NBPTS To Certify Principals Too

Last week, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), the organization that sets and maintains the standards for teacher excellence, launched the National Board Certification for Educational Leaders (NBCEL), which includes the development of National Board Certification for Principals.

“Just like our board certification process for teachers, we are working to create a rigorous and meaningful process that identifies what principals should know and be able to do,” said Joseph A. Aguerrebere, NBPTS president and chief executive officer, during a webcast that introduced the new program on December 8. “Just like board certification -- which is a career stage that is well accepted in other professions like medicine or accounting or architecture -- educators, more particularly principals, will be able to reach for a higher bar, achieve it, and be recognized for it.”

Like the teacher certification process that has been in place for 20 years, the process for certifying principals will be comprehensive and rigorous, and it will involve principals in creating a portfolio of evidence that confirms achievement of the standards of leadership, Aguerrebere explained. He added that it will be real, authentic, and relevant to the job; it will be tightly linked to performance and results for students; and it will be the gold standard for the profession -- a professional growth experience second to none in the field.

“The National Board is moving rapidly from a model focusing on one teacher at a time to a new model that focuses on a school at a time,” said Robert Wise, chairman of NBPTS. “It’s an exciting new era where the National Board framework has the potential to drive school-wide and district-wide change.”

In a recent NBPTS survey, 83 percent of school leader respondents and 69 percent of district leader respondents expressed interest in National Board Certification for Principals, which is expected to become available in 2011. Both school- and district-level leaders were most interested in a certification that would better prepare principals to lead systemic instructional improvement.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

National Board Certification for Educational Leaders Launch
View a December 8, 2009, webcast of the meeting at which NBPTS announced its principal certification program. (Running time: 1:30:00)

National Board Certification for Principals
Read the latest news about the program, or sign up for email updates about it.

National Board Cerification for Principals Brochure
This is the latest (12/4/2009) principal certification brochure. Certification will become available in 2011. (PDF format)