Defrocking the National Board

Abstract

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, through its series of comprehensive performance assessments of teaching proficiency, is identifying and certifying teachers who are producing students who differ in profound and important ways from those taught by less proficient teachers. So concludes this National Board-selected group of researchers in their study comparing National Board-certified teachers with teachers who were unsuccessful in their bid for certification. Although the federal government, states, school districts, and private foundations already have invested nearly $200 million in producing and rewarding National Board-certified teachers, this is the first study assessing whether the National Board has actually succeeded in identifying "expert" or "master" teachers who perform better than their uncertified peers.