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Comparison of the Effects of NBPTS-Certified Teachers with Other Teachers on the Rate of Student Academic Progress

Institution:
SAS Institute

Principal Investigator:
Sanders, W. J., Ashton, J. J., Wright, S. P.

Date:
March 2005

Study Overview:

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has pursued the goal of adopting strong, research-based strategies in developing its standards and assessments. Similarly, it is the only organization of its type to develop a strong research portfolio of studies. This study utilized three planned comparisons:

1. National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) vs. teachers who have never been involved in the certification process
   
2. NBCTs vs. teachers who planned to attain certification in the future
   
3. NBCTs vs. teachers who failed in their attempt at certification

Four statistical models were used to measure the academic achievement of students taught by NBCTs vs. students whose teachers were in the other three groups. The study was designed to assess student performance in two school districts on the North Carolina end-of-grade exam for fourth through eighth-grade students in reading and mathematics. The most important finding was that "the amount of variability among teachers with the same NBPTS certification status is considerably larger than the differences between teachers of different status." Other findings were mixed and included significant and non-significant differences between the performance of students taught by NBCTs and those taught by non-NBCTs. In summary, the findings of this study indicated that for this group of teachers and students, students of NBCTs did not have significantly better rates of academic progress than students of other teachers and estimated effect sizes were relatively small.

Main Research Questions:

1. Do students of NBCTs make greater academic progress than students of teachers who have never attempted to attain National Board Certification?
2. Do students of NBCTs make greater academic progress than students of non-NBCTs who plan to attempt to attain National Board Certification at some point in the future?
3. Do students of NBCTs make greater academic progress than students of teachers who attempted to attain National Board Certification, but who failed in their first attempt?

Publications:

• Full Text of Study (PDF - 135mb)
• Summary of Peer Reviews of SAS Study
• NBPTS Statement on Study

Subject Area:
Student Achievement