Research On National Board For Professional Teaching Standards

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), an organization for certifying accomplished teachers, founded in 1987 under the appeal in all walks of life for rising teachers' quality in America. This paper analyzes the foundation background, the personnel composing, the sources of funds, the certifying procedures and the influences of NBPTS, etc. Finally, in view of the certifying method of accomplished teachers in China and lessons from NBPTS, suggestions are made about how to certifying accomplished teachers in our country.Part One analyzes the background of the NBPTS foundation. In the 1980s, economy recession and the new technological revolution urged the United States of America to reconsider problems in Education. Many researches indicated that teachers' quality was directly related to education quality. In order to assure teachers' quality, A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century (Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy) clearly pointed out that the United States of America needed to establish a national board for professional teaching standards in order to improve teachers' quality through certifying accomplished teachers. In 1987, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) founded.Part Two introduces the personnel composing and the sources of funds of NBPTS. NBPTS is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan and nongovernmental organization and consists of the Board of Directors and the Standards Committee. After analyzing the personnel composing of the two departments, we find that teachers make up the majority of the two departments' staff, which represents the professional teaching characteristic of NBPTS. Although NBPTS is a nongovernmental organization, the funds of NBPTS come from government besides fees from applicants and donations from enterprises.Part Three introduces the certifying procedures of NBPTS, including the five core propositions, the eligibility for teachers who apply for National Board Certification, the content of portfolio, the means of assessment center and how to score all the certifying procedures.Part Four estimates the influences of NBPTS. Although there are researches suspecting the National Certified Teachers' teaching quality and the means of the certifying procedure, most researches reflects that the National Certified Teachers is superior to other teachers in improving students' achievement. Moreover, teachers themselves have gained a lot though the certifying procedure. As a whole, NBPTS's work is successful.Part Five makes suggestions about how to certify accomplished teachers in China in view of our country's ways of certifying accomplished teachers as well as the merits and weaknesses of NBPTS: establish a professional organization to certify accomplished teachers based on professional and scientific standards. In order to balance the distribution of accomplished teachers, our government needs to constitute policies concerning the accomplished teachers certifying, which will insure the certifying work carrying out smoothly.