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Breaking News
Posted May 30, 2010
BREAKING NEWS
Duquense University has only 10 remaining slots for candidates for the 2010-2011 school year. If you are interested in one of those slots, please contact the program coordinator IMMEDIATELY, rosalie.dibert@gmail.com and register for the last preparation classes for this year.
Posted Oct. 7, 2009
Changes to Program
With impending changes in the support that will be available for National Board Certification programs in PA, including fewer fee support scholarships from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Duquesne University is changing the way that we prepare and support candidates seeking National board Certification.
Please be aware of the following:
- Information sessions are available at your site by contacting the program coordinator at dibertr@duq.edu. Sessions will be conducted on a first come first served basis.
- Site(s) will be determined by the number of interested teachers in a geographic area. (Example, if the majority of teachers who
register are from the Monroeville area, we will seek a site in that general area.) If others from your geographic area are interested in a prep class, encourage them to register now.
There are seven classes in the preparation program, and approximately 3 hours of homework each for each class. Classes meet for three hours…generally from 5:00 to 8:15 p.m. and meet once a week, after school. Preparation class participants can earn 30 Act 48 hours. Please register for the preparation classes in the section of this site under the Prep Class button.
Posted Sept. 18, 2009
Substitutes for National Board Candidates No Longer Funded
PDE has announced that substitute reimbursement for National Board Candidates will no longer be available due to lack of available funding.
Posted May 12, 2009
The National Board has
announced some changes in the dates for the Assessment Center
appointments. Please use this link for the latest information.
http://www.nbpts.org/for_candidates/assessment_center/scheduling_an_appointmen
Posted May 12, 2009
Fee Support
Scholarships Now Available
Fee support scholarships
are now available in Pennsylvania. Become a candidate now. Get
your money before it's gone. Contact the program coordinator
for more information on how to get your fee support
scholarship at
dibertr@duq.edu or 412.979.6916.
Posted June 13, 2008
National Board Certification Identifies Strong Teachers,
But Many School Systems Are Not Using Board-Certified
Teachers' Expertise
WASHINGTON
-- Advanced certification through the National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is an effective way to
identify highly skilled teachers, says a new congressionally
mandated report from the National Research Council.
Students taught by NBPTS-certified teachers make
greater gains on achievement tests than students taught by
teachers who are not board-certified, says the report.
However, it is unclear whether the certification
process itself leads to higher quality teaching.
"Earning NBPTS
certification is a useful 'signal' that a teacher is effective
in the classroom," said Milton Hakel,
Ohio Board of Regents' Eminent
Scholar in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at
Bowling Green
State
University,
and chair of the committee that wrote the report.
"But we don't know whether the certification process
itself makes teachers more effective -- as they become
familiar with the standards and complete the assessment -- or
if high-quality teachers are attracted to the certification
process."
The report recommends
further research to investigate that question, as well as to
determine whether NBPTS certification is having broader
effects on the educational system, beyond individual
classrooms. Studies so far suggest that
many school systems are not supporting or making the best use
of their board-certified teachers.
Created in 1987, the
nonprofit National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
developed standards for what effective teachers should know
and be able to do, along with a process to evaluate whether
individual teachers meet these criteria.
To earn certification, a teacher must complete six
computer-based exercises and assemble a portfolio that shows
how his or her teaching meets the standards.
From 1993 through 2007,
99,300 teachers applied for NBPTS certification, and 63,800
earned the credential. Overall, that means
that there are three board-certified teachers for every five
schools in the
U.S.,
though participation rates vary widely by district and state.
Not surprisingly, states that provide incentives to
board-certified teachers have higher numbers of teachers who
pursue certification.
Positive Effect on Student Achievement
Students taught by teachers
who are board certified make larger gains on achievement test
scores than those taught by teachers who are not, though the
differences vary by state and subject, the report says.
Students taught by teachers who had attempted to earn
certification but failed made smaller gains than students
taught either by board-certified teachers or by teachers who
had not made the attempt.
Further studies should
examine the effects of NBPTS certification on students' test
scores in more states and subjects, the report says.
Most research to date has taken place in
Florida and
North Carolina –
states with high NBPTS participation rates – and has looked at
effects on reading and math scores.
Studies also should explore how board-certified teachers
affect outcomes other than test scores, such as student
motivation and attendance rates.
Effects on Teachers' Careers
One of NBPTS' goals is to
encourage high-performing teachers to stay in the profession.
