Volume 8, Number 21        July, 2005       ISSN 1099-839X 
 

 

Taking on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: 

Alignment, Recognition and Representation  

 
Frank Serafini 

University of Nevada, Las Vegas 

 
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was 

established in 1987 to develop and operate a system of advanced certification; 

including a set of high and rigorous standards of accomplished teaching and an 

assessment system designed to measure these standards. Utilizing a qualitative, 

case study framework, this research project was designed to investigate the 

meaning perspectives associated with the NBPTS certification process from the 

point of view of a National Board candidate interacting with the procedures, 

assessments and requirements necessary to achieve certification. The study 

asserts the candidate focused on the alignment of her teaching to the vision of 

accomplished practice set forth in the NBPTS standards, the possible 

recognition of being NBPTS certified, and the challenges with representing 

teaching practices through the assessment vehicles provided in the certification 

process.  

“The mission of the National Board is to establish 

high and rigorous standards for what accomplished 

teachers should know and be able to do, to develop 

and operate a national voluntary system to assess and 

certify those teachers who meet these standards, and 

to advance related education reforms for the purpose 

of improving student learning in American schools.” 

(NBPTS, 1989). In the opening statement from the 

document entitled, “Towards High and Rigorous 

Standards: What Accomplished Teachers Should 

Know and Be Able To Do” (NBPTS, 1989), the 

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards 

(NBPTS) expresses its mission to create a set of 

standards that describe in detail the board’s vision of 

accomplished practice, and a certification system 

designed to assess and certify teachers who match 

this vision.  

The NBPTS was initiated to increase the 

professional development of teachers, the status of 

the teaching profession and the quality of education 

in America (NBPTS, 1987). By establishing high and 

rigorous standards, and developing an extensive 

assessment and certification system, it has been 

suggested that the NBPTS will have a profound 

effect both politically and professionally on the 

teaching community nationwide (Baratz-Snowden, 

Shapiro & Streeter, 1993). Because of the influence 

the NBPTS certification process may have on 

classroom teachers throughout the United States, it is 

important to understand the meanings teachers 

construct concerning the NBPTS standards, the 

certification process and its relationship to their 

classroom teaching practices.  

The standards movement in education, of 

which the NBPTS is associated, has had an extensive 

effect on the way teaching, learning and professional 

development is enacted in public schools (Noddings, 

1997). Like any standards based educational reform 

movement, the unifying influences and the 

assessments that accompany the NBPTS certification 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Current Issues in Education Vol. 8 No. 21 
 
process offer possibilities, as well as challenges, in 

both political and educational arenas (Eisner, 1998). 

As a relative newcomer in the professional 

development arena, the NBPTS process has yet to be 

fully documented and understood from the 

perspective of the teacher candidates proceeding 

through the certification process.  

In numerous educational publications, 

classroom teachers that have gone through the 

certification process have written about the effects 

the NBPTS process has had on their lives and 

teaching practices (Cascio, 1995; Rose, 1999; 

Shapiro, 1993). These reports have been 

overwhelmingly positive, expressing the impact the 

NBPTS process has had on teachers’ teaching 

practices, thinking processes, the enhanced status of 

the teaching profession and the improvements in the 

quality of education provided their students (Buday 

& Kelly, 1996).  

Classroom teachers, university educators, 

state legislators and members of the business 

community have come together to create what the 

NBPTS describes as "high and rigorous standards" 

for a variety of teacher specializations within the 

teaching profession (NBPTS, 1987). The NBPTS 

certification process may represent a significant 

change in the way professional development and 

teacher certification is implemented, with all the 

inherent possibilities and challenges associated with 

such an endeavor (Petrosky, 1994).  

In contrast to the testimonial evidence 

provided by various NBPTS candidates and certified 

teachers, this study seeks to add to the research 

literature by describing and interpreting the meaning 

perspectives associated with the NBPTS process, as 

constructed by an elementary classroom teacher 

seeking National Board Certification in the Early 

Childhood Generalist category of specialization. 

Working from an interpretivist research paradigm 

(Erickson, 1986), using a single-case study design 

(Stake, 1994), this research project was designed to 

gain access to the meaning perspectives associated 

with the NBPTS certification process from the point 

of view of a National Board candidate interacting 

with the procedures, assessments and requirements 

necessary to achieve certification..  

A Brief History of the NBPTS 

In response to recommendations made by 

the Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession, 

the NBPTS was created in 1987 to serve two distinct 

purposes: (a) the creation of an assessment and 

certification system to offer teachers an advanced 

certification, and (b) to establish a standards setting 

board to develop standards in as many as thirty-six 

separate teaching certification areas (Carnegie 

Forum, 1986). In addition to the standards and 

certification system designed to recognize 

accomplished teaching, the NBPTS was initiated to 

provide a staff development model based on the high 

and rigorous standards created by classroom teachers 

and other educators, legislators, school board 

members, business community members and 

educational researchers (Carnegie Forum, 1986).  

The NBPTS is governed by a sixty-three 

member board, a majority of whom are practicing 

classroom teachers. The NBPTS is described as a 

non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental 

organization that was initiated to respond to the claim 

that the teaching profession, unlike medicine, 

architecture or accounting, has not codified the 

knowledge, skills and dispositions that account for 

accomplished practice and that certain 

misconceptions about what constitutes good teaching 

continue to exist (Baratz-Snowden, Shapiro & 

Streeter, 1993).  

Classroom teachers can apply for NBPTS 

certification in any of the twenty-four specializations, 

ranging from Early Childhood Generalist to Young 

Adult English Language Arts. Each of these 

certifications align to the NBPTS standards 

developed by teachers, for teachers, intended to 

create a unified vision of teaching across the United 

States (Ambach, 1996). The goal of the NBPTS in 

the next decade is to certify over 100,000 teachers, 

roughly one for every school in the United States.  

Possibilities and Challenges  

 The NBPTS certification process and its 

accompanying assessment system have been touted 

as a model for professional development (French, 

1997), a unique process for certifying accomplished 

teachers and attracting qualified individuals into the 

teaching profession (Shapiro, 1993), a vision of 

excellence in teaching that combines the wisdom of 

practice of outstanding teachers with consensus 

among the broader education community (Barringer, 

1993) and a process that requires teachers to think 

and talk about their practice in ways they have never 

done before (Mitchell, 1998). Proponents of the 

NBPTS system suggest the certification process and 

the development of rigorous teaching standards will 

increase the professional standing of the teaching 

profession, create a sense of collegiality among 

teachers, develop teachers that are more reflective 

and cognizant of their practice, create a consistent, 

unified vision of accomplished teaching and instill in 

the general public a positive image of public 

education (Buday & Kelly, 1996; NBPTS, 1989). 

The positive outcomes proposed by supporters of the 

NBPTS certification system include: (a) an enhanced 

status accorded public school teachers, (b) the 

recognition of accomplished practice as represented 

by the NBPTS certification process, (c) the attraction 



Taking On the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Alignment, Recognition and Representation  

  

3 

 

of qualified teachers to the profession, (d) the 

promotion of reflective practice, (e) enhanced 

collegial relationships among teachers, and (f) the use 

of new assessment procedures to capture the 

complexities inherent in accomplished teaching.  

In contrast to the positive outcomes 

suggested by NBPTS proponents, other educators 

have levied challenges to the NBPTS standards, 

assessments and certification system. Educators have 

challenged the NBPTS process on the grounds that it 

will create a competitive atmosphere rather than the 

collegiality it purports to establish (Marshall, 1996), 

and will create unnecessary distinctions between 

teachers, leading to an informal hierarchy in the 

teaching profession, rather than the unifying vision 

the board proposes (King, 1994). Still other educators 

have claimed that the NBPTS standards and criteria 

are not consistent with what many scholars have 

described as culturally sensitive teaching pedagogies 

(Irvine & Fraser, 1998). Another challenge levied 

against the NBPTS is the trend that minority teachers, 

especially African American teachers, are achieving 

NBPTS certification in disproportionate numbers 

(Bond, 1998).  

Finally, Labaree (1992) suggests that the 

standards themselves represent a normative force on 

teaching practices, when the teaching profession 

should be celebrating its diversity and creative 

differences, rather than a solitary vision of 

accomplished teaching. It is possible that the rigorous 

standards outlining the NBPTS vision of 

accomplished practice, and the reflective or 

systematic thinking that teachers engage in during the 

certification process, improve the quality of 

classroom teaching, whereas the assessment 

procedures utilized by the NBPTS are merely a 

traditional, numerical scoring device, designed to 

certify and normalize accomplished teaching.  

