In 1986, a report entitled "A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century," brought to attention the need for national standards for the teaching profession. In response, the National Board of Profession Teaching Standards, NBPTS, was born. The mission of this board was to put in place a set of educational teaching standards, a system of national teacher certification for those who met these standards, and to advocate for educational reform for the advancement of teacher quality and educational opportunities in our country.

The NBPTS developed a set of five core propositions that address what defines a quality teacher:
1)Teachers are committed to students and learning.
2)Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.
3)Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.
4)Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.
5)Teachers are members of learning communities. (1)
(These come directly from the NBPTS.)
From these propositions a set of teaching "standards" were derived in order to assess teacher quality. Since its inception, the NBPTS has awarded National Certification to close to 64,000 teachers. The National Certification process has been found to be an "effective professional development experience that positively affects teacher practices." (2)

In June, 2008, the National Research Council of National Academies released a report entitled, "Assessing Accomplished Teaching: Advanced-level Certification Programs." The NRC findings showed that student achievement was higher for National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs), that NBCTs used a wider variety of instructional practices and assessment strategies than prior to certification, and that the National Certification process provided a rigorous and valuable professional development experience. (3) Also, the NCR report suggests that the National Certification process has "taken the culture of teaching to a higher level." (2)

What is National Board Teacher Certification? Teachers who want to become nationally certified voluntarily apply to the NBPTS for certification. There are 25 available certificates in fifteen different subject areas ranging from art and physical education to library/media specialist and school counseling. Seven different age ranges are also covered including: Early Childhood (ages 3-8), Middle Childhood (ages 7-12), Early and Middle Childhood (ages

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