More than 150 research studies have examined the significance of the National Board Certification process for teachers. But now for the first time, a team of ten highly accomplished National Board Certified Teachers -- members of CTQ's TeacherSolutions National Board cohort -- reveal their analyses of the research from the perspective of highly accomplished teachers who have completed the process themselves and seen its impact first-hand on their practice and students. Read their eye-opening investigation, titled Measuring what matters: The effects of National Board Certification on advancing 21st century teaching and learning. Learn more about the report, including recent media coverage in the CTQ Newsroom.

CTQ, with support from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), commissioned a diverse group of 10 National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) from across the nation to consider the positive impact of National Board Certification® on students and the teaching profession. The resulting report, Measuring What Matters, begins with an open letter to America’s nearly 64,000 NBCTS: “We believe National Board Certified Teachers are uniquely positioned to challenge this outdated perception of teachers as mere instruments of policy and not co-creators. We cannot wait to be invited to the policy table. Nor can we wait for any organization or initiative to guide us, endorse us, or train us. We invite their support, but we must begin at once to find our own voices, to hone our core messages, and develop our own leadership ideas and muscle, both personally and collectively.” 

In addition to encouraging the collaboration of fellow NBCTs, the TeacherSolutions team also presented recommendations for NBPTS and the research and policy communities including calls for:

• Relevant studies to measure the effects of National Board Certification on student learning using multiple measures (e.g., authentic assessments, project-based learning products, student engagement, reduced discipline, drop-out rates) as well as the “snapshot” data resulting from standardized tests.
• Careful researchers to engage NBCTs themselves in the process of research study design and development in order to create more robust research models that include multiple measures of student growth.
• Policymakers to craft policy around specific goals, such as offering incentives and time for NBCTs to spread their instructional expertise to a wide range of colleagues, rather than focusing on simply producing more National Board Certified Teachers.
• Policymakers, who have already made significant investments in National Board Certification in many jurisdictions, to advocate for the expansion of leadership opportunities for all NBCTs and emphasize programs that increase the population of NBCTs who are teachers of color.
• NBPTS to engage in strategic partnering and communications that would make the mission, vision and work of NBPTS transparent to researchers, policymakers, and the general public.
• NBPTS to consider how education leaders can be made more cognizant of the potential power of the certification process to spread teaching expertise.

The TeacherSolutions National Board Certification team includes:

• Nancy Flanagan, MI (team leader)
• Anthony Cody, CA
• Susan Graham, VA
• Ellen Holmes, ME
• Andy Kuemmel, WI
• Patrick Ledesma, VA
• Margarita Mendez, CA
• Kimberly Oliver, MD
• Kathy Pham, FL
• Carolann Wade, NC