A review of the literature revealed a sense of 

“skeptical optimism” about the future of the NBPTS 

standards and its assessment process. Although the 

NBPTS teaching standards may reflect a vision of 

accomplished teaching that more teachers may be 

able to demonstrate in the years ahead, one should 

remain cautious about the standards-based reform 

movement in general, the hierarchy of teachers that 

may result from NBPTS certification, the assessment 

system's ability to distinguish and certify 

accomplished teaching and the means of representing 

quality teaching given the vehicles provided by the 

NBPTS certification system (Serafini, 2002). 

Research Questions 

Interpretivist research designs are emergent 

and flexible, allowing for the construction of 

knowledge and changes in data collection and 

perspectives during the study (Erickson, 1986). 

However, the following questions provided an initial 

focus for the study: (a) What are the meaning 

perspectives associated with the NBPTS process as 

constructed by an elementary classroom teacher 

involved in the NBPTS certification process for Early 

Childhood Education?, (b) How are the standards and 

the certification process interpreted by the candidate 

as the candidate progressed through the requirements 

towards achieving certification?, (c) How does the 

NBPTS certification process and the accompanying 

standards define the Core Proposition "thinking 

systematically about one's teaching and learning from 

one's experience?, and (d) What is the focus of the 

teacher's systematic thinking as the candidate 

progresses through the certification process?  

Theoretical Framework 

This study was conducted from the 

perspective of an interpretivist research paradigm 

(Erickson, 1986). It is a qualitative study designed to 

understand and describe the interpretations of a 

candidate going through the NBPTS certification 

process. Since the majority of studies conducted by 

NBPTS researchers are quantitative studies intending 

to understand the overall effects of the NBPTS 

certification system and standards setting process, 

this study focuses on an individual candidate 

throughout the certification process. This study was 

conducted to describe in detail the meanings 

associated with the NBPTS process from the 

perspective of a classroom teacher and to construct 

warranted assertions of the NBPTS process.  

Based on the idea that individuals construct 

and assign meanings to the objects and events in their 

lives and act according to these constructions 

(Erickson, 1986), research methods were employed 

to describe and interpret the meanings associated 

with the NBPTS process by the teacher candidate 

attempting to achieve certification. Interpretivist 

research is based on the interpretation of naturally 

occurring events and the representation of those 

events to the public. It is a reconstruction of the 

meaning perspectives held by the actors in their 

natural settings. Merriam (1998) writes, "… reality is 

constructed by individuals interacting in their social 

worlds. Qualitative [interpretivist] researchers are 

interested in understanding the meaning people have 

constructed, (italics in original) that is, how they 

make sense of their world and the experiences they 

have in the world" (p.6).  

Stake (1994) states, " a case study is defined 

by interest in individual cases, not by methods of 

inquiry used." (p. 236). Cases are constructed based 

on the conceptual framework of the researcher, the 

physical and temporal distinctions of time and place, 

the theoretical frameworks brought to the study, and 



Current Issues in Education Vol. 8 No. 21 
 
the paradigms the researcher holds to be important 

(Ragin & Becker, 1992).  

Participants and Setting 

The researcher worked as a staff 

development facilitator at an elementary school in an 

urban center in the southwest United States helping 

classroom teachers develop child-centered and 

literature-based approaches to reading and literacy 

education. The researcher worked in approximately 

thirty different classrooms each week demonstrating 

approaches to literacy instruction, responding to 

various teachers efforts during their classroom 

instruction and offering resources and support for 

their professional growth. 

It was in the position of staff developer that 

Jennifer, the National Board teacher candidate who 

participated in this study (all names in this study are 

pseudonyms) was introduced to the researcher. 

Jennifer’s primary, multiage classroom (grades K-2) 

can best be described as a child-centered, multiage 

classroom. A workshop format was employed in 

language arts instruction. Math instruction utilized 

manipulatives and problem-solving activities, while 

science instruction included hands-on experiments 

and inquiry-based thematic units.  

Jennifer’s classroom contained 

approximately twenty-four students throughout the 

course of the study. The demographic makeup of her 

classroom was fifty percent Hispanic, thirty percent 

Caucasian, and twenty percent African American. 

The school in which she worked was part of the 

federal Title One program, with eighty percent of the 

school’s children receiving free or reduced priced 

lunches. 

In her sixth year as a primary grade teacher, 

Jennifer decided that she would apply for NBPTS 

certification. After learning of her decision to pursue 

NBPTS certification, the researcher approached her 

to participate in a research study focusing on the 

NBPTS certification process. Two factors were 

important in making the decision to select Jennifer. 

First, Jennifer was one of only twenty teachers 

applying for certification in the geographical 

proximity, and second, because of the working 

relationship that had been established between 

teacher and staff development facilitator, the 

researcher felt comfortable approaching Jennifer with 

this request. Stake (1994) explains that the primary 

consideration in selecting a case is opportunity to 

learn and access to the context to be studied.  

Jennifer 

Jennifer was considered by many of her 

colleagues to be an outstanding teacher even before 

she applied for the NBPTS certification process. 

Jennifer was a member of several professional 

organizations, including the National Council 

Teachers of English and the International Reading 

Association, and hade presented at several 

conferences prior to the onset of the study. The two 

principals that Jennifer worked for during her tenure 

as a classroom teacher had called on her to lead staff 

development workshops at their respective schools, 

had appointed her lead teacher for her grade level, 

and gave her exemplary teacher evaluations over her 

years working with them. In general, Jennifer was 

considered an outstanding teacher, one that had 

earned the respect of many of her colleagues and 

administrators. 

Data Sources 
This study involved the collection of five 

types of data: (a) interview transcripts, (b) journal 

entries, (c) NBPTS documents, (d) portfolio artifacts 

and interpretive commentaries created by the 

candidate for submission to the NBPTS assessors, 

and (e) observational field notes taken during support 

group meetings. However, the majority of data used 

in the study was collected primarily through a series 

of open interviews, where the candidate simply 

recounted any work and involvement with the 

NBPTS process since the last interview, and semi-

structured interviews where a selection of questions 

were created before the interview and presented to 

the candidate during the interview. 

Electronic mail (e-mail) was utilized to send 

Jennifer excerpts from the previous weeks’ 

interviews in order to have her check the transcripts 

for accuracy. These email notes also served as 

prompts for our future interviews. In a sense, the 

excerpts from the interviews served as a "member 

check" during the course of the year long interview 

process (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), allowing Jennifer to 

clarify and expand on her interview statements. 

Information from previous interviews was regularly 

used to begin subsequent interviews, allowing the 

candidate the opportunity to clarify particular 

statements or expand on any points she had 

previously offered. In addition, the candidate kept a 

reflective journal during the course of the NBPTS 

certification process to wrote about her thoughts and 

concerns. The reflective journal entries offered a 

unique perspective, one that was not always available 

in field notes or interview data.  

Prior to the study, the NBPTS distributed, as 

part of its information campaign and public 

awareness efforts, many brochures, articles, web-site 

resources, and information packets outlining the 

intentions, procedures, and mission of the NBPTS 

certification process and organization. These sources 

of information were analyzed to investigate 

perspectives to the NBPTS procedures and intentions 

in addition to the one offered by the candidate 

herself.  



Taking On the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Alignment, Recognition and Representation  

  

5 

 

Data Analysis 
The data analysis procedures used in this 

study followed Erickson's interpretive model of 

qualitative research (Erickson, 1986). According to 

Erickson (1986) “the basic task of data analysis is to 

generate assertions that vary in scope and level of 

inference, largely through induction, and to establish 

an evidentiary warrant for the assertions one wishes 

to make." (p. 146). The researcher is looking for "key 

linkages" among various pieces of data, which can be 

described as patterns of generalizations within the 

case at hand.  

Theoretical and research memos, written 

during the data collection period, provided an 

impetus for the data analysis to follow (Glaser, 

1978). These memos were used as a resource for 

theorizing about what was observed and the data 

being collected. These memos were used to provide 

an initial foundation for the data analysis as it 

proceeded.  

Data analysis procedures occurred in three 

consecutive phases. The first phase began as 

information was collected from interviews, support 

group meetings, NBPTS publications, and the 

candidate’s reflective journal. The second phase 

began when data collection was completed and the 

entire "data corpus" (Erickson, 1986) was analyzed 

looking for key linkages and patterns of 

generalization. After reading through the entire data 

set twice, seven preliminary categories of data were 

constructed and the data was organized into 

individual computer files pertaining to each category. 

