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CHAPTER 2: The Teaching Profession
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) A
national nonprofit organization that issues certificates to teachers who meet its standards for professional ability and knowledge.
collective bargaining. Teacher evaluation, salary schedules, layoffs, and tenure are but a few of the issues that some state lawmakers and governors have included in bargaining prohibitions.24 Movements toward school reform, school restructuring, and teacher empowerment, where collective bargaining remains intact, can give teachers more professional autonomy, union strength, and higher salaries in exchange for greater accountability and reduced adversarial bargaining. Continuing in this vein, collective bargaining can reduce resistance to various reform efforts, thus resolving conflicts between school boards and teachers and potentially raising the overall status of the profession.25 Educators are unlikely to achieve complete autonomy in setting professional practice standards, but their role has increased. Today, a majority of states have professional standards boards that regulate the education profession, but they vary in the powers they possess. Among their responsibilities may be the authority to issue, renew, suspend, and revoke certificates for teachers and administrators. In eleven states, these boards act in an advisory capacity; in four states, their decisions are reviewed by the particular state’s board of education; while in thirteen states, they have the power to make independent decisions.26 The concept of rigorous licensure standards and independent professional practice boards has been endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), which together represent the vast majority of teachers in the United States. In 1987, the Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession was instrumental in the founding of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). Today, many educators see the NBPTS as a professional board implementing meaningful standards that lead to the awarding of advanced teacher certification that goes beyond state certification. Both major teacher organization presidents sit on the NBPTS board of directors, and a majority of the board members are from the teaching profession.27 Currently, the NBPTS has granted national certification to more than 110,000 master teachers, teachers who have demonstrated the skills of an expert by passing a series of rigorous assessments, in twenty-five certificate fields.28 Although NBPTS certification is voluntary and cannot be required as a condition of hiring, many state boards of education, local school boards, and superintendents have developed incentives to encourage teachers to seek national certification.29 For more information on national board standards and certification areas, see the NBPTS website.
2-2c Mediated Entry mediated entry The practice of
inducting persons into a profession through carefully supervised stages.
Mediated entry refers to the practice of inducting people into a profession through carefully supervised stages that help them learn how to apply professional knowledge successfully in working environments. For example, aspiring physicians serve one
24 Daniel M. Rosenthal, “What Education Reformers Should Do about Collective Bargaining,” Phi Delta Kappan (February 2014), pp. 58–62; and Clifford B. Donn, Rache E. Donn, Loyd Goldberg, and Brenda J. Kirby, “Teacher Working Conditions With and Without Collective Bargaining.” Nevada Law Journal (April 1, 2014), p. 496. 25 Susan Black, “Bargaining: It’s in Your Best Interest,” American School Board Journal (April 2008), pp. 52–53; and Mark Paige, “Applying the ‘Paradox’ Theory: A Law and Policy Analysis of Collective Bargaining Rights and Teacher Evaluation Reform from Selected States,” Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal (January, 2013), pp. 21–43. 26 NASDTEC, 2009 Status of Educator Standards Boards, (Whitinsville, MA: National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, June 2010). 27 Albert Shanker, “Quality Assurance: What Must Be Done to Strengthen the Teaching Profession,” Phi Delta Kappan (November 1996), pp. 220–224; and see “National Board for Professional Teaching Standards” at www.nbpts.org/board-directors (January 14, 2015). 28 See “National Board Certification,” www.boardcertifiedteachers.org/certificate-areas (January 14, 2015). 29 Rick Allen, “National Board Certified Teachers: Putting in the Time, Energy, and Money to Improve Teaching,” Education Update (2010), pp. 1–5; and see “Value for Teachers” at www .boardcertifiedteachers.org (January 14, 2015).
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