National Board Certification
One of the most challenging and rewarding things teachers can do to enhance their knowledge and demonstrate their skills is to pursue National Board Certification as a teacher. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is an organization that is dedicated to advancing student learning and achievement by defining clear standards upon which teachers demonstrate their expertise. Being a board certified teacher in many states including Illinois earns teachers the designation of “master teacher” on their professional educator license. However, nationwide only about 3% of teachers earn this honor. The main reason for this in my opinion is the rigorous nature of the certification process. Teachers do not become Nationally Board Certified by just saying they are doing specific things – they have to prove it.

National Board Architecture of Accomplished Teaching and Five Core Propositions

A look at the process
Beginning this year the process to earn National Board Certification is at minimum a 3 year journey. It begins with the teacher choosing their certificate area. An elementary school art teacher would choose art while a 4th grade classroom teacher would likely choose reading or middle childhood generalist. In all there are 25 different certificate areas in which teachers can apply for certification. For each certificate area the candidate must complete a combination of portfolio entries and assessment center exercises demonstrating, with evidence, how they are meeting and applying the standards of National Board in specific components. Those components are: Differentiation in Instruction, Content Knowledge, Teaching Practice and Learning Environment, and Effective and Reflective Practitioner. The journey will begin this year with teachers focusing all of their efforts on Differentiation in Instruction and moving to a different component next year. The portfolio entries and assessment center exercises are scored in many cases by multiple scorers – all teachers and all familiar with the NBPTS and the process. Not everyone passes the entries and they need to retake them. In fact in some years the first time pass rate is less than 40%.

Leading the Way
I am happy to say that here in DPS109 teacher pursuit of NBPTS is another example of how we are raising the bar for education. This year we have over 40 of our roughly 290 teachers beginning their pursuit of National Board Certification. We already have 9 master teachers – so with 49 out of 290 holding or pursuing NBPTS we have nearly 1 in 5 teachers with or seeking this high professional honor! As a district, we have the 3rd highest number of teachers in the state of Illinois beginning their certification process this year. We are only behind Chicago Public Schools (400,000 students) and Elgin (56,000 students). Or to put it another way the Deerfield 109 cohort of National Board candidates represents 5% of all teachers in the state of Illinois pursuing National Board. Not bad for district with a little over 3,000 students. I am proud to say that 12 of those 40 teachers are from right here at Kipling.

Kipling Elementary National Board Candidates (not pictured: Lynn Surico and Erin Christopoulos)

So what sets us apart in Deerfield? It’s simple. We have amazing people. Our teachers are dedicated professional educators who spend countless hours in the pursuit of what is in the best interests of their students. There are other districts – larger than Deerfield – that cannot find 1 teacher willing to take on this process. We have over 40!

Why Does This Matter?
The main reason this matters is because the body of research on the impact that National Board Certified teachers have on student outcomes is rock solid. In over 200 studies done on the effectiveness of National Board certified teachers nearly all of them show that their students have a significant increase in learning and achievement. In addition to this National Board teachers are also more likely to mentor teachers and take on leadership roles in the school. National Board teachers tend to raise everyone up along with them.

Join me in celebrating not only our Kipling teachers but all teachers that have the dedication to pursue this high honor!