NATIONAL BOARD FOR PROFESSIONAL TEACHING STANDARDS

WHEREAS, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was created in May of 1987 as an independent, non-governmental, teacher-majority board to set high and rigorous standards for what experienced teachers should know and be able to do and to develop professional, performance-based assessments for certifying teachers who voluntarily sought recognition for reaching those standards; and

WHEREAS, the mission of the NBPTS is to professionalize and improve teaching and raise the quality of American education; and

WHEREAS, the NBPTS' vision of teaching radically breaks from the stereotypical and ill-founded view that accomplished teaching is merely a matter of being concerned about youngsters or knowing subject matter or mastering some teaching methods and techniques' or that what constitutes excellent teaching is only a matter of opinion; and

WHEREAS, NBPTS standards hold that accomplished teaching simultaneously involves command of subject matter and how to teach it to diverse students, managing and monitoring student learning, understanding how students develop and learn, thinking systematically about one's practice and working collegially on behalf of student learning; and

WHEREAS, the initial sets of NBPTS standards for accomplished teaching are exemplary and the initial NBPTS performance assessments, in sharp contrast to other teacher evaluation methods, are a professionally and technically defensible means for teachers to demonstrate what they know and are able to do in relation to diverse students; and

WHEREAS, the teachers who have been involved with the research, demonstration and field testing of NBPTS certification have all hailed the process as one of the most "if not the most" relevant, useful and stimulating professional development experiences of their careers, with direct benefits for their work with students; and

WHEREAS, the NBPTS standards for accomplished experienced teachers are an incentive for states to improve their licensure standards for beginning teachers and for teacher education institutions to improve the quality and practical relevance of their programs' and, in fact, are already beginning to have that effect; and

WHEREAS, the AFT has long opposed, and continues to oppose, traditional, so-called pay-for-performance schemes, such as merit pay, because they are characterized by subjectivity, favoritism, indefensible teacher evaluation criteria, quotas and other unprofessional features, and because they encourage the kind of unproductive competition that pits teacher against teacher and fails to improve the overall level of teaching, school quality and student achievement; and

WHEREAS, NBPTS certification is a teacher-led, professional activity that suffers from none of these defects, making it a legitimate basis for pay-for-knowledge/performance efforts in the education field; and

WHEREAS, NBPTS has demonstrated that it will not approve standards, assessments, scoring systems or other methods or products until they are deemed professionally and/or technically defensible; and

WHEREAS, prevailing incentive structures force many outstanding teachers who wish to remain in teaching to move instead into administrative and other non-teaching positions, but NBPTS certification can offer such teachers recognition and reward for continuing to work directly with students; and

WHEREAS, the prospect of attaining NBPTS certification can help to attract talented individuals into teaching and retain them; and

WHEREAS, the AFT convention in 1986 endorsed the report of the Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession, which recommended the creation of NBPTS and stated that the work of NBPTS "could serve in the future as a basis for the reconsideration of some of the AFT's traditional policies"; and

WHEREAS, the AFT convention in 1990 again supported the NBPTS by urging federal matching funds for NBPTS research and development, which Congress did indeed appropriate:

RESOLVED, that the AFT reaffirm its support of NBPTS certification as a means of defining, promoting and recognizing high professional standards for teachers and as a major development in the professionalization of teaching; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates encourage and support experienced teachers to seek NBPTS certification; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates, through legislative action and collective bargaining, work to make the costs of becoming NBPTS certified, both in time and money, affordable to experienced teachers through such mechanisms as incorporating NBPTS standards and preparation into staff development programs, reimbursing NBPTS fees of teachers who complete the certification process, allowing NBPTS certification to count in lieu of traditional continuing education or recertification requirements and other means appropriate to state and local conditions; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates support the concept of awarding a salary differential to experienced teachers who become NBPTS certified and devise and share information on productive collective-bargaining and other strategies for doing so; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates work to ensure that federal and state funding, school finance and other incentive policies enable poor school districts to have the same means to develop, attract and reward NBPTS-certified teachers as advantaged districts, so that low-income students and schools have the same benefit of Board-certified teachers as advantaged students and schools; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates recognize NBPTS certification as a legitimate and defensible basis for a pay-for-knowledge/performance system; and

RESOLVED, that as the full complement of NBPTS certificates comes on line, and in order to enhance the professional status of teachers in leadership roles, the AFT and its affiliates consider placing NBPTS certification among the qualifications for eligibility for such positions as mentor teacher or lead teacher or staff developer; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates gather information on its members' concerns about and experiences with NBPTS certification, in such areas as access, confidentiality, preserving the voluntary nature of seeking NBPTS certification, administrative abuse and other issues that may emerge, in order to inform its own future policies and to give advice to the NBPTS about the implementation and results of its policies; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates will share information on and resist any efforts by government officials or management to circumvent the policies, intent and spirit of the NBPTS through such actions as making NBPTS certification mandatory or using the results of the assessment for purposes for which the assessment was not intended or validated; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates continue to cooperate with NBPTS in developing, field testing, evaluating and refining NBPTS standards and assessments in order to ensure ongoing improvement in the products and process of NBPTS certification.