Conflicting data on the extent of the impact that nationally certified teachers have on student achievement do not paint a complete picture of the benefits of the rigorous certification process on the participants, their schools, and their students, a report by a group of teachers that have earned the credential concludes.
Teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards should take a more active role in policy discussions and instructional decisions, and promote a definition of teacher quality that goes beyond test results, says the report, which was commissioned by the national board and the Center for Teaching Quality in Hillsborough, N.C.
After studying research on the program that spans more than a decade, the team of 10 teachers found “a great disconnect between what matters most to teaching effectiveness and what was actually being measured by researchers, both in terms of teacher efficacy and student learning.”