These categories were labeled: (a) Alignment, (b) 

Providing Evidence, (c) Standardized Reflection, (d) 

Tensions with Writing, (e) Recognition, (f) Tensions 

with Assessment, and (g) Support and Collaboration.  

The final phase of data analysis occurred as the final 

report was being written. Merriam (1998) writes, 

"…because data collection and analysis is continuous 

and simultaneous in qualitative research, there is no 

clean cut off - no time when everything else 

[analysis] stops and writing begins." (p. 220). Writing 

is as much an act of discovery and analysis as it is an 

act of transcription.  

After the seven initial categories listed 

previously were constructed and detailed descriptions 

about each category were recorded in a research 

journal, analysis began looking for connections and 

relationships among the categories. The initial 

categories of Providing Evidence and Standardized 

Reflection fit better as sub-categories within the 

larger category of Alignment, rather than as separate 

categories. Although Jennifer provided evidence of 

her teaching practices and was required to reflect on 

her teaching, it seemed the primary impetus of these 

activities was to align to the NBPTS vision of 

accomplished practice. 

The category originally entitled Recognition 

remained significant throughout the data analysis. 

The original category of Support and Collaboration 

was eventually constructed as a sub-category within 

the category of Recognition. Many aspects of the data 

labeled Support, was considered an act of 

recognition. In other words, the data labeled Support 

or Collaboration included information about various 

teachers, both NBPTS candidates and other teachers 

at Jennifer's school, who supported her during the 

NBPTS process. This evidence of support were 

considered a form of Recognition. 

The category Challenges with 

Representation was constructed from the two initial 

categories: Tensions with Writing, and Tensions with 

Assessment. These categories, described initially as 

“tensions,” referred to the candidate’s challenge of 

representing herself as an accomplished teacher. The 

tensions focused on the candidate’s ability to 

represent her level of teaching ability to the assessors 

through the assessment center exercises and portfolio 

entries. It is because of this focus that the category of 

Challenges was renamed Representation. Although 

every bit of data did not fit neatly into one of the 

three categories described, these three categories and 

the subcategories described provided key linkages to 

a preponderance of the data set.  

Results 

The goal of data analysis is to construct and 

warrant the assertions that arise from subsequent 

readings and re-readings of the data set. Erickson 

(1986) explains, "one of the basic tasks of data 

analysis is to generate assertions, largely through 

induction, by reviewing the full set of field notes, 

interview transcripts, journal entries and pertinent 

documents." (p. 146). Based on an extensive analysis 

of the data set, the following three assertions were 

put forth. 

Assertion #1  

The teacher candidate viewed the NBPTS 

certification process as one of aligning to the vision 

of accomplished practice set forth in the NBPTS 

standards documents. The teacher candidate viewed, 

as part of this process of alignment, her need to adopt 

the NBPTS standards as a vision of accomplished 

practice, to provide evidence of this alignment in her 

teaching portfolio and to focus her thinking and 

reflective processes on the criteria set forth in the 

standards documents for accomplished practice. 

One of the central tenets of the NBPTS 

certification process is the adoption of the NBPTS 

standards as a vision of accomplished practice. This 

vision of accomplished practice is then used as a lens 

by the teacher candidates to assess and critique their 



Current Issues in Education Vol. 8 No. 21 
 
teaching practices during the certification process. 

From the outset of the NBPTS certification process, 

Jennifer believed it was her responsibility to provide 

evidence of her alignment to the NBPTS vision of 

accomplished practice through the assessment 

vehicles provided during the NBPTS certification 

process.  

Assertion #2  

The teacher candidate believed that she 

would be recognized as an accomplished teacher by 

achieving NBPTS certification. Jennifer viewed the 

NBPTS certification as a legitimate recognition of 

her accomplished teaching practice, believing that 

achieving NBPTS certification would lead to 

increased positive recognition of her accomplished 

teaching practices among her peers, the educational 

community and the public in general.  

Jennifer believed that the NBPTS 

certification represented a legitimate endorsement of 

her teaching ability, one that would increase her 

status as a teaching professional. Since there are few, 

if any, formally recognized hierarchies among 

elementary school teachers, she believed the NBPTS 

certification could be used as a vehicle to allow her to 

stand out as an accomplished teacher among her 

peers. Jennifer also believed that achieving National 

Board Certification would lead to increased status for 

the entire teaching profession. 

Assertion #3 

The teacher candidate faced several 

challenges in representing herself as an accomplished 

teacher through the vehicles provided by the 

certification process, including the teaching portfolio 

and assessment center exercises. Jennifer often felt 

the written commentaries she included in the NBPTS 

teaching portfolio were unable to satisfactorily 

represent her level of accomplished teaching. There 

seemed to be various “tensions” or “challenges" 

associated with the assessment vehicles used to 

represent her teaching practices. Representing the 

complexities of accomplished practice through 

written, interpretive commentaries and videotape 

segments presented a considerable challenge Jennifer 

needed to overcome in order to achieve National 

Board Certification.  

In order to further delineate each of the 

assertions put forth, each assertion will be described 

in detail and presented with data from a variety of 

sources to support these three assertions.  

Aligning to the NBPTS Vision of Accomplished 

Practice  

As teacher candidates begin the NBPTS 

certification process, they must become familiar with 

the particulars of the vision of accomplished practice 

as set forth in the NBPTS standards. This vision is set 

forth in the written language of the NBPTS standards 

and candidates are required to interpret these written 

standards and demonstrate their alignment to the 

NBPTS vision in the written commentaries and 

videotape segments submitted to the NBPTS in their 

teaching portfolio. The standards are not delivered to 

the candidates on videotapes or by classroom 

demonstration; rather they are delivered to candidates 

in written statements from which candidates must 

interpret and relate these written standards to their 

classroom teaching practices. The standards are 

general statements about accomplished teaching, 

open to wide interpretations, represented in written 

language as de-contextualized propositions about 

teaching that require teachers to contextualize the 

NBPTS standards into their classroom context to 

determine what to include in the written 

commentaries and artifacts contained in the portfolio 

they submit for certification (Burroughs, Roe & 

Hendricks-Lee, 1998).  

As Jennifer became acquainted with the 

NBPTS standards, she understood there to be an 

alignment between her vision of what it meant to be 

an accomplished teacher and the NBPTS' vision of 

accomplished teaching. Even before beginning the 

NBPTS certification process, Jennifer believed she 

possessed many of the qualities of accomplished 

teaching described in the NBPTS standards, and that 

she would be able to demonstrate them in the 

teaching portfolio she would submit for certification.  

By reading through the standards documents 

on numerous occasions, Jennifer believed that she 

had become familiar with the NBPTS vision of 

accomplished practice. She began to use the written 

descriptions of the NBPTS standards as a lens to 

assess, critique and interpret her own teaching 

practices. After reading through the NBPTS 

standards documents provided to her during the 

initial phase of the certification process, Jennifer 

explained:  

I really thought surely that there was 

something that I don't really strongly agree 

with, but I went back through, and I was 

looking through [the standards], there really 

isn't anything in there that I can disagree 

with. I know it was a group of Early 

Childhood teachers that came up with these. 

It must have been a really good group of 

Early Childhood teachers that came up with 

these standards because they are not fluff, 

and they are not cutesy, they just spell out 

what good teaching is and what it looks like 

in an Early Childhood classroom. I think 

that is why I like them so much. It's very 

broad and open and it touches on everything 

I do, so that is kind of nice.  



Taking On the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Alignment, Recognition and Representation  

  

7 

 

As Jennifer began to produce the written 

commentaries and videotape segments required for 

certification, she referred to the NBPTS standards in 

order to make decisions about what aspects of her 

teaching to include in the portfolio as a representative 

sampling of her classroom practices. In other words, 

because of the space and time limitations imposed by 

the certification process, she had to decide what to 

include and what to leave out of the written 

commentaries and portfolio entries she submitted to 

the NBPTS. The assessments, the teaching portfolio 

and the written commentaries became the vehicles 

Jennifer would use to represent and demonstrate her 

alignment to the NBPTS vision of accomplished 

practice. 

The promotional literature distributed by the 

NBPTS described the standards as a vision of what 

teaching should be like as we move into the 21 st 

century. However, this vision is delivered to the 

candidate in the form of written standards. 

Candidates must construct their own interpretations 

of the NBPTS vision by reading through and 

becoming familiar with the standards documents. 

