The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards administers a complex, demanding assessment designed to identify highly accomplished teachers. Your Report Card includes the total number of staff members in your school, including teachers, administrators, and counselors, who have received national certification. This section is based on March 2012 licensure data.
National Board Certification is offered by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. National Board Certification is not required for teaching in the state of North Carolina, but it is a voluntary way for teachers to seek additional professional credentials that recognize their advanced teaching skills and techniques. Candidates for National Board Certification gather a portfolio of their work (including student work samples, lesson plans, and videotapes of their teaching) and complete a detailed analysis of the work they are submitting. In addition, all candidates spend a full day taking examinations that focus on their content knowledge in their teaching field. To learn more about the National Board Certification process, visit the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards website.
The School Report Card allows you to compare the number of staff with Nationally Board Certification in your school with averages from similar schools at the district and state level. Use the district and state averages as reference points in reading school-level data. Remember that these averages only provide an indication of how favorable the data might be. It would be a mistake to judge a school as "better" or "worse" based only on slight differences in this data. A lack of National Board Certified teachers in your school is not an indication that your school's teachers are unqualified.
School similarity for district and state averages is determined based on the grades offered in your school. For technical information about when and how these data are collected, see the Data Sources & Information Guide.