State educators' collaboration on behalf of kids is called model for nation

Educators discuss how to maximize the NEA KEYS program to help improve the quality of education in Wisconsin schools.

A leading national educator told about 200 Wisconsin teachers, school board members, principals and administrators Monday (August 7, 2006) their efforts to collaborate on behalf of children are serving as a model for the nation.

Joseph Aguerrebere, president of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), spoke at a unique gathering of a wide diversity of educators for a joint conference sponsored by WEAC in Sheboygan. The summit brought together educators involved in two separate but complementary school improvement strategies.

Joseph Aguerrebere

"You have made a very conscious attempt to really work together collaboratively. Not just the teachers' association, not just principals or administrators, but you've all come together to realize that we have a much better chance of accomplishing our goals if we work at it together. When I go across the country, I don't often see that. I salute you ... for acting on that belief (that) we're all in this together and we're going to make positive things happen," Aguerrebere said.

The two conferences at the Blue Harbor Resort were:

• The Policy Summit on Supporting and Staffing High-Needs Schools: A Conversation Among Wisconsin's National Board Certified Teachers.
• The KEYS Convocation, designed to review and expand NEA's growing school improvement program known as Keys to Excellence in Your Schools.

"As I think about both groups, we are really here for the same reasons - to support high-quality instruction and to ensure that our children are in classrooms that work," said WEAC President Stan Johnson. "As we work to close achievement gaps and other issues facing 21st century schools, we must work together wherever we can."

Elizabeth Burmaster

State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster applauded the work of UniServ staff and local union leaders "for the high degree of professionalism and leadership that you demonstrate every single day in the communities for our children. You show an unwavering belief in the potential of each and every child. ... And through your ability as educators you've made sure that that potential becomes a reality. That is very important work."

"We are here to focus on improving student achievement," Burmaster said. "Whether you are a member of the NEA KEYS program, and you're collaboratively engaged in your school quality efforts, or if you're a National Board Certified teacher focused on increasing the recruitment and retention of quality teachers in our high-needs urban and rural schools, you understand that it is a shared responsibility to increase the achievement of all students and to close the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged students, students of color and their peers."

Burmaster said the KEYS program is growing and will pay off with increased quality and higher student achievement.

Meanwhile, National Board Certified teachers play an important role, too, in advancing school improvement and raising the teaching profession to a higher level. About 100 of the state's 350 National Board Certified teachers attended the conference.

"We are very proud in Wisconsin to have 350 National Board Certified teachers," Burmaster said. "I commend your excellence and dedication to quality teaching."

She noted that the state's new teacher licensing law known as PI 34 "explicitly recognizes the validity of the NBPTS process" by accepting certification as satisfying the requirement for licensure under the Master Educator license, the highest of the three levels of teacher licenses.

"Both the National Certification and the NEA KEYS model are initiatives that do indeed focus on excellence. They set the bar high," she said, by emphasizing continuous assessment and reflection on good practice and professional learning.

"High-quality curriculum and instruction are the core elements, we know, of high-performing schools," Burmaster said. "And I think we know that our high-needs schools need, more than ever before, National Board certified teachers and a strong, rigorous curriculum to succeed. We are looking to you. This summit is about you and your leadership."

National Board Certified teachers can play a key role in recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers to high-needs urban and rural schools because they are leaders in their profession, she said. "We look to you because you excel in grassroots professionalism, you are effective in teaching all children, you are committed to your profession and seek out further learning." Master Educator teachers are mentors, leaders and partners, she said, in assuring quality education for every child.

"If we are truly to leave no child behind - and not just no child untested - our conversation must focus on what matters most: teaching and learning."

The classroom teacher, Burmaster said, is the single most important variable in the academic success of students, and that is why it is so important to recruit and retain the highest quality of teachers to our high-needs schools.

"In Wisconsin, we know that quality education is one that empowers every child to think, that empowers every child to act, and every child to, most importantly, ask the right questions ... to develop the integrative critical thinking needed for peace and prosperity in their own lives, in their community and in the world," she said.

"Thank you for having the courage to be great teachers and great leaders for Wisconsin's children, families and communities. You are doing great work."

Aguerrebere said that, although many other professions have well-established certification processes, National Board Certification for teachers did not begin developing until 1987 and was not fully in place until 1994-95 when the first group of 100 teachers nationally achieved certification. Today, more than 47,500 teachers are certified. While that sounds like a lot, he said, it is just more than 1% of teachers nationally. By contract, more than 90% of doctors are Board Certified, "so we have a long ways to go."

Aguerrebere said he envisions a time when most teachers also achieve Board Certification, but to achieve that goal incentives must be built into the system. He said he is impressed and encouraged by Wisconsin, where teachers who achieve National Board Certification are automatically advanced to the Master Educator level under the state's teacher licensing law.

"We will watch closely what happens in Wisconsin," he said.

Educators must continue to fight to maintain and advance the role of National Board Certification, he said, especially as some policymakers begin to view it as a cost rather than an investment.

He encouraged National Board Certified teachers to document ways in which their work achieving certification is paying off daily for the children they teach.

"This is a return on investment that business people and educators and parents can understand," he said. "I think we are on the verge of some very exciting things, and Wisconsin is a model for the nation."

Posted August 8, 2006