Candidates must decide how their interpretations of 

the written NBPTS standards relate to their local 

contexts and the teaching practices of their own 

classrooms.  

Jennifer viewed the NBPTS standards as the 

standards of accomplished teaching available in the 

Unites States at the time of this study. Just as a lens 

on a camera focuses on certain aspects in one's field 

of vision, the NBPTS documents were used as a lens 

to focus on certain aspects of her teaching practice. 

This NBPTS lens is designed to help candidates 

focus on those aspects of their teaching practice that 

are included in the NBPTS' vision of accomplished 

practice in order to be able to write about them and 

provide evidence of this level of practice in their 

portfolios. In this sense, the standards limit the field 

of vision of the teacher candidate to what aligns to 

the vision set forth in the NBPTS standards, while at 

the same time providing a focus for the candidate 

during the certification process.  

The expectation that candidates adopt and 

align to the NBPTS vision, temporarily setting aside 

any of their own criteria for accomplished teaching, 

was discussed at support group meetings during 

presentations by several NBPTS teacher facilitators 

and in various NBPTS documents. Jennifer 

consistently mentioned her willingness to forego any 

other standards of quality teaching she might have to 

focus on the NBPTS vision of accomplished practice 

in order to be successful during the NBPTS 

certification process.  

Jennifer attended several meetings with 

other NBPTS candidates during the course of the 

certification process. At one of the meetings, an 

NPBTS certified teacher that had worked as a scorer 

for the NBPTS evaluation team discussed what she 

felt was important for candidates to know about how 

their portfolios and interpretive commentaries would 

be scored. She told the audience of teacher 

candidates:  

After working for a short time with these 

[NBPTS] assessors, I want you to know they 

knew exactly what they were looking for. 

Teachers, you need to remember and learn 

what each portfolio entry is addressing and 

what the standards are for each portfolio 

entry. Be sure to focus on the language of 

the standards. So when you look at the 

[lesson] topics be sure it addresses the 

standards you are looking at. It can’t just be 

a wonderful lesson if it doesn’t answer what 

that entry is looking for. The goals for the 

particular lesson must align to the NBPTS 

goals for what you are teaching. And how it 

fits in the big picture. It can’t just be a good 

lesson, it has to align with the NBPTS goals 

and standards.  

The facilitator was giving the teacher 

candidates advice on what to include in their 

portfolios and how to write better interpretive 

commentaries to submit for certification. Her advice 

hinges on the teacher candidates being able to 

demonstrate their alignment to the NBPTS standards. 

In a reflective journal entry, written as 

Jennifer began to draft the interpretive commentaries 

that she would include with her portfolio entries, she 

explained:  

My focus is on my goals and the standards 

pretty much, and I was trying to think about 

what Emily [an NBPTS teacher facilitator] 

was saying after we watched another 

candidate's video. She said, ‘It's not about 

being able to show good teaching, it's about 

being able to, the standards are what you are 

supposed to be doing, and you can be doing 

good stuff in your classroom, but it may not 

be what the standards say you should be 

doing.’  

In addition, Jennifer wrote the following 

entry in her reflective journal: 

My primary purpose of going through [the 

NBPTS process] is to inform my practice. I 

want to see if others think my teaching 

aligns with the Standards. I am hoping by 

the end of this all, I am more knowledgeable 

about the standards and able to articulate 

them.  

This process of aligning to the standards is 

also supported by the literature distributed by the 



Current Issues in Education Vol. 8 No. 21 
 
NBPTS. The following excerpt from a brochure 

entitled, “National Board Certification: A Guide for 

Candidates”, published by the American Federation 

of Teachers, a teachers’ union involved with the 

NBPTS, represents the kind of alignment that the 

developers of the NBPTS process believe to be 

necessary for achieving certification. It states: 

The first step in approaching the National 

Board Standards is to adopt the right 

mindset- namely, that you agree with the 

National Board Standards and that you see 

yourself embodying these standards in your 

practice… In other words, there is no 

guesswork involved- the National Board 

Standards are the only standards by which 

your teaching will be assessed. (American 

Federation of Teachers, 1998, p.18). 

Not only does alignment involve coming to 

know the standards, but it also involves learning to 

use the language of the standards in one's own 

writing. Jennifer was not only trying to understand 

the NBPTS standards, she began to use the language 

from the standards in the writing that she included in 

her portfolio submitted for certification. In an 

interview conducted after her portfolio had been 

submitted, Jennifer talked about how she went about 

constructing the interpretive commentaries that 

accompanied the video segments of her teaching:  

I wrote to the standards a lot. I incorporated 

the language [of the standards] and made 

sure to incorporate words like, 

'understanding young children' and made 

sure that I said enough about that in each of 

the entries that it required. And the standards 

just kind of helped me stay within their 

lines, to keep what was most important for 

the entry, incorporating those standards 

along with whatever I was teaching. The 

directions and all the advice I was given said 

to use the standards, use the language of the 

standards, and it doesn't say anywhere in the 

[NBPTS] directions that you should use 

their language, but it does say that you 

should refer to it, and make sure that your 

writing covers all those areas.  

Teacher candidates may be thinking about 

their practice, but are directed to do so through the 

lens of the NBPTS standards. For Jennifer, the 

certification process became a process of 

representing her alignment to a set of predetermined 

standards of accomplished teaching, as described in 

detail in the NBPTS standards, through the 

assessment vehicles provided during the certification 

process.  

 

 

Being Recognized as an Accomplished Teacher  

In a variety of the literature provided by the 

NBPTS, including brochures, press releases, and the 

NBPTS web-site, increasing the professional status of 

classroom teachers has been described as one of the 

primary goals of the NBPTS certification and 

standards development process. In addition, the 

NBPTS standards and certification process has been 

purported to create a unifying vision of accomplished 

practice that experienced classroom teachers should 

aspire to achieve (Ambach, 1996). Because of the 

reported lack of formal structures for recognizing 

accomplished practice currently in place in the 

teaching profession, it is believed that classroom 

teachers will gravitate towards the legitimization of 

accomplished practice offered by the NBPTS (King, 

1994).  

During this study, it became evident that 

Jennifer was looking to have her teaching abilities 

recognized, not only by the educational community 

and the general public, but by herself as well. 

Because of this, data suggesting two types of 

recognition were identified: self-recognition and 

public-professional recognition. First, self-

recognition is defined as the process of seeing oneself 

as an accomplished teacher. Jennifer came to believe 

that she could legitimize her teaching practices by 

aligning to the NBPTS standards. If she achieved 

certification, she believed that the certification would 

legitimize her standing as an accomplished teacher, 

that it would somehow make her quality of teaching 

more “official”. Shortly before Jennifer was 

scheduled to receive written notification concerning 

her status as an NBPTS candidate, she wrote in her 

reflective journal:  

My perception of myself as a classroom 

teacher is really wrapped up in this 

[NBPTS] process right now. I want to 

believe that this process will set the 

exemplary teachers apart from the mediocre 

teachers, and even more from the "sucky" 

teachers. I don’t think my teaching practice 

has dramatically changed since going 

through the process, however, going into 

this year [the school year after the NBPTS 

process], I felt more confident about the way 

I run my room and set up the environment 

because I have the National Standards to 

back me up. I grow and change each year 

because I read and reflect on my interactions 

in my room. I don’t think I did more of this 

because of the [NBPTS] process, it's just 

what I do.  

Although, Jennifer believed that she was 

already an accomplished teacher before the NBPTS 

process began, she believed that aligning to the 



Taking On the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Alignment, Recognition and Representation  

  

9 

 

NBPTS standards would legitimize her level of 

accomplished teaching practices and provide her with 

a nationally recognized criteria to support her 

perception of herself as an accomplished teacher. She 

believed that aligning to the NBPTS standards and 

ultimately achieving certification would set her apart 

from what she has described as mediocre, or “sucky,” 

teachers.  

Jennifer believed that the NBPTS 

certification process was a challenging process to go 

through, on that no every teacher could handle, and 

ultimately the NBPTS certification would separate 

her level of teaching from the average teacher, She 

explains:  

I don’t think just any “Joe Schmoe” teacher 

could come through this and be able to meet 

the National Standards, at least for Early 

Childhood. I ask [myself], ‘Can I meet this 

level of teaching?’ Because, its a lot in those 

[NBPTS] standards, things that should be 

happening in your classroom, and to be 

making sure that you can do all of those 

things, its like a bar to see if you are 

reaching that level.  

