Tennessee Teachers Earn National Board Certification

NASHVILLE – Forty-six Tennessee teachers have recently earned National Board Certification, a stringent, voluntary certification process administered by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. With a more than 20 percent increase in the number of teachers who achieved certification over last year, to date 338 Tennessee teachers have met the National Board Certification requirements which can take between one and three years to complete.

“It is more important now that ever that we have teachers who are passionate about their work and who continue to improve in order to better serve their students,” said Education Commissioner Timothy Webb. “We want to make sure all of our teachers are in top shape as we begin the process of increasing our standards for students in the coming school years.”

Candidates undergo a 10-part evaluation process specific to the teacher’s discipline, including performance assessments of teaching strategies and written exercises to assess subject knowledge. To be eligible, a teacher must be a college graduate with a professional teaching license and have at least three years experience in the classroom.

All applicants must submit an evaluation portfolio, including: Two video recordings of classroom teaching demonstrating interactions between the candidates and students, one written analysis and reflection of a collection of student work, documentation of work completed outside the classroom and evidence of how it has impacted student learning and six online constructed response questions demonstrating subject-matter expertise.

Our top five schools district in terms of cumulative totals of NBC teachers are Memphis City Schools (135), Metro Nashville Public Schools (21), Williamson County Schools (21), Johnson City Schools (20) and Franklin City Schools (15).

This announcement comes several months after the National Research Council confirmed that students taught by National Board Certified Teachers make higher gains on achievement tests that those taught by teachers who have not applied or have not achieved advanced certification, according to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

To view a list of teachers in Tennessee, please visit www.nbpts.org/resources/nbct_directory.

For more information, contact Rachel Woods at (615) 253-1960 or Rachel.Woods@state.tn.us. 

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