Teachers Tackle Their Own Extra Credit

National Certification Pays Off With Stipend And Stamp of Approval

Diann Morales reads to first-graders at Seldens Landing Elementary. Morales was one of about 200 public school teachers across the region to earn national certification last year. (By Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post)

After a grueling application process that lasted hundreds of hours, Leesburg teacher Diann Morales captured the highest credential in her profession last month. The payoff was visible one recent day in her classroom at Seldens Landing Elementary School:

Two dozen first-graders unscrambled words in a language unit. They spotted contractions in a poem and read aloud to themselves with the help of "whisper phones," or plastic tubes that amplify their voices to help them catch mistakes. Student achievement, Morales said, has soared in reading and writing.

The eight-year veteran credits the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards with giving her a more thoughtful approach. With each exercise, she now asks herself: "Why am I doing this? Because it's cute and parents are going to like it? Because the county wants it done? Or is it because a student learns best this way?"

Morales was one of about 200 public school teachers across the Washington region to win certification in 2006 from the Arlington County-based national board. The public school systems in Loudoun, Calvert and Charles counties and the District had the lowest totals of new board-certified teachers in the area: two each. Montgomery County had the most: 72.

Although some wonder how much the program raises student achievement, there is a growing movement toward national certification. The number of board-certified teachers has tripled in the past five years to more than 55,000 nationwide. Increasingly, school systems are seeking to raise teacher quality.

This notion is built into the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires states to have "highly qualified" teachers for all core academic classes, meaning they must have a bachelor's degree, a full state credential and demonstrated knowledge of the subjects they teach. But standards for subject knowledge vary widely from state to state.

By contrast, the process for national board certification is uniform across the country. Applications can take up to 400 hours to complete. Applicants must finish in-depth projects, assemble a portfolio that includes video of themselves teaching and take an online test. Fewer than half of applicants earn certification the first year they apply. The process aims to push teachers to adapt lessons for each child, analyze why certain methods work and reach out to colleagues and the families of students.

Prince George's County School Superintendent John E. Deasy said board certification helps teachers reflect on their profession in a way that often leads to faculty-room discussions about sharing lesson ideas. "Education is one of the most isolated professions," he said. "This is a very public process."

Deasy said he aims to get 10 percent of the county's teachers board-certified, up from less than 1 percent now. To accomplish this goal, Prince George's has increased its annual stipend for board-certified teachers to $5,000 from $3,000, according to the school system. That's on top of a $2,000 stipend from Maryland.

The states with the highest financial incentives tend to have the most board-certified teachers. In North Carolina, where teachers can receive a 12 percent pay increase each year they have a valid certificate, an estimated 13 percent of teachers are board-certified; in South Carolina, where teachers earn a $7,500 bump each year, about 11 percent are board-certified.

School systems vying for the best teachers often sweeten the pot.

In Virginia, the state offers a one-time stipend of $5,000 and $2,500 each year after that to board-certified teachers. But Fairfax County also pays fees for every applicant and as much as $3,500 per year to teachers that win certification. As a result, the county has more than 200 board-certified teachers.