Retake Procedures

You may retake each portfolio entry or assessment center exercise on which you received a score of less than 2.75 up to 2 times during the 24 month period that your scores are banked, beginning from initial score notification. You will have an opportunity to retake once each 12 months. Keep in mind that each time a portfolio entry or assessment center exercise is retaken and a response is submitted for scoring, the retake score will always replace the previous or original score. You will also need to pay the required retake fee each time you elect to retake and meet all deadlines in order to receive a new score.

All first-time candidates may continue to attempt certification for a period not to exceed 24 months from the date of their initial score report as a first-time candidate.

No. To ensure an equitable assessment experience for all candidates, extensions of a candidate's eligibility period or submission deadlines are not granted.

The retake fee is $350 per entry or exercise.  Retake fees are nonrefundable, regardless of the circumstances. There is also a nonrefundable $15 application processing charge which is due at the time the retake application is submitted online.

You may choose to retake any individual portfolio entry or assessment center exercise on which you received a score of less than 2.75. You are not permitted to retake any portfolio entry or assessment center exercise on which you met or exceeded a score of 2.75. If you plan to retake more than 7 entries/exercises this year, you may want to consider applying to repeat the National Board Certification assessment in its entirety. Reapplying and taking the assessment from the beginning, rather than taking 8, 9, or 10 entries/exercises this year, will reduce your overall fee. However, you should be aware that if you repeat the assessment process, the scores you received in your previous efforts would not be retained (banked). Candidates who apply to repeat the entire assessment are considered first-time candidates with no banked score data. If you are planning to retake 7 or fewer entries/exercises, your overall fee will be lower than the cost to repeat the entire National Board Certification process.

You may choose to retake any combination of portfolio entries and/or assessment center exercises on which you received a score of less than 2.75. However, keep in mind those candidates who must declare a specialty area must retake entries and exercises within that same declared specialty area.

Teachers who are not currently in the classroom may "borrow" a classroom in order to complete the portfolio requirements for National Board Certification. The lesson would need to fit the content area of the certificate, as defined in the standards. Your students must also meet the certificate area's age requirements. It must be a regularly scheduled class during the regularly scheduled school day within the school's curriculum — not an after school program or an artificial class (i.e., one that is a conglomerate of students from different classes or organizational groups or one that is fabricated or assembled for the purpose of completing the portfolio entries).

If after paying the retake fee for one or more portfolio entries or assessment center exercises, you find that you cannot complete your portfolio retake entries or take your assessment center retake exercises during the assessment center testing window, you may choose to defer submitting a new response for up to one year, provided you are still eligible to retake.

Your retake fee will not be refunded, and NBPTS will require $125 per portfolio entry or assessment center exercise to reinstate your deferred retakes.

To defer, your request must be submitted prior to the deadline for submission of retake portfolio entries, and at least 10 business days prior to the end of your designated assessment center testing window. Submit your request to:

NBPTS Processing Center
11827 Tech Com Way, Suite 200
San Antonio, TX 78233 

No assessment center exercises can be deferred after June 1 (which is 10 business days prior to the end of the retake assessment center testing window). You must then complete a new retake application and pay the deferment fee in the next assessment year. If you do not complete a new retake application and pay the deferment fee, you will forfeit all fees paid. You cannot defer any portfolio entries or assessment center exercises if you are in your last year of eligibility. Retake submissions can only be deferred once.

No. When you elect to defer a portfolio retake entry or assessment center retake exercise, you are effectively declining one retake opportunity. Retakes must be taken within your 24-month eligibility period that begins with the date printed on your score report as a first-time candidate. No extensions of the retake period will be granted.

If you do not submit a response to a portfolio entry or retake an assessment center exercise that you paid to retake, your most recent score on that entry or exercise will remain the same. You will have effectively declined one retake opportunity. If you are in your last year of eligibility, you will not be able to retake portfolio entries or assessment center exercises at a later date. Your retake fees cannot be rolled over to the next assessment year or refunded. Retake fees are nonrefundable, regardless of the circumstances.

