Seven D.C. public school teachers will be honored later this month for securing a rigorous national distinction, which the District has pursued only minimally compared with some states.
The teachers now make up a group of 24 D.C. public school instructors that have received National Board certification in the 20 years that the certification has been in existence.
Nationally, more than 64,000 teachers have earned the honor.
Six of the newly certified teachers come from the D.C. Public Schools system, while the other one is a public charter school teacher, according to John Stokes, spokesman for the State Superintendent’s Office. Each will receive a $4,000 bonus, officials said.
While a state teaching license is awarded mainly for meeting basic educational requirements, national certification can take more than a year to win and is designed to separate talented and more experienced teachers from the rest of the crop.
Applicants spend months completing a portfolio that outlines how standards-based lessons guide their students’ learning and undergo a challenging computerized test. Susan Carmon, associate director of the National Education Association’s Teacher Quality program, said her organization has pushed certification because of its demonstrated value.
“Members have told us by the hundreds that the process was transformative and had an incredibly positive impact on their teaching practice,” she said. The number of teachers who have won certification has been growing steadily but is not as high as hoped when national education groups set a goal of 100,000 more than a decade ago, she said.
NEA’s goal is for states to have 10 percent of their teachers nationally certified. Stokes said in the past few years, zero, one or at the most two teachers have passed all the tests to win the certification at any one time. So, having seven pass this year is a big jump. Forty more teachers are working toward the certification.
