offers a $5,000 annual increase over ten years, and Nevada offers a one-time 5 percent salary increase. Kelley says further research is needed to understand the effects of monetary incentives on Board certification beyond the five districts studied. Currently, 30 states and a large number of districts attach salary incentives to Board certification.
Benefits of Participating
The study revealed general agreement among principals and Board-certified teachers that the certification process is beneficial. An official in one of the urban districts studied asserted that "every one of those hurdles has real application later, and that's a big difference between just getting a certificate or a degree (and getting National Board certification)." Teachers said the NBPTS certification process helped their practice and caused them to reflect more deeply into their instructional strategies and student learning. Although it was difficult for the teachers and principals to quantify improvements in student achievement linked to certification, there were indications that these teachers were some of the best in their school and that their students performed well. According to one principal, "It would stand to reason that when a teacher is better able to meet the needs of students in that classroom, those students are going to be able to excel. (The NBC teacher) does that. She meets the needs of her kids." The certification process helped teachers to be more purposive. Teachers were confident and competent in their abilities before they attempted Board certification and strengthened these attributes through successful completion.
Implications for Professional Community
In theory, when a school has a critical mass of Board certified teachers, these teachers begin to assume leadership roles in the development of evaluation systems, professional development opportunities, and other aspects of human resource management. Board certification can begin to penetrate organizational goals and contribute to teacher collaboration and professional discussion. But in the districts Kelley and Kimball studied, even those with relatively large numbers of Board certified teachers, the effects of Board certification were largely limited to the classrooms of the Board certified teachers.
In four of the five districts studied, Board certification had not yet penetrated schools' internal accountability systems or deeply affected the broader professional school community. Kelley says maybe that's because NBPTS certification is externally defined by the profession. It may take more time, and more Board certified teachers taking on leadership positions in schools and districts, to have an effect on the individual school organization. The study found that Board certification is likely to have a broader impact on noncertified teachers when district administrators embrace Board certification goals and when teachers have access to a variety of challenging, excellent individual professional development opportunities.
Teachers in this study considered their engagement in activities outside the classroom (for example, participating in district, state, and national committees) both as a valued opportunity and as a responsibility. Districts that strongly support Board certification were more likely to use certification as a key factor in selecting teachers for leadership positions in the district. Although collegial interaction in the process of Board certification and following certification was not very evident at the schools in this study, certified teachers do appear to be connecting with other certified teachers through professional networks and with district and state officials. Board certified teachers had significant ongoing professional connections outside the school or district that they attributed to the certification process.
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Funding for this study was provided by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.
For more information visit the WCER's CPRE web site at
<http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/cpre/teachercomp/tchrcomp/teachercomp.HTM or contact
Carolyn Kelley at Kelley@education.wisc.edu.
Sidebar: About the NBPTS
The NBPTS is a teacher-led national standards board whose goal is to advance the profession by defining, assessing, and shaping teaching excellence. NBPTS focuses on standards and assessments. Based on the standards established for each teaching specialization, teachers pursuing Board certification demonstrate their knowledge and skills through a portfolio of performance-based activities, including documentation of student work, reflective writing, videotapes, and analysis of classroom teaching and student learning. Assessment is carried out through review of submitted portfolios and written performance on assessment center exercises.
Susan Carmon, Senior Policy Analyst
(202) 822-7914
(202) 822-7482 (fax)