Payment of a $75 fee is required for each retake entry/exercise changed after your application has been submitted and paid in full. This change fee does not apply to entries and/or exercises that you add or deselect prior to paying the $350 retake fee. Requests for changes to retake selections are intended for candidates who wish to replace the retake selections they originally chose on their retake applicaiton with alternate retake selections. The change is not intended for candidates who decide they do not want to retake some or all of the selections they chose on the retake application they submitted. Retake fees are nonrefundable regardless of the circumstances.

The request for the change of your retake selection must include your candidate ID number and mailing address, if you have not paid your retake fee. Change of retake selection requests must be made in writing and sent through the Candidate Inquiry Service, via fax at 1-888-811-3514, or mailed to:

NBPTS Processing Center
11827 Tech Com, Suite 200
San Antonio, TX  78233.

If the retake fee has been paid, this request must be submitted in writing and include your payment of $75 per change, using check or money order, and sent to:

NBPTS
c/o Bank of America, Illinois
PO Box 99406
Chicago, IL  60693

The deadline is January 31 and must be made prior to scheduling your assessment center appointment or submitting a portfolio entry.

You may not deselect an entry after you have paid the retake fee, but if you are eligible, you may defer that entry. If you have paid the full retake fee, but find that you will be unable to complete the process this year, you can defer selected retakes until the next cycle, if you have a year of retake eligibility remaining. If you defer, you will need to pay the $125 deferral fee per entry/exercise deferred to reinstate your eligibility to retake those selections. If you defer to the next year, you will be effectively declining one retake opportunity.

The ten-year period begins from the date you receive National Board Certification.

The deadline to apply and submit payment for retakes is January 31.

The work you submit for a classroom-based entry must be completely new. While you are not prohibited from using the same lesson for your retake entry as you used in your original entry, the Written Commentary should be new. It is recognized that using the same lesson would most likely promote similar goals and objectives, but you may not submit identical or amended versions of your original Written Commentary including your analyses, videotape, student work samples, responses, artifacts and reflection. Much of the Contextual Information may remain the same as well if you are teaching the same grade-level students at the same school. For Entry 4: Documented Accomplishments, you must submit completely new work for both the Category 1 accomplishments (Teacher as Partner with Families and Community) and the Reflective Summary; however, some of your documentation for Category 2 and Category 3 accomplishments prior to the current year may remain the same.

If your classroom teaching assignment changes during the retake period, you will still be eligible to retake portfolio entries or assessment center exercises. In some cases, you may need to "borrow" a class in order to fulfill the requirements of the portfolio entries. For example, if you are a candidate for the Early Childhood/Generalist certificate and you have been moved to a 4th grade classroom in which all of the students are 9 and 10 years old, you may need to "borrow" a class of children who are ages 3 through 8 from another teacher in order to complete the portfolio entries.

If you elect to retake a portfolio entry and submit a partial response that is deemed "not scorable," your most recent score on that entry or exercise will be the same (except in the event of a disqualification or other special circumstance). In the event your entry was deemed "not scorable," you will have in effect missed one retake opportunity. If you are in your last year of eligibility, you will not be able to retake portfolio entries or assessment center exercises at a later date. Therefore, we encourage you to review your portfolio materials prior to submitting them to NBPTS to ensure they are complete and that all materials are returned in the appropriate envelope.

Yes, a special audit is completed to compare retake submissions against previous submissions to check for overlap. When a candidate retakes a portfolio entry, they must submit completely new analyses, student work samples, and videotapes.

When you retake an assessment center exercise, you will be responding to a new prompt.

The assessment center exercises cover the entire developmental age range included in the certificate area. The National Board has always reserved the right to enhance the assessment in the areas of clarity, test security and fairness to all candidates. Removal of specific grade levels from the description of the assessment center exercises does not represent a change in the structure or format of the assessment.

Assessment center testing for all candidates will take place between January 4 and June 15, 2010. Eligible candidates will be advised when they will be able to begin scheduling appointments in late 2009.

Please call Pearson VUE Call Center at (888) 288-3028 Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. CST. You cannot schedule by calling your selected center directly. Be prepared to provide your name and candidate ID number exactly as they appear on your ATT.