National Board Certified Teachers Discuss What it Would Take to Get Their Ranks into High-Needs Schools

Rita Chaudhuri, a teacher coach at Tacoma's Hunt Middle School puzzled over a lesson plan for a new teacher at the school in the late afternoon last week. It was a rare moment of peace for this instructional facilitator, or in layman’s terms, a teaching coach.

 

Click here to listen to an interview with Rita Chaudhuri
[Link to: http://www.partnership4learning.org/resources/ritachaudhuriinterview.mp3] The sounds of slammed lockers still ricocheted through the halls, followed by the footfall of sneakered feet to the buses. But no one poked their head into her room, which is plastered with math posters, including one about the Fibonacci sequence in nature.

 

The teacher, newly minted and just out of college, Chaudhuri explained, was assigned a class at the school this year after the regular teacher fell ill. It was Chaudhuri's job to help this new teacher with lesson plans, act as a second pair of hands with her class and serve as a sounding board after school.

 

In short, Chaudhuri is a three-dimensional model of the instructional scaffolding National Board Certified teachers say they want in place before they'll consider teaching at a high-needs school.

 

"Money is not really the point," said Larry Olsen, another national board certified teacher at Hunt, as he walks into Chaudhuri's classroom for a chat.

 

The point is, he explained, working around other teachers who are excited about teaching and having principals who will support NBCTs in professional development and leadership roles. At Hunt, Olsen said he's found both.

 

Click here to listen to an interview with Larry Olsen [Link to: http://www.partnership4learning.org/resources/larryolseninterview.mp3]
Olsen, who teaches 7th-grade math, picked the school, following a leader he admired to Hunt, which has 61 percent of the students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program. About 52 percent of the students are minorities. Only about 25 percent of the 7th-graders passed the math WASL this spring.

 

To attract more teachers like Chaudhuri and Olsen to schools like Hunt, the 220 board certified teachers made it clear at the Oct. 21 summit that although it would be nice to be paid more for teaching in a high-needs school, pay isn't at the top of their list when discussing this issue.

 

NBCTs are teachers who have taken a year out of their life to pursue the certification, which requires submitting portfolios of their work and documenting that their teaching practices have had an impact on student achievement. Portfolios and videotapes are due in June of each year. Teachers find out in mid-November if they've qualified. About 700 teachers will be awaiting the results this year.

 

If past certifications are any indication, about half will receive the certification on the first try.

 

At the end of the summit, NBCTs told state legislators that they want more respect for their skills, more leadership responsibilities from their principals and more time to talk about student work and effective teaching strategies with their peers. These requests mirrored both national and state studies that polled board certified teachers this year.

 

Now, approximately 30 percent of Washington's 900 board certified teachers are in high-needs schools, compared to the 10 to 20 percent national average, according to OSPI.

 

In all there are 47,000 board certified teachers in the U.S. Comments from the Oct. 21 summit will be wrapped up in an issue paper that will be presented to lawmakers in January, said Jeanne Harmon, executive director of the Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession a major sponsor of the summit.

 

Harmon hopes that lawmakers will pay attention to their priorities, although she acknowledged that not all their needs—such as garnering more leadership opportunities—can be addressed through legislation.

 

"No that can’t be legislated," Harmon said.

 

The issue paper will offer up suggestions for school boards, principals and legislators to make the best use of NBCTs, she said.

 

Gary Kipp, executive director of the Association of Washington School Principals, said one helpful suggestion to lawmakers from a principal's perspective would be to have the stipend NBCTs receive follow them for the duration of that certificate. Currently, the bonus ends if the teacher decides to become an administrator, he said. But having this credential also deepens a principals' ability to be a strong instructional leader in their building and that should be recognized more formally.

 

Click here to listen to an interview with Sara van Donge [Link to: http://www.partnership4learning.org/resources/saravandongeinterview.mp3]
Some of the discussion during the summit focused on how recommendations produced there would line up with the upcoming Washington Learns report. Washington Learns, a commission comprised of education, parent, community and business leaders, as well as lawmakers, will release its final report on how to realign and improve the state's K-12 system on Nov. 13. Some of the initial recommendations by Washington Learns do match up with the recommendations produced from the summit, including a more aggressive mentoring program for teachers and more professional development.

 

Roger Erskine, of the Professional Educator Standards Board, said that schools should report to the Superintendent of Public Instruction whether they have any board certified teachers and how they are being used.

 

One of the common complaints from the teachers, who took instant polls at the conference, was they were often overlooked as possible mentors or leaders in their buildings.

 

Currently, each of the board certified teachers in the state receive a $3,500 bonus each fall. But that stipend has to be renewed in every biennial budget and doesn't count toward the teacher's retirement income.

 

Teachers also made it clear they would like a pay boost, similar to the $10,000 NBCT's in California receives, if they agree to teach at a high-needs school. Lawmakers were supportive, but noncommittal on this point.

 

"We have 100 great ideas here," said Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-1st District, chair of the senate’s early learning, k-12 and higher education committee. "But you need to have dollar signs attached and you need to prioritize."

 

After a few days of considering this advice, Harmon said that her staff, as well as the state NBCT program, will likely do just that.