Assessing Accomplished Teaching: Advanced-Level Certification Programs - Softcover

The mission of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is to establish "high and rigorous standards for what teachers should know and be able to do, to certify teachers who meet those standards, and to advance other education reforms for the purpose of improving student learning in American schools." In response to a request from the U.S. Congress, the National Research Council developed a framework for evaluating programs that award advanced-level teacher certification and applied that framework in an evaluation of the impacts of the NBPTS. Specifically, this book addresses the impacts on students, teachers, and the educational system in this country. Assessing Accomplished Teaching finds that teachers who earn board certification are more effective at improving their students' achievement than other teachers, but school systems vary greatly in the extent to which they recognize and make use of board-certified teachers. Many of the questions on the evaluation framework could not be answered because the data have not been collected, and the report makes recommendations for the kinds of research that are needed to fully evaluate the impacts of board certification by the NBPTS.

• Front Matter
• Summary
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Evaluation Framework and Collection of Data
• 3 The Historical Context and Overview of the National Board
• 4 The Assessment Program
• 5 The Psychometric Quality of the Assessments
• 6 Teacher Participation in the Program
• 7 The Impact of Board-Certified Teachers on Student Outcomes
• 8 The Effects of the Certification Process on Practice
• 9 The Impact of Certification on Teachers' Career Paths
• 10 The Effects of Certification on the Education System
• 11 The Cost-Effectiveness of Certification as a Means of Improving Teacher Quality
• 12 Overall Evaluation
• References
• Appendix A: Reviews of Studies That Provided Evidence for the Evaluation
• Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff