The board of directors of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has approved the final set of exercises that will be used this school year in a field-test of the board’s first two assessments.
The board, a private organization, is developing standards for what teachers should know and be able to do, related performance assessments, and a voluntary system of certification for accomplished teachers.
At the organization’s annual meeting in Raleigh, N.C., on Oct. 21-24, the board of directors approved a package of assessments to be administered in an assessment-center setting to teachers who are subject-matter generalists and work with children in early adolescence.
The board had earlier approved portfolio exercises developed by the same contractor--the performance-assessment laboratory at the University of Georgia. But it had asked the lab to refine the assessment-center exercises. (See Education Week, March 31, 1993.)
Both the early adolescence/generalist and early adolescence/English-language-arts certificates are being field-tested this year. About 2,000 candidates are now assembling portfolios and will visit assessment centers next spring.
Draft Standards Approved
In other action, the directors approved draft standards for circulation and comment. They are for teachers of mathematics to children in both middle childhood and early adolescence, and for teachers of English-language arts who work with students in adolescence and young adulthood.
The board also formed two new standards committees. One will set standards for teachers of students who are learning English, at both the early- and middle-childhood levels and at the early-adolescence-through-young-adulthood level.
The other panel will set standards for vocational-education teachers who work with children in early adolescence through young adulthood.
Mary Dean Barringer was named a vice president of the organization, in charge of programs for the advancement of teaching. She will work with states and districts as they begin to develop policies to encourage teachers to become board certified and to reward those who are successful.
The board also extended the contract of James A. Kelly, the board’s president, for five years.
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. of North Carolina was elected to another two-year term as board chairman; Claire L. Pelton was re-elected the board’s vice chair.
Twenty-three members were elected to the 63-member board of directors, including nine incumbents and 14 new members.
