National Board Certification is an advanced teaching credential. As part of this process, teachers must analyze their teaching context and students’ needs, submit videos of their teaching, and provide student work samples that demonstrate growth and achievement. The reflective analyses that they submit must demonstrate:
1) A strong command of content;
2) The ability to design appropriate learning experiences that advance student learning;
3) The use of assessments to inform instructional decision making; and
4) Partnerships with colleagues, parents and the community.
Through this structured and iterative process, teachers expand and refine their content knowledge and pedagogy. The outcome is more powerful teaching that improves student achievement and reflects college and career readiness.
National Board Certified Teachers Lead the ProfessionMore than 100,000 National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) nationwide advance student learning through excellence and leadership. Although they represent only a small fraction of the nation's teachers, NBCTs are the single largest identifiable group of accomplished practitioners, and they have had an outsized impact on improving public education.
NBCTs are working in the areas where they are needed most. Nationwide, nearly half of all NBCTs work in high-need schools. Since 2005, more than a third of all winners of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching have been NBCTs. In their states and districts, NBCTs are serving as mentors and instructional coaches to their colleagues and in other teacher leadership roles. And NBCTs are working together to actively shape educational policies and practices at the local, state and national levels.