18 Renton Teachers Earn National Board Certification

Eighteen Renton School District teachers recently met the rigorous requirements to achieve National Board Certification for teachers. The district now has nearly 100 National Board Certified teachers.

In Washington state this year, 575 more teachers earned the prestigious National Board Certification, second only to North Carolina in the number of new board certified teachers. The state now ranks third in the nation with nearly 7,000 National Board Certified teachers.

Like board-certified doctors and accountants, teachers who achieve National Board Certification have met rigorous standards through intensive study, expert evaluation, self-assessment and peer review. The painstaking process can take hundreds of hours of professional and personal time to attain the certification that many consider the gold standard of teacher credentials.

The application process to receive National Board Certification includes submitting four classroom-based portfolio entries, each of which includes a video and student work. Teachers must also document their work outside of the classroom with colleagues, families, and the community, and detail how those efforts influence student learning. Candidates also complete six 30-minute exercises to demonstrate their content knowledge in the certificate field. Finally, a dozen trained evaluators in the same field appraise a candidate's portfolio submissions against National Board standards.

*Editor's Note: Information provided by the Renton School District.

More on Patch:

• Renton Gains 24 Nationally Board Certified Teachers, Jan., 2011