A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

FOR RELEASE
May 31, 2000

Contact:
David Thomas
(202) 401-1579

$18.5 MILLION GRANT TO SUPPORT
NATIONAL BOARD FOR PROFESSIONAL TEACHING STANDARDS

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley announced today the award of a $18.5 million grant to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) to continue development of a national, voluntary certification system for America's teachers.

Since 1995, when the first group of National Board Certified teachers was announced, 4,803 teachers have been certified. Currently, nearly 10,000 teachers are seeking National Board Certification in the 1999-2000 cycle. This is the first of five grants, totaling $67 million, the Education Department expects to make to the NBPTS through 2004.

During the five-year grant period, the board aims to complete the national certification system, as well as establish intensive outreach, marketing and candidate support activities.

"In just five years, we have seen a significant increase in nationally certified teachers from just under 100 to nearly 5,000. The president has set us on track to getting at least one of these 'master teachers' in every school by 2006," Riley said. "I am so glad that our continued support for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is helping to provide America's teachers with a useful barometer for what they should know and be able to do."

Created in 1987, NBPTS' mission is to establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do, develop and operate a national voluntary system to assess and certify teachers who meet these standards, and to advance related education reforms aimed at improving student learning. The board is an independent, non-profit organization governed by a 63-member board of directors, the majority of whom are classroom teachers.

To become board-certified, teachers must demonstrate their knowledge and skills through a series of performance-based assessments that include teaching portfolios, student work samples, videotapes and rigorous analyses of their classroom teaching and student learning.

Thirty-eight states and more than 163 local school districts offer some form of incentive or reward for teachers seeking National Board Certification.

NBPTS is funded by the department's Eisenhower Professional Development Federal Activities Program, in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

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