TeachMoore

How Good Teaching Looks, Part 2

What does it mean to be a “highly accomplished” teacher? 

That’s what National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) calls teachers who have achieved its advanced certification in their respective subject areas. 

National Board Certification® is a comprehensive process that requires teachers to show “clear, convincing, and consistent evidence” that they meet a set of scientifically developed, pedagogically sound, rigorous standards that have been proven to lead to high levels of student learning.  

In other words, a highly accomplished teacher is one who truly makes a difference for students. These are the highly effective, high quality teachers whom we keep hearing that we need [more of] in our classrooms.

Board Certification provides a means for identifying experienced teachers who have reached this level of performance. These are not initial standards for licensing beginners, but increasingly, schools of education are adopting all or part of the NBPTS standards to help strengthen their preparation of new teachers.

Each of the 25 National Board certificate areas has its own set of standards for teachers in that subject because teaching is content specific. There are, however, certain characteristics that all highly accomplished teachers practice.  NBPTS calls those The Five Core Propositions:

1. Teachers are committed to students and their learning.
2. Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.
3. Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.
4. Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from their experiences.
5. Teachers are members of learning communities.

In its publication: What Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do (2002), NBPTS outlined these Core Propositions in great detail, and the Core continue to serve as the basis for all of the standards.  The document also reminds us of the mission of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards:

“To advance the quality of teaching and learning by:

• Maintaining high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do
• Providing a national voluntary system certifying teachers who meet these standards.
• Advocating for related education reforms to integrate National Board Certification in American education and to capitalize on the expertise of National Board Certified Teachers.

“National Board Certification, developed by teachers, with teachers, and for teachers, is a symbol of professional teaching excellence”(1).

It’s important to note that there are many teachers across this nation who meet the criteria for certification, but have not yet pursued National Boards. Board Certification is, and should remain a voluntary process that over 91,000 teachers have achieved.  However, almost half of the teachers who attempt certification do not achieve it the first time (candidates do have opportunity to retake). Yet most of those who do not achieve will testify that going through the process itself has made them better teachers.

National Board Certification is also an expensive process, for which teachers in many states or districts are neither supported nor compensated after they earn it.  Meanwhile, we continue to chant the mantra that a high quality teacher is the most important factor in a student’s education.  Moreover, many of the teachers who have shown that they are capable of highly accomplished teaching by achieving National Board Certification are in too many places not allowed or not expected to work at that level with their students. I can’t think of a greater waste of human talent or of our children’s potential.

Parents and school board members: Are there National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) in your local school/district? How many? How are they being utilized in and out of the classroom?  Which students do they serve? How are other teachers being encouraged or supported to become NBCTs? 

Levers of Change in Public Education

If you could sit down with some of the best classroom teachers in America, and ask them what they would do (or want done) to improve public education in the U.S., wonder what they might tell you?

I've had that privilege on several occasions; one was as co-author of a book on the future of teaching in America.

In case you haven't yet read our book, Teaching 2030: What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools Now and in the Future, here's an important slice of what we see as important steps forward in American public education.

**REengage the public - To help them embrace 21st-century teaching and learning and invest in a results-oriented profession.

**REthink school finance - To ensure equity and require partnerships across districts, universities, community-based organizations, and social and health agencies.

**REdefine teacher preparation - To focus on better preparation and performance assessments to determine who is ready to teach, when, what, and where.

**REframe accountability - To focus on not just who is doing well, but why, and what needs to be done next.

**REcalibrate working conditions - To ensure teachers can teach effectively in teams.

**REdesign teacher unions as professional guilds - To enforce high standards among its members and to broker the skills of teacherpreneurs, locally and globally.

Since we put those thoughts together in our book, I've been encouraged to hear similar ideas coming from many and varied quarters in the education community. I believe we are coming quickly to a watershed moment in public education, at which we will see a critical change from within, rather than our historically reactive or defensive posture.

Anybody else seeing this trend, and what are your hopes or concerns about it?

READ THIS: Two Views of Schools

As with so many other issues in America today, there is dichotomous debate over whether using competition and market forces will improve education, versus increasing the collaboration and support in our existing public schools can produce the changes we seek. As with most binary arguments around complex issues, this one is false, and unnecessarily distracting. 

Whether a school is public or private, charter or alternative, principal led or teacher run, one key to its success is how it operates internally. 

The aptly named website, Public School Insights, has a wonderful contribution to our understanding of that truth in this piece by Cheryl Williams.

Here's a slice:

Once more I was reminded that successful schools and districts have visionary, collaborative leadership that includes the superintendent, principals, and school board; collegial relationships with the teachers’ union; and community support that includes parent involvement. The ICW’s emphasis on competitiveness bespeaks a culture that doesn’t fully acknowledge the role of public education, which is to educate ALL children.  To the extent we rely on competition to improve some schools, others will be left behind.  In that situation the losers are always children, and ultimately the rest of us as well.

 

Teaching Reality Check: The Mitchell 20

The new documentary, The Mitchell 20, offers a moving analysis of both the real causes and possible solutions to the educational achievement gap in this country. It is particularly timely as the issue of improving teacher quality and teacher evaluation moves to the forefront of the education reform discussions in Washington and beyond.

