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Dana Egreczky
President, Business Coalition of Educational Excellence
Vice President, Workforce Development for the New Jersey
Chamber of Commerce
Ms. Egreczky serves as president of The Business Coalition
for Educational Excellence (BCEE), a business-driven grassroots
effort to establish policies and programs that support the
business agenda in educational reform. Dana talks in detail
about the reasons why the business community supports the
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification
process, and the BCEE’s involvement in recruiting
more teachers to apply for this certification. The BCEE
agrees with the National Board for Professional Teaching
Standards (NBPTS) that one of the best ways to improve schools
is to strengthen teaching, and that one of the highest measures
of this is the attainment of certification to the NBPTS.
The BCEE created a mentoring and training program for teachers
called the National Board Support Network (NBSN) that links
NB certified teachers with current applicants to help mentor
them through the rigorous application process. Since the
BCEE created the NBSN in 2002, and as a result of intensive
recruitment efforts, the number of NJ teachers applying
for certification has quadrupled, exceeding the original
goal of increasing applications by 50%.
Before NBSN was created, only 18% of NJ teachers who applied
for NB certification actually attained the credential, whereas
the passing rate in 2003 climbed to 31%. (Note: The national
average for 2003 was 40%). To date, New Jersey has 65 National
Board Certified teachers in comparison to North Carolina,
which boasts 6,645 NB certified teachers. The BCEE’s
goal is to ultimately have one certified teacher in every
New Jersey school. That translates into over 2,400 teachers.
NOTE: If teachers achieve National Board Certification,
they automatically are considered “highly qualified”
as required by the “No Child Left Behind” Act.
William L. Librera, Ed. D.
Commissioner of Education for the State of New Jersey
As commissioner, Librera oversees all aspects of public
school education including the implementation of the Governor’s
21-point education plan. Some components of the 21-point
plan are designed to improve teacher professional development,
such as encouraging teachers through incentives to apply
for National Board Certification. Librera believes that
teachers must be life-long learners today. He also thinks
that by sharing their own learning experiences with their
students, they teach them that there is always room to learn
and improve skills, no matter what age you are. He addresses
the National Board Certification incentives offered to teachers,
and why he thinks National Board Certification is an excellent
teacher professional development program. In fact, he believes
more programs should mirror the elements of National Board
Certification. This would allow teachers to work with clear
objectives, and to share, to teach, to self-evaluate their
classroom skills, to study what works and what doesn’t,
and then to modify practice based on this evaluation. Librera
says that this type of teacher professional development
is the essence of improving one's craft and recognizing
both the artistry and the science of teaching.
Before his appointment to Commissioner of Education, Librera
had accumulated more than 30 years experience in education
as a teacher, principal, and superintendent. He comes from
a teaching family. He is proud of his father, now in his
80’s, who was a life-long teacher and a great role
model for him.
Edithe Fulton
President, New Jersey Education Association
Edithe Fulton is President of the New Jersey Education Association
(NJEA) which has provided union representation for many New
Jersey teachers for over 150 years. NJEA is committed to effective professional development
for teachers but calls for less emphasis on traditional
professional development experiences like workshops and
speakers, and encouragement of more varied experiences that
can be incorporated into individuals' teaching practice
and day-to-day work. They believe good professional development
techniques include action research, collegial coaching,
cooperative learning, mentoring, study groups, and teacher
portfolios. The NJEA supports national board certification
of New Jersey teachers (which is administered by the National
Board for Professional Teaching Standards “NBPTS”)
but has several concerns:
1. Not all teaching disciplines were included.
Certificates were not offered for all subjects that teachers
teach. It is true that the NBPTS adds additional certificates
as they are ready to do so, but if all teachers cannot pursue
the program, it has diminished value in "raising the
bar" for all practitioners.
2. The cost to pursue NBPTS certification
is a significant issue for teachers who may not be making
high salaries. The Association is aware that the state of
New Jersey is currently offering to subsidize the costs
for teachers who pursue the NBPTS certification, but the
level of help does not cover all costs and would not cover
all applicants if there were significant numbers of teachers
interested.
3. Some people, both in and out of education
and government, seem to equate the NBPTS certificate with
teacher certification or licensure. New Jersey already has
strict state certification requirements for teachers. The
NJEA shares the National Board for Professional Teaching
Standards (NBPTS) mission to advance the quality of teaching
and learning by promoting high and rigorous standards for
what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.
It also supports the NBPTS practice that requires standards
established for each teaching discipline be formulated by
practicing teachers in the field. The NJEA recognizes the
NBPTS program as a voluntary professional development option.
Michael C. Randall
National Board Certified Teacher, Newark School District
Michael is a national board certified teacher in the Newark
School District and has been teaching for 30 years. He is
currently teaching at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary
School in Newark, New Jersey as a Computer Writing Laboratory
Teacher, a Gifted and Talented Teacher, and School Test
Coordinator. Michael was the first teacher from New Jersey
to be elected to serve on the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards (two terms: 1993-1999). This year Michael
achieved his National Board Certification (NBC) in Early
Adolescence English Language Arts. He says it is important
to note that you can achieve NBC at your own pace. You don’t
have to do it all in one year. It took him three years.
He says that even if a teacher doesn’t achieve certification,
going through the process actually improves teaching. “In
this scenario, failure is feedback because failure is not
an option when you are truly learning.” He suggests
that teachers can go to the NBPTS Web site (www.nbpts.org)
to preview the requirements for National Board Standards
in their discipline before deciding to apply and find answers
to questions they might have. Teachers shouldn’t go
it alone. They should try to get support from their school
districts and also find support through BCEE’s National
Board Support Network. Michael suggests that teachers volunteer
as an NBC assessor who judges applications, as it will serve
as professional development and improve their own practices
by looking at the way other teachers approach teaching.
He was voted 1990 "Teacher Of The Year" at E.
Alma Flagg Elementary School in Newark, New Jersey.
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