The Teacher's Guide to National Board Certification: Unpacking the Standards

National Board Certification is a highly-regarded credential attesting that a teacher has been judged by peers as one who is accomplished, makes sound professional judgments about student learning, and acts effectively on those judgments. More than 23,000 National Board Certified Teachers currently teach in schools across America. You could be the next one. Get a better chance of becoming one with this insider's view of the certification process.

Adrienne Mack-Kirschner's work with the National Board program makes her the ideal person to advise certification candidates. In her book, she virtually unpacks the "box" the National Board sends to candidates with all of the portfolio instructions, standards, and forms needed to apply. Mack-Kirschner makes sense of these materials, particularly those pertaining to the Five Core Propositions at the heart of NB certification. She makes the propositions user friendly, pulling them apart and explaining exactly what they mean. She also discusses classroom practices that are doable and effective, and that meet the criteria of the propositions. Her whole approach is practical, hands on, supportive.

Pick up The Teacher's Guide and begin with any section, read from cover to cover, or turn to specific topics. Discover the premises behind everything the National Board process requires of you, in addition to the nuts and bolts of completing the portfolio. Learn that the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is really not a scary thing, but an inspirational prototype for what accomplished practice can be. It motivates, validates, and ultimately celebrates good teaching. And good teaching is what YOU are all about.