For Jennifer, the NBPTS standards were a 

“bar,” a level of challenge she was up to 

demonstrating in order to be recognized as an 

accomplished teacher.  

The second type of recognition, described as 

public-professional recognition, refers to the 

recognition of accomplished teaching by other 

members of the teaching profession and the general 

public, including state and federal legislators, 

government officials, parents of school children and 

the business community. Being recognized as an 

accomplished teacher within the educational 

community and by the general public has been 

suggested as an important consideration in a 

candidate's decision to attempt NBPTS certification 

(Baratz-Snowden, Shapiro & Streeter, 1993). 

Teachers, like members of other professions, desire 

to be seen as accomplished members of their 

profession, and often look to external certifications, 

awards or exams to legitimize this recognition.  

Many of the elementary school districts 

throughout the United States are currently offering 

monetary stipends for becoming National Board 

Certified. Ranging from $500 to $5,000, these 

stipends were described by Jennifer as a "nice bonus" 

for all of her efforts. In the district where Jennifer 

works, only five teachers were selected from those 

that applied to receive financial and clerical support 

from the district. She felt that being chosen to receive 

the financial support, and being offered a substitute 

teacher for up to ten school days in order to work on 

her certification, was a form of professional 

recognition. 

Jennifer felt NBPTS certified teachers 

deserved the recognition they received for their level 

of accomplished teaching. She viewed the NBPTS 

certification as an "elite club" that deserved the level 

of recognition she hoped would be forthcoming if she 

became certified. In an entry in her reflective journal 

she wrote:  

Those that have achieved certification are 

part of an elite club. I suppose if they go 

through this process and are successful they 

deserve recognition. Honestly, part of the 

glamour of doing this, is that I am hoping 

that it will give me some sort of recognition.  

At every meeting the researcher attended, 

whenever an NBPTS certified teacher was introduced 

they received a lengthy and enthusiastic round of 

applause. Teacher candidates seemed to acknowledge 

their accomplishments and spent time talking with 

them about the challenges they faced during the 

certification process. At one of the support meetings, 

an NBPTS facilitators stated: “This [NBPTS process] 

is all consuming. You basically put your life on hold. 

You are the best of the best! It is not like anything 

else you have done. It is all consuming.” She 

explained how challenging the process was and then 

introduced two NBPTS certified teachers, at which 

time the teacher candidates rose to offer the two 

teachers a standing ovation.  

However, Jennifer also realized that the 

NBPTS certification was not as universally 

recognized as she would like. In an interview she 

explained: 

As soon as I got my [NBPTS] standards, I 

tried talking to people, ‘What have you 

heard about it?’ Most people don’t even 

know much about it [NBPTS]. Except, well 

in our research group [at Jennifer’s school], 

they knew a little about it. To some people 

you say, ‘I’m going through National Board 

Certification,’ and they have no clue. They 

say, ‘What’s that?’ And they’re educators! 

It’s kind of unfortunate.  

Jennifer felt that teachers needed to be more 

aware of the NBPTS certification and process. If 

teachers didn’t know about the NBPTS certification, 

the recognition she felt she deserved would not be 

forthcoming. For Jennifer, self and public-

professional recognition was an important factor in 

her decision to apply for NBPTS certification. She 

valued the NBPTS certification process, and hoped 

that achieving certification would give her the 

recognition of teaching excellence she felt she 

deserved.  



Current Issues in Education Vol. 8 No. 21 
 
Challenges with Representing Accomplished 

Practice  

The primary function of the teaching 

portfolio and the assessment center exercises is to 

provide an opportunity for teacher candidates to 

represent their teaching abilities to the NBPTS team 

of assessors. In fact, the teaching portfolio and the 

assessment center exercises were the sole artifacts 

used to represent Jennifer’s alignment to the vision of 

accomplished practice set forth in the NBPTS 

standards. The portfolio and assessment center 

exercises were each scored to determine whether 

Jennifer would achieve NBPTS certification. 

In the process of describing her classroom 

and putting into words those aspects of her teaching 

practice that Jennifer wanted to present to the NBPTS 

assessors, Jennifer was forced to represent her 

teaching through the written commentaries and video 

segments required by the NBPTS certification 

process. At a support group meeting before Jennifer 

began the certification process, a representative from 

the NBPTS told the group of candidates:  

You need to show you at your best. A good 

lesson. The clearer you can make to them 

[NBPTS assessors] the practices you use and 

why you use them, the better off you will be. 

You want to give the assessor the best 

picture of your practice you can. Start using 

the language of the standards in your written 

answers to the portfolio prompts. Take your 

own subject and add the predicate from the 

standards documents itself.  

As the NBPTS representative continued to 

explain the assessment process to Jennifer and the 

other candidates, Jennifer began to realize the goal of 

the assessment process was to provide evidence of 

one’s alignment to the NBPTS vision of 

accomplished teaching through the assessment 

vehicles provided. Jennifer needed to learn to 

represent “the best picture of her practice” to the 

NBPTS assessors through the assessment vehicles 

she would be required to complete.  

The assessors never met Jennifer face to 

face, conducted interviews or engaged in on-site, 

classroom observations during the certification 

process. The items contained in the portfolio, and her 

responses to the assessment center exercises, were 

the only artifacts used to represent Jennifer's teaching 

abilities to the NBPTS assessors. 

The two primary challenges of representing 

her teaching practices Jennifer faced during the 

certification process were: (a) deciding what to 

include in the portfolio entries and what to discard, 

and (b) learning to write in an unfamiliar genre in 

order to represent her alignment to the NBPTS vision 

of accomplished practice through her writing. The 

portfolio entries and assessment center exercises had 

rigid space, time and content requirements that 

Jennifer had to adhere to during the assessment 

exercises. In addition, the written interpretive 

commentaries that Jennifer was required to construct 

were a type of writing she had never encountered.  

Choices must be made about what to include 

and what to discard since every aspect of one's 

classroom and teaching practice cannot be included. 

Candidates must represent their classroom teaching 

practices, which exists as a series of acts or 

performances that occur in a specific context, through 

a set of videotapes, written commentaries and 

assessment center exercises. Delandshire and 

Petrosky (1998) suggest that every representation of 

the act of teaching is a reduction of the contexts and 

actions of the actual teaching-learning event to what 

can be included in the assessment vehicles provided.  

Jennifer struggled at times trying to describe 

her classroom context and her teaching in clear and 

concise language that fit the NBPTS entry directions, 

space limitations, and portfolio requirements. In an 

interview, Jennifer commented:  

There is so much that goes on within the 

classroom that it's hard to get it down on 

paper, especially if they [NBPTS assessment 

exercises] don't ask the right questions for 

me to answer. There's not enough space to 

explain everything. It's hard to paint a clear 

picture. They ask very specific questions 

that lead you to respond in very specific 

ways, but it doesn't necessarily paint the 

whole picture.  

Along with each artifact of student work and 

video tape segment selected, Jennifer was required to 

write an interpretive commentary according to the 

entry directions and writing instructions included in 

the NBPTS certification materials. Each of these 

written interpretive commentaries has its own 

requirements, space limitations and font restrictions, 

and is used as a representative sample of her teaching 

as a whole. In essence, the interpretive commentaries 

Jennifer constructed were a distinctive genre that she 

had to come to understand, and be able to write in, if 

she was to be successful in the NBPTS process.  

These interpretive commentaries are a 

unique genre that may be unfamiliar to many 

classroom teachers. Burroughs, Roe and Hendricks-

Lee (1998) state, "Because NBPTS discourse relies 

upon decontextualized propositions about teaching 

written for distant audiences, we hypothesized that 

teachers, who work in local, situated learning 

communities, might have difficulty negotiating the 

[NBPTS] Board's discourse" (p.34).  

The NBPTS portfolio entries have explicit 

instructions, and come with an optional format that 



Taking On the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Alignment, Recognition and Representation  

  

11 

 

candidates are invited to follow. Although Jennifer 

was provided with these explicit instructions and the 

standards that accompany each entry, she had never 

written detailed descriptions of her classroom or 

teaching practices for a certification process in this 

particular style or genre before. This created a 

challenge to her as she prepared the written 

commentaries to be included in her portfolio.  

It is important to note that the NBPTS 

standards are broad, general statements regarding the 

vision of accomplished practice set forth by the 

NBPTS board. These standards are delivered to the 

teacher candidates in written format, and candidates 

must then interpret the NBPTS vision of 

accomplished practice for themselves. Teachers are 

required to, first, interpret the NBPTS standards of 

accomplished practice and, second, represent their 

alignment to these standards, in writing, using the 

assessment vehicles provided.  

