National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
Over the past 23 years the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has been working to recognize and provide greater help for the teachers that are considered to be Level Three teachers. While doing this they hope to strengthen the claim of professionalism for the teaching career.
In the past, there were not really any high standards set. Because of this, many people who could have been outstanding were discouraged from entering into the teaching field. On the other side the low standards have lowered others aspiration. The NBPTS is hoping that setting these high standards will work just as the 4 minute mile barrier did for long distance runners.
As of 2007, 55,000 teachers had risen to the standards and became board certified. Many people believe that becoming board certified gives teachers professional credential just as physicians and architects can have. 90% of physicians and 30% of architect in the U.S. are board certified, but only 2% of teachers in the U.S. are board certified.
The NBPTS is directed by five core propositions:
1. Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach these subject to students.
2. Teachers are committed to their students and their learning.
3. Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.
4. Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.
5. Teachers are members of a learning community.
They also have five distinguishing characteristics:
1. The NBPTS supports experienced teachers.
2. “Taking the boards” is completely voluntary.
3. “Taking the boards” involves submitting oneself to a set of examinations and assessments in particular areas or subject matter such as early childhood.
4. These assessments are not typical paper-and pencil tests.
5. The primary control of the NBPTS is in the hands of a sixty-three-person board of directors.
There are many advantages to becoming board certified. A salary bonus is one. Teachers who teach in “high needs” schools in California and became board certified received a onetime bonus of $20,000. It also gives school boards more basis to give impressionistic criteria such as “her children do well on tests”. Becoming board certified means that you as a teacher have just become more portable.
Just as with anything else there is also criticism of the NBPTS. Some say that there is no solid knowledge base in the teaching field that the NBPTS can assess. Some see it as a public relations move to raise the salaries of teachers. Some think that it is mainly teacher on the board and see them using it to serve the economic interests of teachers and to insulate them further from their “clients”. Others see it as a failed “progressive ideology”. They recognize the strengths in the idea, but are sitting back to see if the board certified teachers actually teach better than non certified teachers.
I choose this video because it talks more about why teachers need to be certified and the benefit of them being certified.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
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