From staff and press reports

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has announced that 350 Mississippi teachers and school counselors earned their profession's top honor this year by achieving National Board Certification, an increase that promises to improve student learning in classrooms throughout the state. The total number of Mississippi teachers and school counselors certified by NBPTS now stands at 2,113.

Choctaw County School District gained 5 new National Board Certified Teachers including Sharon James, Melissa Burney, Roxanne Ables, Angela Moncrief and Dorthy Murphy.

"A quality teacher is the first essential ingredient to a quality education, and I am very, very proud of these 350 Mississippi teachers who have gained their National Board Certification," said Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.). "These teachers have reached a superior achievement and our school children will only benefit because of their success."

In addition to Mississippi, states with the highest number of teachers achieving National Board Certification this year are: North Carolina (1,675), Florida (1,472), South Carolina (637), Georgia (450), California (443) and Illinois (412). Nationwide, 8,056 teachers earned the credential this year, bringing the total number of teachers certified to 40,200.

"Teachers in Mississippi tell me that the process of becoming board certified renews their enthusiasm for teaching, improves their performance in the classroom, and helps raise the achievement levels of their students," said Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.).

National Board Certification is the highest credential in the teaching profession. A voluntary process established by NBPTS, certification is achieved through a rigorous performance-based assessment that takes between one and three years to complete and measures what accomplished teachers and school counselors should know and be able to do.

"With teacher quality serving as the benchmark in determining a student's academic success, the National Board congratulates all teachers who went through the rigorous National Board Certification process," said former Georgia Gov. Roy E. Barnes, chair of the NBPTS Board of Directors. "This announcement is especially significant with more and more solid research confirming that teachers who earn this distinction represent the gold standard in teaching and are among the most effective teachers in our classrooms today."

Several recent studies confirm the effectiveness of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs):

€ Research by The CNA Corporation (Nov. 2004) found students of NBCTs did a measurably better job than other ninth and tenth graders on year-end math tests in Miami-Dade County (Fla.) Public Schools. All else being equal, teachers who had achieved National Board Certification helped their students achieve larger testing gains than did colleagues without the certification.

€ Research by Arizona State University (Sept. 2004) found that students of NBCTs outperformed students of non-NBCTs on the Stanford-9 Achievement Test, with learning gains equivalent on average to spending more than an extra month in school each year.

€ Research by the University of Washington and The Urban Institute (March 2004) found that students of NBCTs experienced year-end testing improvements that averaged 7 percent to 15 percent more than peers whose teachers were not NBCTs.

"The data from these and our forthcoming studies confirm that investing in National Board Certification is a proven school-reform strategy," said NBPTS President Joseph A. Aguerrebere. "The National Board is committed to ensuring that all teachers have access to National Board Certification and that all students have access to National Board Certified Teachers."

In its ongoing effort to measure the impact of National Board Certification and the effects of NBCTs on the quality of teaching and student achievement in America's schools, NBPTS has engaged in an independent, rigorous research agenda. There have been more than 160 studies, reports and papers commissioned on the value of the National Board Certification process, as well as its standards and assessments.

All 50 states and more than 500 school districts across the nation have implemented policies and regulations to recruit, reward and retain NBCTs. "At a time when many school systems face tight economic times, it is gratifying to see that a growing number of states, school districts and municipalities support National Board Certification and the impact it has on the teaching profession and improved student learning," said Barnes.

"The National Board Certification process not only identifies accomplished teachers but also is a profound professional development experience," said Aguerrebere. "This is a process that requires teachers to demonstrate how their activities, both inside and outside of the classroom, improve student achievement."

For more information about NBPTS, please visit http://www.nbpts.org.