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National Board Certified Teachers and Their Students' Achievement Leslie G. Vandevoort Audrey Amrein-Beardsley David C. Berliner Arizona State University Citation: Vandevoort, L. G., Amrein-Beardsley, A. & Berliner, D. C. (2004, September 8). National board certified teachers and their students' achievement. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 12(46). Retrieved [date] from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n46/. Abstract Contemporary research on teaching indicates that teachers are powerful contributors to students’ academic achievement, though the set and interrelationships of characteristics that make for high-quality and effective teaching have yet to be satisfactorily determined. Nevertheless, on the basis of the extant research and a vision of exemplary teaching, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards stipulated a definition of a superior teacher. The Board did this without empirical evidence to support their claim that teachers’ who meet the standards set by the Board were superior in promoting academic achievement to those who did not meet those standards. In the 17 years since the founding of the National Board, only a few empirical studies have addressed this important issue. In this study we compare the academic performance of students in the elementary classrooms of 35 National Board Certified teachers and their non-certified peers, in 14 Arizona school districts. Board Certified teachers and their principals provide additional information about these teachers and their schools. Four years of results from the Stanford Achievement Tests in reading, mathematics and language arts, in grades three through six, were analyzed. In the 48 comparisons (four grades, four years of data, three measures of academic performance), using gain scores adjusted for students’ entering ability, the students in the classes of National Board Certified Teachers surpassed students in the classrooms of non-Board certified teachers in almost threequarters of the comparisons. Almost one-third of these differences were statistically significant. In the cases where the students of non-Board certified teachers gained more in an academic year, none of the differences found were statistically significant. Effect size, translated into grade equivalents, informs us that the gains made by students of Board Certified teachers were over one month greater than the gains made by the students of non-Board certified peer teachers. Teachers identified through the assessments of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards are, on average, more effective teachers in terms of academic achievement, one of the many outcomes of education for which teachers are responsible. This study does not address whether other, cheaper, or better alternatives to the National Boards exist, as some critics suggest. On the other hand, the results of this study provide support for the policies in many states that honor and provide extra remuneration for National Board Certified Teachers. Access this article in PDF format.

The World Wide Web address for the Education Policy Analysis Archives is epaa.asu.edu Editor: Gene V Glass, Arizona State University Production Assistant: Chris Murrell, Arizona State University General questions about appropriateness of topics or particular articles may be addressed to the Editor, Gene V Glass, glass@asu.edu or reach him at College of Education, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2411. The Commentary Editor is Casey D. Cobb: casey.cobb@unh.edu. EPAA Editorial Board Michael W. Apple University of Wisconsin David C. Berliner Arizona State University Greg Camilli Rutgers University Linda Darling-Hammond Stanford University Sherman Dorn University of South Florida Mark E. Fetler California Commission on Teacher Credentialing Gustavo E. Fischman Arizona State Univeristy Richard Garlikov Birmingham, Alabama Thomas F. Green Syracuse University Aimee Howley Ohio University Craig B. Howley Appalachia Educational Laboratory William Hunter University of Ontario Institute of Technology Patricia Fey Jarvis Seattle, Washington Daniel Kallós Umeå University Benjamin Levin University of Manitoba Thomas Mauhs-Pugh Green Mountain College Les McLean University of Toronto Heinrich Mintrop University of California, Los Angeles Michele Moses Arizona State University Gary Orfield Harvard University Anthony G. Rud Jr. Purdue University Jay Paredes Scribner University of Missouri Michael Scriven University of Auckland Lorrie A. Shepard University of Colorado, Boulder Robert E. Stake University of Illinois—UC Kevin Welner University of Colorado, Boulder Terrence G. Wiley Arizona State University John Willinsky University of British Columbia EPAA Spanish & Portuguese Language Editorial Board Associate Editors Gustavo E. Fischman Arizona State University & Pablo Gentili Laboratório de Políticas Públicas Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro Founding Associate Editor for Spanish Language (1998—2003) Roberto Rodríguez Gómez Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Argentina Alejandra Birgin Ministerio de Educación, Argentina       Email: abirgin@me.gov.ar Mónica Pini Universidad Nacional de San Martin, Argentina       Email: mopinos@hotmail.com, Mariano Narodowski Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina       Email: Daniel Suarez Laboratorio de Politicas Publicas-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina       Email: daniel@lpp-buenosaires.net Brasil Gaudêncio Frigotto Professor da Faculdade de Educação e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brasil       Email: gfrigotto@globo.com Vanilda Paiva       Email:vppaiva@terra.com.br Lilian do Valle Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil       Email: lvalle@infolink.com.br Romualdo Portella do Oliveira Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil       Email: romualdo@usp.br Roberto Leher Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil       Email: rleher@uol.com.br Dalila Andrade de Oliveira Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil       Email: dalila@fae.ufmg.br Nilma Limo Gomes Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte       Email: nilmagomes@uol.com.br Iolanda de Oliveira Faculdade de Educação da Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brasil       Email: iolanda.eustaquio@globo.com Walter Kohan Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil       Email: walterko@uol.com.br Canadá Daniel Schugurensky Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada       Email: dschugurensky@oise.utoronto.ca Chile Claudio Almonacid Avila Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, Chile       Email: caa@rdc.cl María Loreto Egaña Programa Interdisciplinario de Investigación en Educación (PIIE), Chile       Email: legana@academia.cl España José Gimeno Sacristán Catedratico en el Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Escolar de la Universidad de Valencia, España       Email: Jose.Gimeno@uv.es Mariano Fernández Enguita Catedrático de Sociología en la Universidad de Salamanca. España       Email: enguita@usal.es Miguel Pereira Catedratico Universidad de Granada, España       Email: mpereyra@aulae.es Jurjo Torres Santomé Universidad de A Coruña       Email: jurjo@udc.es Angel Ignacio Pérez Gómez Universidad de Málaga       Email: aiperez@uma.es México Hugo Aboites Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, México       Email: aavh4435@cueyatl.uam.mx Susan Street Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social Occidente, Guadalajara, México       Email: slsn@mail.udg.mx Adrián Acosta Universidad de Guadalajara       Email: adrianacosta@compuserve.com Teresa Bracho Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica-CIDE       Email: bracho dis1.cide.mx Alejandro Canales Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México       Email: canalesa@servidor.unam.mx Rollin Kent Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. Puebla, México       Email: rkent@puebla.megared.net.mx Perú Sigfredo Chiroque Instituto de Pedagogía Popular, Perú       Email: pedagogia@chavin.rcp.net.pe Grover Pango Coordinador General del Foro Latinoamericano de Políticas Educativas, Perú       Email: grover-eduforo@terra.com.pe Portugal Antonio Teodoro Director da Licenciatura de Ciências da Educação e do Mestrado Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Lisboa, Portugal       Email: a.teodoro@netvisao.pt USA Pia Lindquist Wong California State University, Sacramento, California       Email: wongp@csus.edu Nelly P. Stromquist University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California       Email: nellystromquist@juno.com Diana Rhoten Social Science Research Council, New York, New York       Email: rhoten@ssrc.org Daniel C. Levy University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, New York       Email: Dlevy@uamail.albany.edu Ursula Casanova Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona       Email: casanova@asu.edu Erwin Epstein Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois       Email: eepstei@wpo.it.luc.edu Carlos A. Torres University of California, Los Angeles       Email: torres@gseisucla.edu