National Board Certification Doesn'T Come Easy
By Amanda N. Wegner
Contributing writer
A wild ride to achieve certification Elveeca Otto knew the deadline to turn in her National Board Certification materials was Easter weekend. Working up until the last minute, she had a timeline mapped out in her head and figured she had until 8 p.m. Saturday to get her box in the mail. Then, in her third run for National Board Certification at the time, her portfolio would be off to Ewing, New Jersey.
Except things didn’t go as planned. The place from which she had planned to mail her box closed at 6 p.m., not 8. Her husband, at the time her fiance, knowing how much certification meant to Elveeca, ran around the city trying to find a place that could get her materials to the East Coast on time. After trying the main Post Office, all the major shipping companies and private couriers, it seemed all hope was lost. “I am, of course, panicking,” recalled Otto. “I’m trying to figure out what to do next. I had come this far, too far, to just abandon it. Then a very calm feeling came over me. I thought, ‘I’ll take it myself.’” And she did. After staying up most the night making arrangements, Otto was on her way to Philadelphia, the closest major airport to Ewing. Everything seemed great until, that night, Easter Sunday, another near-disaster struck. Sitting in her hotel room, looking through her box, Otto realized she was missing a page.
Luckily, she had thought to pack her disk. She whisked down to the hotel’s business center and printed out a new copy of the missing page. The next day, after rides on the subway, in a cab, on a train and in another taxi, Otto arrived at the National Board office. Walking up to the building, Otto asked another woman coming out if she was at the right place. Spying Otto’s box, she said “Yes, I just dropped my box off.” Inside, Otto found the receptionist, who had stacks of boxes behind her. After filling out some paperwork, the receptionist asked Otto where she was from. “Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” Otto said. “Oh my, you’ve come farther than anyone else yet today,” the receptionist replied. Otto earned her National Board Certification in November 2006. |
Deer-hunting season 2003 is not one Bill Dallas will soon forget.
After eight months of waiting to hear whether he had earned his National Board Certification, Dallas got the news the Friday before opening day.
Subsequently, he spent the whole weekend in a deer stand mulling his options.
Bill Dallas |
“Basically, I was off by 5%,” recalled Dallas, who teaches Advanced Placement U.S. History and other classes at Medford Senior High School.
“I was pretty devastated. I went from shock, to being upset, then angry. Then I refocused and decided I’d keep going. And that was that.”
And refocus he did. Dallas earned his National Board Certification in November 2004 after redoing one part of his portfolio.
Dallas is among the many teachers who did not earn National Board Certification on the first – or sometimes second – try. National Board Certification is a rigorous process. According to the NEA, the rates for achieving National Board Certification continue to increase, but the current average is still just around 70%, when re-take candidates are included. The NEA adds, “This does not mean that the standards are too high, but rather that the assessment truly reflects the complexity of teaching and learning. Some teachers have tried National Board Certification without adequate preparation or understanding of the process, while others have selected a certificate area in which they were not sufficiently knowledgeable.”
National Certification, added Dallas, “isn’t meant for everyone.”
“This is not a program that everyone will succeed at,” the 20-year, master’s-prepared teaching veteran said. “That’s one reason they don’t give reasons why you don’t pass. It’s designed to identify those who are doing it and those who are doing it well.”
Considering the large financial investment ($2,500 in 2007) and time commitment (the average candidate spends 200 to 300 hours preparing a portfolio), it’s easy to understand why not earning this distinction on the initial attempts is frustrating. But for those educators who are qualified, prepared and committed, the road to National Board Certification is possible, albeit with a few small bumps.
Why keep trying
Debra Figueroa and another teacher decided it would be better to go through the process as a team, and in 2003, the duo made their first go of it. But the first year, Figueroa was out of the classroom on a grant position, leading a new class she had never taught before. This presented challenges to her portfolio, and she knew there would be obstacles.
But by the second semester, said Figueroa, as she was writing and completing the portfolio, she saw a transformation begin to unfold. Certifying no longer held the weight it once did; the process itself was rewarding.
“Just sending in the box was tough,” said Figueroa, “but it didn’t even matter if it got out, because I changed from the process.”
In November 2003, Figueroa learned that she hadn’t received her certification; neither had the other teacher. On her second attempt, she redid a video; the following November, she became another National Board Certified teacher in Wisconsin, one of 402 to date.
“Nothing compares to the certification process,” said Figueroa, who teaches AP English and American Literature at Sussex-Hamilton High School. “Classes, credits, professional staff development … nothing struck me like this particular process. In the second year, I actually enjoyed being able to extend the process.”
And that process, in and of itself, is eye-opening.
“(The process) led me to seeing what the kids were seeing,” Figueroa said. “Some things I liked, some I was not very proud of.
“It’s a very objective process,” she added. “You face your demons and come out a better teacher.”
Elveeca Otto, a literacy specialist for the Milwaukee Metropolitan School District, opted to pursue certification as a “personal challenge.” Though it took three tries to succeed and a whirlwind adventure to New Jersey (see sidebar), she was discouraged but didn’t give up.
“I always felt I was a good teacher, and I wanted something that could measure my ability to teach,” said Otto, who taught English and language arts at the middle-school level until 2006 and is also an adjunct professor at Cardinal Stritch College. “One way to do it was to measure myself against national standards.”
The first time Otto didn’t pass, she was “disturbed.” Though not technology-savvy, Otto thought she’d test her personal boundaries the second time and opted for the assessment center option, wherein the candidate must demonstrate specific content knowledge in his or her certificate area by completing computer-based exercises.
Worrying more about the technology than content, Otto didn’t receive certification on her second try either. But, “as they say, the third time’s a charm,” said Otto with a laugh.
“I could have said ‘forget it’ the first time, and the second time,” Otto said. “But call it determination, persistence, not wanting to take no for an answer, intrinsic motivation, stubbornness, I was committed to succeeding.”
Dedicated to passing
Matt Friedl, a social studies teacher at Hudson High School, applied for National Board Certification the first year it was offered and was one of the first educators in Wisconsin to receive the certification in 2000. At the time, he had no mentors, limited resources and lots of unanswered questions.
“There were a lot of unknowns,” Friedl said. “I was clueless on what was involved. There were no hints, nothing.”
But things have changed since Friedl first completed his portfolio more than seven years ago. For educators who are committed to achieving National Board Certification, there are numerous resources available.
“If this is something you really want, keep going,” said Medford’s Dallas. Some districts offer financial incentives and mentoring programs. Working with other teachers who have successfully gained their certification, Dallas said, can help candidates get a “different point of view.”
“It’s difficult to look at your own work in an objective manner,” added Figueroa, who has served as a mentor. “It’s nice to pass off your work and have someone else look over it.”
If there are no nationally certified teachers in your district, try connecting with educators in other districts. The Wisconsin National Board Network (www2.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/wnbn) maintains a list of certified teachers in the state and denotes those who are willing to mentor candidates; the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards also lists NBCTs through the country. NBPTS, WEAC and DPI all offer additional resources.
“No one has to go this alone anymore,” said Friedl, who will begin the renewal process in a few years and is gearing up for treading unchartered territory again.
For those educators who are qualified, prepared and dedicated, not passing on the first or second try should not be seen as failure, but opportunity.
“I don’t think the second try is as difficult as the first,” said Figueroa. “The second year allows you to prolong the self-reflection and better your teaching style. You will become a better teacher just by trying this.”
For more information, visit the OnWEAC Resource Page on National Board Certification at www.weac.org/Resource/NBPTS.htm.
Posted May 10, 2007