NBPTS Expands Credentialing in High-Need Districts

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is taking a hands-on approach to foster more board-certified teachers in high-need school districts.

The board’s Targeted High Need Initiative Comprehensive Candidate Support Centers will give resources — both financial and professional — to a handful of partner school systems, teacher colleges, and professional groups such as teachers’ unions so they can create an infrastructure to recruit and train more teachers to become board-certified in districts seeking to raise student achievement.

A past version of the program provided resources to high-need districts to offer support to teachers seeking the credential and to provide them with mentoring from trained board-certified teachers. But under the newer, expanded version, “we will provide aid to a teacher from the beginning [stages of board certification] all the way to their growth as a teacher leader,” said Joyce Loveless, the executive director for program access and...