In the process of writing, audience and 

purpose are important factors in determining the 

structures, style and content of a particular piece of 

writing. Because of this, Jennifer became concerned 

about the audience of NBPTS assessors that would 

eventually read and interpret her portfolio and 

assessment center exercises, and the style and content 

of the interpretive commentaries she constructed. In 

an interview as Jennifer was preparing interpretive 

commentaries for several entries in her portfolio, she 

explained:  

The directions and all the advice I was given 

said to use the standards, use the language of 

the standards. It doesn't say anywhere in the 

[NBPTS] directions that you should use 

their language, but it does say that you 

should refer to it, and make sure that your 

writing covers all those areas, the things in 

each of those entries. I did this so that it 

would be easy, completely clear for them so 

they [NBPTS assessors] could pick it up 

easy.  

Jennifer knew that the NBPTS scorers were 

looking for specific things, for example the language 

of the standards, and was sure to include some of this 

language in her written commentaries. In an 

interview conducted while Jennifer was writing some 

of the interpretive commentaries for her portfolio, she 

discussed the challenges of finding the right words to 

describe her classroom and her teaching practices. 

She said that she would often refer to the actual 

language of the NBPTS standards documents to solve 

this dilemma. She explained:  

I wrote to the standards a lot. I incorporated 

the language of the standards and made sure 

to incorporate words like, 'understanding 

young children.’ The standards just kind of 

helped me stay within their lines, to help me 

keep what was most important for the entry, 

that is, incorporating those standards along 

with whatever I was teaching. After I 

finished writing, I would go back and read 

through it and think, ‘Oh, I can plug in these 

words from the standards, because it’s the 

same thing, just said differently.’ When I did 

my writing, I would answer the question, 

read about it, and just write down what I 

thought about it. If I got stuck on something 

I was trying to explain, wasn't sure how to 

put it into words, I would refer to the 

standards, find a piece that maybe talked 

about that [aspect of her classroom] and say, 

‘There's a thing to say.' or, 'I can plug in 

these words from the standards, because it's 

the same thing, only said differently.' I used 

a lot, a lot of their words because it was 

what they asked for, and I felt comfortable 

doing it. The directions and all the advice I 

was given [by the NBPTS facilitators] said 

to use the standards, use the language of the 

standards. It doesn't say anywhere in the 

[NBPTS] directions that you should use 

their language, but it does say that you 

should refer to it, and make sure that your 

writing covers all those areas, the things in 

each of those entries. I did this so that it 

would be easy, completely clear for them, so 

they [NBPTS assessors] could pick it up 

easy.  

As Jennifer was trying to understand the 

requirements of the genre of interpretive 

commentaries imposed by the certification process 

and what kind of writing would help her to be 

successful in the NBPTS process, she often referred 

to her own writing capabilities and processes. She 

believed that being a better writer would help her 

score higher on her portfolio entries and interpretive 

commentaries. However, what Jennifer meant by 

"being a better writer", was being able to successfully 

negotiate the demands of the genres imposed by the 

NBPTS assessment process. Her view of quality 

writing was focused on the requirements of writing 

for the NBPTS assessors. In an interview conducted 

near the end of the certification process, referring to 

the process she was going through in her writing of 

these interpretive commentaries and classroom 

descriptions, Jennifer stated:  

It's hard, I mean, I am trying to be a better 

writer. I'm trying to be more concise in my 

wording, but I'm not there yet. Lots of it [her 

writing] is just 'flowery' stuff that doesn't 

need to be there, lots of extra stuff. So, when 

I was reading through it [one of my entries] 



Current Issues in Education Vol. 8 No. 21 
 

it was like, that part needs to stay, and that 

part needs to go.  

When asked if she was talking about being a 

better writer in general or just for the NBPTS 

requirements, she responded:  

Both! It [the portfolio entry] requires you to 

be very concise, because you have a strict 

page limit, but I do find just becoming a 

better writer, in general, that you don't need 

all those extra words that I throw in there. 

Like I found a lot of 'in my classrooms' in 

there, which is, well, redundant right? So it's 

coming together pretty well now.  

The presentation of evidence in the teaching 

portfolio is a rhetorical process, where candidates 

attempt to convince the NBPTS assessors of their 

level of accomplished practice and their alignment to 

the NBPTS vision of accomplished practice set forth 

in the standards documents (Burroughs, Roe & 

Hendricks-Lee, 1998). Teachers make a case that 

their level of accomplished practice, represented by 

specific samples of their teaching practices contained 

in the assessment vehicles, align to the NBPTS vision 

of accomplished practice set forth in the standards 

documents.  

Although Jennifer viewed the certification 

process, in particular the writing instructions and 

entry directions as "jumping through hoops" at times, 

they were hoops she was willing to jump through to 

achieve certification. She stated:  

Being able to write to the questions [in the 

entry directions] is a big part of it. Being 

able to jump through these hoops. It's some 

hoop jumping for sure. The direction say 

write to the questions, so, I will write to the 

questions.  

Jennifer spent an extraordinary amount of 

time, both in and out of school, preparing items to 

submit for certification. The NBPTS process requires 

a large commitment on the part of classroom teachers 

to complete the requirements during a school year 

when they are also in the classroom teaching. She 

hoped that her “hoop jumping” efforts would not go 

unnoticed.  

Discussion 

The NBPTS certification process and 

standards documents represented a vision of 

accomplished practice, a possible avenue for 

increased recognition as a classroom teacher, and an 

assessment system that required Jennifer to represent 

her level of accomplished teaching to the NBPTS 

assessors for scoring and certification purposes 

through the written commentaries and artifacts 

submitted. Beginning with the process of adopting 

the NBPTS vision of accomplished practice, and 

culminating with Jennifer’s use of the NBPTS 

language in her written commentaries, the 

certification process forced Jennifer to forego any 

personally held criteria about accomplished teaching 

and evaluate her own teaching solely in light of the 

vision offered by the NBPTS standards documents.  

Because of its power to recognize and 

certify classroom teachers that demonstrate their 

alignment to a specific vision of accomplished 

teaching, the NBPTS represents an emerging 

authority within the teaching profession in the United 

States. With this emerging authority comes various 

possibilities and challenges due to the future 

directions and extent of the NBPTS’ influence. Based 

on the evidence provided and the assertions put forth, 

the NBPTS process represents: (a) a process of 

aligning to a specific discourse community or 

community of practice, (b) a commodity designed to 

support the recognition of accomplished teaching, 

and (c) a vehicle intended to promote reflective 

practice.  

NBPTS as Community of Practice 

There is a close relationship among the 

NBPTS certification process, the vision of 

accomplished practice set forth in the written 

language of the standards documents, and the theory 

of discourse communities or communities of practice 

proposed by Lave and Wenger (Lave & Wenger, 

1991), and other researchers (Gee, 1992; Smyth, 

1992). Lave and Wenger (1991) view learning as a 

situated activity dependent upon a process they call 

“legitimate peripheral participation.” “Learners 

inevitably participate in community of practitioners 

[practice] and that the mastery of knowledge and skill 

requires newcomers to move toward full participation 

in the socio-cultural practices of a community” (Lave 

& Wenger, 1991, p.29). The NBPTS certification 

process represents a set of situated activities within a 

community of practice. Candidates participate in the 

activities of this community of practitioners and 

eventually, if certified, become legitimate members 

of the NBPTS community of accomplished teachers.  

One of the most important activities that 

candidates engaged in during the certification process 

is the writing of the interpretive commentaries and 

portfolio entries submitted for evaluation. Extending 

Lave and Wenger’s concept of communities of 

practice to include communities of writers, Beaufort's 

(1997) definition of a discourse community, which 

focused on the writing practices of a discourse 

community, stated that discourse communities are 

“…social entit[ies] within which a set of distinctive 

writing practices occur and beyond whose borders 

different writing practices occur" (p. 518). The 

writing practices associated with the NBPTS 

certification process focus on teacher candidates’ 

ability to create written commentaries that 



Taking On the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Alignment, Recognition and Representation  

  

13 

 

demonstrate an alignment to the NBPTS vision of 

accomplished practice in order to achieve 

certification. Throughout the certification process, 

Jennifer was shown how to write to the standards, 

frequently reviewed her drafts with other candidates 

to see if they were following the NBPTS entry 

directions and standards documents, adopted the 

language of the NBPTS standards for inclusion in her 

written commentaries, and aligned her descriptions of 

her classroom and teaching practices to her 

interpretations of the NBPTS values and practices. 

