Offered on a voluntary basis, National Board Certification establishes advanced standards for experienced teachers. National Board Certification measures a teacher's practice against high and rigorous standards through an extensive series of performance-based assessments, which includes teaching portfolios, student work samples, videotapes or DVDs and thorough analyses of the candidate's teaching and the students' learning. The process involves written exercises that probe the depth of a candidate's subject-matter knowledge, as well as his or her understanding of how to teach those subjects. National Board Certification is a symbol of professional teaching excellence. A certificate will attest that a teacher was judged by his or her peers as one who is accomplished, makes sound professional judgments about students' best interests and acts effectively on those judgments. Certification is voluntary and open to anyone with a baccalaureate degree and three years of classroom experience in either a public or private school. Teachers must complete a maintenance of certification every 5 years.
Offered on a voluntary basis, teachers may choose to go back to school to add to their knowledge of how to best teach their content areas. Typically, these master's programs take 2 years to complete.