News Room

Edutopia recently published an article regarding National Board certification’s increasing accessibility: “During the last five years, we have been increasing accessibility to both the board certification process and to accomplished teaching more generally,” said Joe Doctor, the National Board’s chief operating officer. “We hope to make certification fit into the very busy lives of practicing teachers, while spreading a vision of how teaching can become the true profession it deserves to be.” Access the full article.

Nevada’s Governor Sandoval has proclaimed November 16 as National Board Certified Teacher Day in Nevada. This comes the same week that Board-certified teacher Pilar Biller of Washoe County was named the state’s teacher of the year. In the 2016-2017 school year, Clark County, including Las Vegas, had the second highest number of candidates pursuing National Board certification in the country and the state’s rural counties report a 600% increase in the number of teachers pursuing Board certification. Read more.

National Board Certified Teacher Ernie Rambo recently reflected on her road to becoming a National Board-certified teacher to learn more about why teachers so often find the process to be transformative, positively impacting themselves and their students. In her Education Week article, Rambo offered the following takeaway: “If National Board certification has been shown to generate positive changes within and among educators, then I wonder what might happen with student learning as we see more teachers become certified.” Access the full article.

The Fall 2017 edition of Scholastic Teacher Magazine features an article about Board certification entitled National Board Certification: To Certify or Not to Certify. Featuring perspective from several National Board Certified Teachers, the article addresses questions related to the time commitment, the cost and also the tremendous value that teachers derive from going through the process. Read the full article.

Bob Kilmer, NBCT, who teaches woodworking, computer-aided design and architecture and construction at Enumclaw High School in King County, Washington, was recently named a winner of the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence, which recognizes outstanding instruction in the skilled trades in U.S. public high schools. Kilmer and his school won $100,000, of which $70,000 goes to the school’s skilled trades program and $30,000 goes to him personally. The Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence was designed to recognize outstanding instruction in the skilled trades in U.S. public high schools that inspires students to learn a trade…

The Nevada Department of Education recently funded a new program to support National Board Certification and teacher leadership. The funding, which provides more than $700,000 over two years, will be used as part of the Nevada National Board Professional Learning Institute: Empowering Teachers as Leaders and Learners, a newly developed program intended to create a statewide model for National Board teacher professional learning and development. Read more.

This report, prepared by the Center for Great Teachers and Leaders at the American Institute for Research explores the perspectives of National Board Certified Teachers, asking them what experiences and supports were most important to their development over the course of their careers.  This report underscores the importance of listening to great teachers and investing what can truly help teachers move from good to great. Read more.

The Council of Chief State School Officers has announced that Sydney Chaffee, an NBCT and high school teacher in Boston, MA is the 2017 National Teacher of the Year.  Chaffee teaches humanities at Codman Academy Charter Public School, where she focuses on the intersection of history and literature to help her students learn from lessons of the past to make change in the world. Chaffee, who has taught for 10 years, believes education must be authentic and encourages her students to take risks by creating a safe environment in her classroom for diverse learners. Read More >

To strengthen the teaching and learning of mathematics in underserved middle schools and high schools in and around Orange County, Cal State Fullerton has been awarded a nearly $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Project partners are Anaheim Union High School District and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. See more at: http://news.fullerton.edu/2017sp/math-fellows.aspx

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) and the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) are pleased to announce they are collaborating to reestablish the National Board Teacher Support Program at Temple University. The program will provide multifaceted support to teachers going through the certification process. This effort is made possible by a four-year grant from the William Penn Foundation to Temple University College of Education. Read more >