By: Todd Long
Submitted: 2011-07-30 23:46:45 | Word Count: 496
To begin the process of earning board certification, a candidate must first establish that he or she is qualified to apply. The candidate must have completed a bachelor's degree, have completed at least three full years of teaching or counseling before beginning the application process, and have had a valid teaching or counseling license throughout that period. After submitting documentation of eligibility, the candidate receive detailed instructions about the procedures for completing the entire assessment. The candidate must also submit payment of the test fee, which is currently $2,500.
The assessment consists of 10 exercises administered in two parts: a computer-based assessment of content knowledge that includes 6 constructed-response exercises, and a portfolio that consists of 4 exercises. Responses to the computer-based exercises and the portfolios are scored at designated times during the year, so the time that elapses between submitting an application and receiving certification depends on the time of year the candidate initiates the process, as well as on how long he or she takes to complete the portfolios and schedule the computer-based assessment. National board staff estimate that the typical candidate spends up to 400 hours on the 10 exercises. Given the deadlines throughout the year and the volume of work to be included in the portfolios, most candidates complete the process in approximately 12 to 18 months, but the national board will allow candidates to take as long as 3 years to complete all of the requirements before voiding early scores and asking the candidate to start again.
The board offers certification in 16 content areas of specialization covering 7 age groupings, for a total of 25 individual certificates, as shown in Table 4-1. The certificate is effective for 10 years and then must be renewed.
We described the development of the board's 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 learning. 4. Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student think systematically about their practice and learn from 5 experience. Teachers are members of learning communities.
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Although there are detailed content standards for each of the 25 fields for which certification is available, all of the certification-specific standards and assessments are based on these five core propositions. The content standards for each certification area are described in detailed booklets that are posted on the NBPTS website. Each standards document begins with an overview of the board's approach to determining and structuring its standards and then an introduction to the main issues pertaining to the certification area. All of the individual standards are presented in a two-part format: a definition of the standards, or standards statement, followed by elaboration. In the next sections, we briefly describe the standards for these two areas of certification: middle childhood generalist and middle childhood and early adolescence mathematics. As intellectually rigorous enough to join the ranks of the established professions.