These activities demonstrate Jennifer’s process of 

legitimate peripheral participation as she was 

apprenticed into the NBPTS community of practice.  

Burroughs et al. (1998) described the 

NBPTS certification process as a discourse 

community to which teacher candidates were 

required to align in order to achieve certification. If 

NBPTS candidates are to be successful in achieving 

certification, they must assume the NBPTS discourse 

values and be able to represent these values in the 

portfolio they are required to submit for certification. 

It is the candidate's responsibility to interpret the 

values represented in the written standards of the 

NBPTS by becoming familiar with, and aligning to, 

the vision of accomplished practice set forth in the 

NBPTS standards documents (Burroughs et al., 

1998). The adoption of the vision of accomplished 

practice set forth in the NBPTS standards, the 

focusing of the candidate's systematic thinking during 

the certification process, and the representation of the 

candidate's alignment to this established vision are all 

social processes that work to include participants in 

the NBPTS discourse and communities of practice.  

Aligning to the NBPTS vision of 

accomplished practice meant more to Jennifer than 

simply understanding the NBPTS standards. It meant 

using the language of the standards in the written 

commentaries she submitted, adopting the NBPTS 

vision of accomplished practice as her own, and 

learning to write and represent her teaching practices 

in language and formats the NBPTS scorers would 

recognize and value. Jennifer argued in writing that 

she had assumed the correct values, had adopted the 

language and writing practices of the discourse 

community, and was ready to become a legitimate 

member of the NBPTS community of practice. 

Certification remained the final step to legitimize her 

acceptance into the NBPTS community.  

Burroughs et al. (1998) suggest that 

candidates that were not certified had difficulties 

adopting the NBPTS vision and aligning to the values 

of the NBPTS discourse community, while successful 

candidates were able to, “…assume the NBPTS 

discourse values.” (p. 3). Jennifer was able to 

successfully accomplish this adoption of, and 

alignment to, the NBPTS discourse values. In 

essence, Jennifer’s representation of her level of 

accomplished practice was a process of moving from 

local, contextualized classroom events to the general, 

abstract discourse required by the NBPTS, using the 

standards documents as “mediating artifacts” 

(Werstch, 1991) in the process.  

During one of the support group meetings, 

one of the NBPTS teacher facilitators told the group 

of candidates, "Welcome to the Club!" In essence, the 

facilitator was accepting the candidates' alignment to 

the NBPTS discourse values as the key to 

membership in the NBPTS club. The NBPTS 

certification process serves as a process of 

legitimizing candidates’ alignment and acceptance of 

the NBPTS values and practices.  

For a club to exist it must have members. 

Membership is predicated on one's ability to accept 

and demonstrate an alignment to the values of a 

particular club in order to be accepted as a member. 

The NBPTS is no different. The vision of 

accomplished practice set forth in the standards 

documents, represents a guide for candidates to 

follow to join the club. However, any membership in 

a club creates a distinction between members and 

non-members. It is this distinction that may create 

challenges in the teaching profession as the NBPTS 

gains in prominence. The allocation of teachers to 

higher and lower rungs on the educational hierarchy 

may disenfranchise certain groups of teachers and 

disrupt the sense of community among teachers the 

NBPTS initially set out to support and extend. 

NBPTS as Commodity 

King (1994) expressed his concerns about 

the NBPTS certificate becoming a valued commodity 

and the possible creation of a hierarchy of teachers 

because of the NBPTS certification. King (1994) 

wrote, "…the struggle for certification represents a 

race for certain qualifications that bring cultural 

assets. What national board certification is about, at 

least in part, is extending to teachers the symbolic 

struggle for cultural capital within their occupational 

field." (p. 103). Because of the authority given to the 

NBPTS to recognize and certify accomplished 

teaching, the certificate itself helps promote the 

recognition of a specific group of teachers over 

another. 

Jennifer began the NBPTS certification 

process hoping to use the certificate as a symbol of 

her level of accomplished teaching, a commodity she 

could exchange in the educational marketplace for 

higher salaries and promotions within the educational 

hierarchy and as a symbol to set her level of teaching 

apart from the average teacher. In fact, not soon after 

successfully completing the certification process, 

Jennifer explained that she had been promoted to the 



Current Issues in Education Vol. 8 No. 21 
 
position of teacher leader at her grade level and given 

a substantial salary increase (personal 

communication, May, 2001). 

One of the concerns Jennifer had during the 

certification process was how she would be perceived 

by other teachers at the school where she worked and 

in the educational community. She held little hope 

that the teachers at her own school would recognize 

her as an accomplished teacher. In fact, she was 

concerned that certain teachers would almost hold it 

against her, wondering, “Who does she think she is?” 

after achieving certification. However, she held out 

more hope for the larger educational community, 

stating in an interview, “someday, somewhere in the 

future, teachers will recognize how important this 

certification is.”  

In the variety of literature distributed by the 

NBPTS, ranging from promotional brochures to 

periodic newsletters, one of the primary outcomes of 

achieving certification suggested by the National 

Board is the status accorded NBPTS certified 

teachers. The ways in which this status will be given 

to teachers includes: (a) reciprocity across many 

states for recognizing teaching credentials and 

licensure, (b) assuming new roles in the teaching 

profession, (c) faculty adjunct positions at local 

universities, (d) being considered a spokesperson for 

the teaching profession, (e) mentoring 

responsibilities, (f) increased salaries and stipends, 

and (g) appointment to curriculum development and 

other administrative positions. It seems that there are 

many external rewards being associated with NBPTS 

certification. How these external rewards and the 

status given to NBPTS certified teachers effects the 

teaching profession will need to be investigated as 

the NBPTS expands its influence.  

NBPTS Process as Standardized Reflection  

In the literature distributed by the NBPTS 

and included in one of the five “Core Propositions” 

that serves as a framework for all of the certifications 

and standards documents, the NBPTS strongly 

suggests that the certification and assessment process 

promotes systematic or reflective thinking and 

teaching practices. Based on the evidence presented, 

the NBPTS certification process required Jennifer to 

reflect on her teaching practices, however, it did so 

on a limited, “standardized” basis. Setting the 

NBPTS standards as the lens to assess her practice 

and as the sole criteria of judging her level of 

accomplished teaching, the certification process 

narrowed the scope and dimensions of Jennifer’s 

reflective processes to those that will help get her 

certified. Rather than reflecting on the standards, the 

NBPTS process promotes “standardized reflection” 

where the NBPTS standards documents become the 

only lens used to reflect on one’s teaching. 

Jennifer adopted the NBPTS standards as 

the sole criteria of accomplished practice during the 

certification process. She mentioned several times 

during interviews and in her journal entries that she 

was not involved in this process to critique the 

standards or look for other criteria to evaluate her 

teaching. She believed that it was her job to 

demonstrate the standards in her writing and her 

portfolio entries, period. When asked whether she 

disagreed with some of the standards, she said it 

didn’t matter. She was here to demonstrate them, not 

challenge them. In other words, if it wasn’t contained 

in the NBPTS standards, it was of no consequence to 

her during the certification process. 

Because of the reduction of criteria of 

accomplished practice to the vision set forth in the 

NBPTS standards, it is possible that the certification 

process represents an alternative form of "technical 

rationality" (Schon, 1983), simply substituting one 

set of prescribed, universal teaching methods, for 

another set of contemporary, consensus standards of 

accomplished teaching. Rather than teachers adopting 

particular teaching methods designed by university 

researchers to be delivered in the classroom context 

as suggested by Schon’s concept of technical 

rationality, NBPTS candidates are required to adopt a 

set of values, attitudes, practices, and visions of 

accomplished teaching to enact in their classrooms 

and demonstrate during the assessment process. 

Unless the standards remain open to negotiation, and 

teachers are able to reflect on the changes in their 

practice based on a variety of criteria, the NBPTS 

process may reduce its version of reflective practice 

to the same narrow version of reflection that it hoped 

to leave behind. 

The NBPTS certification process may raise 

the level of accomplished teaching in America, 

however, it may also have a limiting, standardizing 

effect on the teachers that proceed through the 

certification process. This standardization of 

accomplished teaching may restrict the abilities of 

particular groups of teachers to be recognized for 

their individual talents. If the NBPTS standards are 

recognized by the educational community and the 

general public as the only set of teaching standards, 

and do not allow for alternative perspectives 

concerning accomplished teaching to be given 

credence, the standardization of teachers may 

diminish, rather than increase, the effects of the 

NBPTS certification process and assessment system..  