It is the story of one school in Arizona and 20 of its teachers who decide to pursue National Board Certification (or a portion of it, known as Take One!) together. Deciding to take on the premier form of professional development and evaluation for teachers is a courageous choice for any teacher, and certainly for almost an entire school to do so, is even bolder because it is a very public commitment. The school's principal shows equal courage by investing the school's federal professional development funds into the effort, and ultimately, putting her own job on the line to support the teachers.

What I liked most about this film is its painful honesty. It tears away at myth after myth in a time when misinformation about teaching and learning abounds. From exposing lies behind stereotypes of Spanish-speaking children and their families, to an unvarnished portrayal of working and learning conditions in a high needs school, to the reality just how challenging National Board Certification is--the information is highly accurate. The opening segments of upbeat, dedicated, mostly young teachers leads us to expect a warm and fuzzy ending. Which makes the actual turn of events even more disturbing.

As Lee Shulman states in a clip near the end, most of the teachers who attempt National Board Certification do not achieve it on their first try, but most of those who don't, try again, not just to prove they can do it, but because of how valuable the process itself is to the quality of their work as teachers.

Moreover, the film brings out one of the great shames of our current educational system: When teachers or educational leaders prove themselves highly effective, they are often then forced out of the schools and communities that need them most, or hindered from doing those things that made them effective.

Although some of the moralizing gets a little heavy-handed towards the end, and it could stand to be edited down by about 15 minutes, overall, it is well-worth watching and sharing.

For viewing information on Mitchell20, visit the Arizona K12 Center website.

We Do Know How Good Teaching Looks (Part 1)

MYTH: "We don't know what makes a good teacher!"

The truth is we do know a great deal about what makes not only a good teacher, but a highly accomplished one. Highly accomplished is how the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) defines teachers who achieve National Board Certification.

For over twenty years, NBPTS has worked to develop what has become the "gold standard" for quality teaching. At the heart of the National Board certification process are over 25 sets of standards for educators in every subject area and grade level, including counselors, library media specialists, and now principals.

I am honored to serve on the Board of Directors of the NBPTS, and I have the privilege of co-chairing its Certification Council, the body which oversees the development and updating of the Standards. I'm not sure how many people in the education reform arena understand just how intense the NBPTS Standards development process is. More important: I don't believe enough people interested in quality education have taken the time to read the Standards themselves and realize how much information we actually do have on what is good teaching. 

In a country where 1 in every 8 of us is a teacher, 92,000 have so far attained National Board Certification status. Joyfully, there are many more who qualify, but have not gone through the process. Woefully, many states are unwisely cutting the support for teachers to get National Board Certification at a time when increasing teacher quality is a vital for our children.

As in other professions, those who are the recognized leaders in their fields are used as the models for establishing standards. Look at the teachers whose students have had the greatest success, the ones who consistently bridge achievement gaps, the ones that parents, supervisors, students, and peers point to as outstanding--and ask what is it they do that other teachers do not, or at least not consistently.

That is step 1 in the NBPTS standards development process.

Standards are developed by a committee of outstanding educators who are broadly representative of accomplished professionals in their field. While the majority of each committee is made up of classroom teachers, other members may include experts in child development, teacher education and relevant disciplines. The committee provides recommendations to the National Board and advises those involved in developing the corresponding assessment.  ---(NBPTS.org/The Standards/Standards Development)

This drafting process may take several months to a year. The standards go through several methodical steps including public review and comment. This allows an even broader range of persons with expertise and interest in the standards to contribute to their final form. I know from experience that every comment read and considered, many times leading to further investigation or discussion, and possible revision.

Standards are also reviewed and updated on a regularly scheduled rotation to keep them reflective of the most advanced research and developments in each field. The results are the best summation of teaching that truly makes a difference for students.

The greatest testament to the quality of the standards; however, comes from the tens of thousands of teachers who have studied them, and used them as a gauge of their own classroom practice. Increasingly, teacher education programs, accreditation agencies, and some states are looking to the National Board standards as guidelines for their work.

I'm devoting a series of blogs to exploring some of the NBPTS standards, and challenging the myth that what constitutes good teaching is mystery. The real mystery is why the education profession and policymakers charged with providing public education have not rallied more strongly behind these standards and encouraging more teachers to become certified?

Read This: Teaching the iGeneration Workshop

My TLN blog-buddy, Bill Ferriter (The Tempered Radical) is going on the road with workshops based on his new book Teaching the iGeneration. In preparation for an upcoming workshop in Cincinnati, Bill described what he intends to do:

"Instead of introducing readers to interesting web-tools, I introduce readers to specific strategies for teaching students to communicate, collaborate, problem solve and manage information."

via teacherleaders.typepad.com

Oh, that more of the technology workshops being offered to teachers as professional development (where that still happens) were as focused on what really matters. If you're in the area on Oct. 18-19, make it a point to be there. For those of us who can't, check out the presentation notes on his blog.