Although there is some limited evidence that
board-certified teachers remain in teaching at higher rates
than nonboard-certified ones, it is unknown whether earning
board certification affected their decisions to stay in the
field. Moreover, there is no information
on the career paths of teachers who earn certification
compared with those who do not, the report says.
NBPTS should create and maintain a database of
information on applicants' future careers.
Evidence from a study of
teachers in
North Carolina
suggests that board-certified teachers tend to change teaching
jobs at a higher rate than nonboard-certified teachers, and
they tend to move to more advantaged schools -- such as
schools with fewer students in poverty, the report says.
Still, it is not clear that this tendency is any
stronger for board-certified teachers than for other teachers
with excellent qualifications or that this finding would
extend beyond
North Carolina.
There are clear disparities
in application rates, the committee noted, with teachers from
advantaged schools more likely to apply for certification than
others. In addition, though black teachers
are as likely to apply as white teachers, they are
underrepresented among those who pass the assessment.
NBPTS should continue its current efforts to understand
these disparities.
Board-Certified Teachers Often Not Supported
The task force that created
NBPTS envisioned that the standards would have a broad impact
and that board-certified teachers would influence how their
colleagues teach. There is little evidence
that the standards are having such spillover effects, the
report says, though much of the needed research has not been
conducted.
Except in isolated
instances, there is no evidence that districts or schools are
encouraging board-certified teachers to work in difficult
schools or mentor other teachers, said the committee.
In some cases, administrators have discouraged
board-certified teachers from assuming responsibilities
outside the classroom and have downplayed the significance of
the credential. Likewise, some teachers
have concealed their certification so as not to seem to be
superior to their colleagues.
NBPTS Needs Ongoing Evaluation and Improvement
The portfolios that NBPTS
requires candidates to assemble provide an authentic
representation of a teacher's skills, the report says. The
reliability of the way NBPTS scores its assessments
is consistent with expectations for a largely portfolio-based
process, but lower than desired for high-stakes assessments.
NBPTS should explore ways to improve the reliability of its
scoring, possibly by increasing the number of exercises on the
computer-based component.
In general, NBPTS should
devote more effort to continuously evaluating and improving
its assessments, the report says. The
board also should publish technical documentation that
demonstrates that its assessments are developed, administered,
and scored in accordance with high standards; such
documentation was not readily available when the committee
began its assessment.
The study was
sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. The National
Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering,
Institute of
Medicine,
and National Research Council make up the National Academies.
They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science,
technology, and health policy advice under a congressional
charter. The Research Council is the principal operating
agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National
Academy of Engineering.
For published article and
committee roster, please see
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12224
Posted June 13, 2008
Schools looking to hire teachers should
keep an eye out for those with national board certification
Students taught by
educators certified by the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards make bigger gains on standardized tests
than students taught by other teachers, finds a National
Research Council report out Wednesday.
"I would sure look for
the credential," said Milton Hakel, a Bowling Green State
University psychology professor who headed the committee that
conducted the council review. "The fact that the signal is
there is something that's useful to superintendents, to hiring
committees, to districts."
It is not clear from the
research whether the process of getting certified by the
national board makes teachers better or if those who get
certified were already top performers, according to the
report. More research is needed to try to determine that,
Hakel said.
Joseph Aguerrebere,
president and CEO of the board, said the report puts to rest
the question of whether board-certified teachers are more
effective at boosting student scores than others. "It's a
question that we're often asked," he said.
Schools have been increasingly focused on student test scores
since the 2002 No Child Left Behind law was enacted. A goal of
the law is to get all students working at their proper grade
level in math and reading, according to standardized tests, by
2013-14.
The research council, an
arm of the National Academy of Sciences, based its findings on
a review of existing research and on some of its own analysis.
The national board is a nonprofit that, for more than a
decade, has set standards for what accomplished teachers
should know and be able to do and then certifies those who
meet the standards.
It generally takes
teachers a year or more to get through the certification
process, which includes taking subject-area tests and
submitting on-the-job videotapes and samples of student and
teacher work. It costs about $2,500 to accredit each teacher.
Just 64,000 teachers have
earned the accreditation, which amounts to a mere three
teachers in every five schools, according to the report.
While teachers have to be
licensed by their states, national board certification is
voluntary. Not surprisingly, states that provide incentives to
board-certified teachers - such as North Carolina and South
Carolina - have higher numbers of teachers who pursue the
extra credential.
The report finds
board-certified teachers are typically less likely than
teachers in general to work in schools serving poor and
minority students, two groups that tend to lag behind their
peers nationally.
On the Net:
National Research Council:
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/nrc/index.htm
National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards:
http://www.nbpts.org/
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