Limitations 

There are many possible perspectives from 

which to study the NBPTS certification process. A 

researcher could construct a written survey and 

administer it to a representative sample of NBPTS 

candidates or NBPTS certified teachers to understand 



Taking On the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Alignment, Recognition and Representation  

  

15 

 

general trends concerning the certification process. It 

is also possible that researchers would select a 

sample of candidates to interview before, during or 

after the certification process to see what kinds of 

experiences they were having, or the meanings these 

candidates constructed concerning the NBPTS 

process.  

This study focused on the experiences of 

one candidate as she progressed through the year-

long NBPTS certification process. The qualitative, 

single-case design allowed the construction of an 

intimate understanding of the complex experiences 

and meanings constructed by the candidate during the 

certification process. Methodological choices were 

made to understand a single candidate in greater 

detail, rather than study a larger number of candidates 

in less detail. With any single case study, limitations 

concerning generalizability and credibility are 

expected (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).  

The credibility of this study rests primarily 

on the ability of other researchers and readers of this 

report to accept the relationships described among the 

data collected and the categories and assertions 

constructed. The utility of the study, the importance 

assigned by the readers to the descriptions, 

interpretations and assertions contained in the report, 

will, in part, determine its credibility. Constructing 

thick descriptions, providing quotes from interviews 

and journal entries, and including artifacts from the 

teaching portfolio, lend credibility to the assertions 

set forth and allow the readers of this report to 

understand the meaning perspectives constructed by 

the teacher candidate during her NBPTS certification 

experience.  

The study initially intended to focus on the 

reflective practices, or systematic thinking processes, 

of a single candidate during the certification process. 

I chose this focus because the literature distributed by 

the NBPTS and the testimonials provided by NBPTS 

certified teachers suggested that the certification 

process was an effective vehicle for promoting 

reflective practice. I wanted to know what they meant 

by reflective practice, and how the NBPTS 

certification process promoted this type of thinking. 

During the initial interviews, however, I became 

aware of the challenges of focusing on such a small 

aspect of the NBPTS process without first 

understanding the process as a whole. I was unable to 

separate the candidate's reflective processes from the 

rest of her understandings and experiences 

concerning the NBPTS certification process.  

As the study progressed, the direction of the 

study changed, and the content of the interviews 

focused on Jennifer's understandings of the entire 

NBPTS process, not exclusively the reflective aspects 

of the certification process.  

Remaining open to the data being collected 

during the course of a qualitative study is crucial if 

researchers are, according to Peshkin (2000) “…to 

exploit the opportunities for learning that fieldwork 

makes possible. Such selection, together with 

ordering, associating and meaning making, is an 

element of interpretation. Stated otherwise, 

interpretation is an act of imagination and logic. It 

entails perceiving importance, order, and form in 

what one is learning that relates to the argument, 

story, narrative that is continually undergoing 

creation." (p. 9).  

One of the primary concerns during the data 

analysis of the study was whether I found three 

assertions that simply fit my interests a priori, or 

whether I was able to divorce my predilections and 

motivations to construct assertions that connected to 

the data. In order to address this concern, I began the 

study by writing in my research journal about my 

understandings of the NBPTS process and its effects 

on the teaching profession I had been a part of for the 

past eleven years. I needed to bring to a conscious 

level the perspectives and possible concerns that I 

held intuitively about the NBPTS certification 

process.  

Before going into the study, I admittedly had 

reservations about any process that claimed to create 

reflective teachers and was concerned about the rapid 

development of standards in the various disciplines of 

knowledge or content areas during the past two 

decades. Further, I was, and still am, concerned about 

the effect of the NBPTS teaching standards on the 

classroom teacher, and that the alignment to any 

standards of teaching practice, NBPTS or otherwise, 

will lead to a standardization of classroom teaching 

and the reduction of the content of the curriculum to 

what is included in the accepted standards.  

Avenues for Future Research 

Given the financial limitations imposed by 

the non-profit status of the organization, the board's 

concerns with creating and maintaining a legally 

defensible national certification process, and the time 

constraints imposed by the structure of the 

certification process, the NBPTS has strived to 

provide a variety of assessment vehicles for 

candidates to use to represent their teaching practices, 

educational philosophies and classroom contexts. The 

NBPTS process is required by design to result in a 

single decision, to certify or not to certify. Candidates 

are currently provided with limited feedback 

concerning the results of the assessment process. In 

general, they are simply provided with their final 

scores for each individual entry and an overall tally. 

In other words, the whole certification and scoring 

process is eventually reduced to a single decision, 

whether the candidate achieves National Board 



Current Issues in Education Vol. 8 No. 21 
 
Certification or not. Whether the reduction of the 

assessment and certification process to a single score 

is effective in developing accomplished, reflective 

teachers is an important consideration for future 

research. Reflective practice requires a teacher to be 

able to look back and evaluate their teaching and its 

effects. The limited feedback provided to the NBPTS 

candidates may be a possible deterrent to their 

reflective processes. 

The NBPTS process reduces the 

representation of accomplished teaching to what can 

be included in the written commentaries and video 

segments. Future research will have to address the 

question, “Does the process of becoming an NBPTS 

certified teacher hinge on one's level of teaching 

ability, or one's ability to successfully align to the 

NBPTS vision of accomplished practice, or discourse 

community, through the written commentaries, 

videotape segments and assessment vehicles provided 

during the certification process?” In other words, do 

better writers pass and poor writers fail regardless of 

their teaching abilities?  

Another concern is the underlying 

assumption of the NBPTS process that accomplished 

teaching is measurable, and that the NBPTS 

assessment system is a credible and reliable process 

for doing so. Does NBPTS certification mean that 

certified teachers are more accomplished than other 

teachers, or that they are just more capable of 

representing an alignment to the NBPTS vision of 

accomplished teaching through their written 

commentaries and portfolio artifacts? I am also left 

with questions concerning the NBPTS assessment 

vehicle's ability to represent accomplished teaching, 

and the scorers' ability to recognize it when they 

review prospective candidates' portfolios. I know that 

decisions are being made, and that less that fifty 

percent of potential candidates are certified. 

However, whether accomplished teaching can be 

assessed, scored and tallied remains a primary 

concern.  

As the number of NBPTS certified teachers 

begins to grow (there are approximately 10,000 

certified teachers in the country as of the fall of 

2000), the potential the NBPTS has for impacting the 

teaching profession will increase. Concerns have 

been raised about the effects of particular classroom 

teachers being recognized as accomplished teachers 

and given the financial incentives and leadership 

positions that may become, in part, associated with 

the NBPTS certificate, while other teachers are 

viewed as unaccomplished and relegated to a lower 

rung on the teacher hierarchy. It will be important to 

understand the effects of the NBPTS certification on 

the teaching community as more and more teachers 

become certified. The NBPTS describes its 

certification process as an opportunity to build a 

sense of community among teachers. If the 

certification itself creates unwanted hierarchies, the 

NBPTS process may have the opposite effect on the 

communities developed among the next generation of 

teachers. 

Concluding Remarks 

Whether teachers can demonstrate the 

NBPTS vision of accomplished teaching through the 

written commentaries, videotape segments and 

assessment center exercises or not will determine 

whether they achieve NBPTS certification. The 

teacher candidate in this study believed that her 

NBPTS certification would eventually be recognized 

as a legitimate endorsement of her accomplished 

teaching abilities by the educational community and 

the general public. Although she had concerns about 

the NBPTS assessment system's ability to assess and 

represent her accomplished teaching abilities, she 

was able to set aside these concerns and created a 

portfolio that allowed her to achieve NBPTS 

certification. Jennifer is now a certified NBPTS 

teacher. What this certification will provide for her in 

the future as a classroom teacher remains to be seen.   

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Current Issues in Education Vol. 8 No. 21 
 
2005 Article Citation  

Serafini, F. (2005, July 20). Taking On the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Alignment, 

 Recognition and Representation. Current Issues in Education [On-line], 8(15). Available: 

 http://cie.ed.asu.edu/volume8/number21/  

 

Author Notes  
Frank Serafini, Ph.D  

Assistant Professor  

University of Nevada, Las Vegas  

7247 Hollywood Park Ave., Las Vegas , NV 89129  

serafini@unlv.nevada.edu 

 

 

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