Nearly 200 WCPSS Teachers Earn National Board Certification
December 16, 2009 – Nearly 200 Wake County Public School System educators earned certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards this year, continuing WCPSS leadership in supporting teachers who pursue and achieve National Board Certification.The list of WCPSS teachers earning certification 6 page Adobe Acrobat file |
WCPSS is second in the nation and number one in the state in the total number of teachers who have earned certification.
For the second year in a row, WCPSS had 197 educators earn certification. With this latest round of certification, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards reports that they have certified a total of 1,702 WCPSS teachers.
The NC Department of Public Instruction reports that 1,509 teachers earned certification across the state this year. DPI reports that 15,695 North Carolina teachers have earned certification from the National Board.
Top WCPSS Schools
Green Hope High had seven teachers earn National Board certification, the most of any WCPSS school this year.
Six teachers earned certification at Athens Drive High and Salem Middle. Five earned certification at Cary High, Southeast Raleigh High, Holly Ridge Middle, Cedar Fork Elementary and Millbrook Elementary.
WCPSS had 96 elementary, 48 middle, 51 high school and two Special Education Services teachers earn certification this year.
Certification has Benefits
Green Hope principal James Hedrick says he encourages teachers who are seeking certification and realizes that it benefits teaching.
“We encourage teachers seeking certification to pair up with someone else who is undertaking this task at the same time,” said Hedrick. “We have found that they can serve as a support system for each other.” The school also seeks to match teachers going through certification with teachers who have earned certification, providing them a person to turn to for advice.
At Southeast Raleigh High, principal Buelah Wright says a staff member serves as a career development coordinator and offers a mentoring program to teachers going through certification. She says the educator helps teachers from Southeast Raleigh High and other schools.
Since Southeast Raleigh High is a magnet school, Wright says the school is able to market the fact that a number of the school’s teachers have earned certification to interested parents.
Hedrick says the certification process serves to let parents, students and teachers know that teaching is a dynamic profession. He says through their efforts to earn certification teachers show that continuous growth and learning is good.
“It shows a teacher’s commitment to the art that is teaching, and it demonstrates that they are intent on improving their skill set as a teacher,” said Hedrick. “Once they have completed this process, I have to believe that the confidence that they have gained from this carries over to the classroom and our students are the primary beneficiary.”
Hedrick says it’s a great challenge for teachers to go through the certification process and the benefits that teachers earning certification bring back to the school are immeasurable.
Certification is Symbol of Excellence
In a congressionally mandated report, the National Research Council (NRC) confirmed that National Board certified teachers advance student achievement and learning, stay in the classroom longer, support new and struggling teachers and assume other school leadership roles. The NRC acknowledged that students taught by National Board certified teachers make higher gains on achievement tests than students taught by non-board-certified teachers.
National Board Certification is a voluntary assessment program designed to recognize and reward great teachers—and make them better. While state licensing systems set basic requirements to teach in each state, National Board certified teachers have successfully demonstrated advanced teaching knowledge, skills and practices. Certification is achieved through a rigorous, performance-based assessment that typically takes one to three years to complete.
Created by educators and policymakers in 1987, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards advances the quality of teaching and learning by developing professional standards for accomplished teaching; creating and administering National Board Certification, a voluntary system to certify teachers who meet those standards.
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