Teachers With National Board Certification Outperform Others in 11 of 13 Areas, Significantly Enhance Student Achievement, Study Finds

Teachers who are certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) significantly outperform their peers who are not Board Certified on 11 of 13 key dimensions of teaching expertise, according to a new study released today by the National Board.

The Accomplished Teaching Validation Study, conducted by a team of researchers based at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is the first comprehensive study to compare the teaching practices of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) with other teachers, and to compare samples of student work from classrooms of the two groups of teachers.

The study reveals that NBCTs scored higher on all 13 dimensions of teaching expertise than did teachers who sought but did not achieve National Board Certification. The differences were statistically significant on 11 of the 13 dimensions. The dimensions - based on the body of research that has been reported over two decades on measures of effective teaching - include attributes such as: having an extensive knowledge of subject matter; the ability to adapt and improvise instruction; formulating lessons that are challenging and engaging; and promoting academic achievement by emphasizing both personal accomplishment and intellectual engagement. (See the attached "13 Dimensions of Teaching Expertise.")

In addition to evaluating the teachers against the 13 dimensions, researchers examined samples of student work in classes taught by NBCTs and non-Board Certified teachers. Nearly three-fourths (74 percent) of the work samples collected from students taught by NBCTs in the study reflected a high level of comprehension of the concepts being taught, compared to three in 10 (29 percent) of the work samples of students taught by non-Board Certified teachers.

The student work was related to a single unit of instruction, made up of multiple lessons over a period of weeks that are centered on a specific academic goal. The student work samples were collected from students chosen randomly. The student work samples were evaluated by a separate team of teachers who had no knowledge of the classrooms in which the work was produced, nor of the certification status of the students' teachers.

Based on student work samples, the study's authors declared that National Board Certification "is identifying and certifying teachers who are producing students who differ in profound and important ways from those taught by [non-Board Certified] teachers." "This study tells parents and the community, educators and policymakers that National Board Certification is a distinction that really matters," said Betty Castor, president of NBPTS.

Currently, 39 states and nearly 200 school districts offer salary supplements, fee reimbursements, bonuses or other financial incentives to teachers who achieve National Board Certification from the NBPTS. This year, more than 9,300 teachers from all 50 states and the District of Columbia have completed the assessment process and will learn next month whether they have achieved certification.

For the Accomplished Teaching Validation Study, researchers examined a sample of 65 teachers from two certificate areas: Early Adolescence/English Language Arts and Middle School/Generalist. The teachers were from the states of Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. All had sought National Board Certification, but only 31 of the 65 had achieved certification. The study was originally devised as a means to seek independent validation for the National Board's assessment process.

Lloyd Bond, a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro who co-directed the study, said that the results help to underscore the value of National Board Certification.

"All of the teachers that we studied demonstrated laudable teaching skills, but the National Board Certified Teachers demonstrated to a much greater degree those qualities of expert teaching that we know from years of research are so important to student achievement," Bond explained.

National Board leaders see the study as only the first step in compiling research that will help shed light on the link between accomplished teaching and student learning.

Castor said this study and others that will be released in the coming months are an important investment. "This is the first wave of a series of studies that we're supporting because we believe they will provide the education community with valuable information about the link between accomplished teaching and student learning. New studies in new states will help to give the National Board, teachers, parents and school leaders an even better understanding of how critical a role teacher quality plays," Castor said.

Among the upcoming studies that examine the link between National Board Certification and student learning is a major study that will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. William Sanders of the University of Tennessee, who developed the statistical models used for the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System. These future studies will examine issues such as the types of teachers who achieve National Board Certification, the knowledge that parents have about National Board Certification, and the impact NBCTs have on student learning as measured by achievement tests.

The Accomplished Teaching Validation Study was directed by the following research team: Lloyd Bond, Ph.D. - University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Richard M. Jaeger, Professor Emeritus - University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Tracy Smith, Ph. D. - Appalachian State University; and John A. Hattie, Ph.D. - University of Auckland.

Founded in 1987, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan and non-government organization. Its mission is to establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. There are currently 4,804 National Board Certified Teachers in the United States.

For copies of the study's Executive Summary, please contact Ann E. Harman, director of research and information at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, by calling (703) 465-2700.

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