December 1, 2005

Sixty-two Wisconsin teachers achieve nation's highest certification

Wisconsin's great schools now house 328 teachers who have earned National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification, the teaching profession's highest accreditation.

The board this week released the names of 62 Wisconsin teachers who achieved national certification this year. Wisconsin had 266 nationally certified teachers going into this year.

"National certification is a rigorous performance-based assessment," WEAC President Stan Johnson said. "Teachers voluntarily spend at least one year going through the process and dedicate many hours of their own time to improve their skills and knowledge and help children in the classroom."

The certification process involves an in-depth analysis of the applicant's teaching practices, a subject-specific standardized test, and a demonstration of the applicant's contributions to the profession and local community.

"National certification is a high honor in the teaching profession and these results once again show how Wisconsin teachers want to improve their performance in order to create classrooms that work," Johnson said.

WEAC supports members pursuing certification with grants for workshop sessions, costs associated with those sessions, and/or stipends for facilitators of the sessions.The names, school districts and certificate descriptions are listed on OnWEAC, WEAC's Web site, at http://www.weac.org/GreatSchools/2005-06/dec05/certified05.htm.

For more information about National Board for Professional Teaching Standards visit the OnWEAC resource page at http://www.weac.org/resource/nbpts.htm.