Who Applies for and Earns Advanced Teacher Certification?
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), founded in 1987 to advance teaching and learning by establishing standards for the certification of excellent teachers, represents a major effort to elevate the field of teaching. NBPTS began certifying teachers in the mid-1990s and has drawn significant investments from federal, state, and private sources over the past 10 years. NBPTS’s certification efforts have come under fire due (in part) to a lack of consensus on the best way to improve teacher quality. Central to this controversy is the fact that, while increasing and recognizing teacher quality are laudable pursuits, it is unknown if the NBPTS credential is any better an indicator of quality than other readily available measures, such as licensure status or academic degree. Researchers at the University of Washington and the Urban Institute have begun a multistage evaluation of the effectiveness of NBPTS certification. Their initial study provides insight into who
