Hillsborough County National Board Certified Teacher Network
Affiliated with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
The Hillsborough County NBCT Network is a nonpartisan group seeking to provide timely information about issues affecting NBCTs in this district.
The Hillsborough County NBCT Network is a nonpartisan group seeking to provide timely information about issues affecting NBCTs in this district.
Mission
In support of our continuous pursuit of excellence in education, the Hillsborough County National Board Certified Network will promote a climate for collegial conversation, provide a forum for relevant, research based professional development, and build a culture of reciprocal exchange of encouragement, experience, and expertise with stakeholders within the education community.
The Beginning
In December of 2003, Hillsborough County called a meeting to see what people were interested in forming a loose organization of National Board teachers. Sue Creekmore answered the call to volunteer and the council of HNBCTs was born.
The first meeting consisted of about twelve people...including spouses and anyone else they could drag off the street. There now are education seminars, up to eight book studies a year, the Superintendent’s advisory committee, and an average of between forty and sixty-five members at each event. Hillsborough NBCTs have addressed the Hillsborough Legislative Delegation and been involved in many ways to communicate with legislative decision makers on education policy issues.
The first meeting consisted of about twelve people...including spouses and anyone else they could drag off the street. There now are education seminars, up to eight book studies a year, the Superintendent’s advisory committee, and an average of between forty and sixty-five members at each event. Hillsborough NBCTs have addressed the Hillsborough Legislative Delegation and been involved in many ways to communicate with legislative decision makers on education policy issues.
Teaching Quality...Is National Board the Answer? by Faye Cook
Faye Lefler Cook is a National Board Certified Teacher, chair of the Hillsborough NBCT Council, and member of CTQ's Hillsborough New Millennium Initiative. She teaches an amazing group of fifth graders in Plant City, Florida.
Imagine a world where every child has a master teacher from pre-school through high school. Imagine a world where educators are able to have rich academic dialogue with every teaching colleague. Imagine a world where every teacher is considered a teacher-leader, who can provide support and willingly accept support from others. Imagine a world where every parent is able to smile proudly and proclaim, “My child has the best teacher ever!” year after year. In my imaginary world, this could happen if every teacher becomes a National Board Certified Teacher.
National Board Certification is a professional growth adventure. It is not a means of just showing what you know or do. It is a means to develop what you grow and do to its highest level. It is a time of study, practice, reflections, revised practice, and then more reflections.
My school system, Hillsborough County Public Schools, in central Florida, is entering the third year of the historic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grant which funds the Empowering Effective Teachers peer evaluation and new teacher mentoring program. The first year of data on teacher scores indicates that Hillsborough’s National Board Certified Teachers outperformed non-National Board Certified Teachers. The comparisons were made for all teachers, and then broken down by teachers with bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, specialist of education degrees, and doctorate degrees.
The numbers are statistically significant.
When you look at the total evaluation score–that is comprised of a peer score, the principal score, and the value-add (tests) score, NBCT’s rank almost one full standard deviation higher than non-NBCTs. Caution should be taken, since this is only one year of results, but as an NBCT, I believe we will see this as a trend-line from year to year as we progress through the seven-year grant funded initiative. The results of the initial year are congruent with several other studies carried out by theNational Board for Professional Teaching Standards and other research groups, such as theNational Research Council.
Financially accessibility may be the biggest obstacle to making my imaginary world a reality. Teacher pay continues to lag when compared to other professions with similar education and credentials. The application fee for National Board certification can be prohibitive, particularly for younger teachers who are also providing for growing families. For the 2012-2013 school year, there is a path available to ease the financial burden for teachers in Title 1 schools to apply for National Board Certification. This path will be gone next school year, so this is a limited time opportunity.
Nationwide: Teachers in Title 1 schools can receive a federal subsidy which pays half of the application fee. There is no additional application process. For this year, the National Board is going to make sure that any teacher in a Title 1 school who applies will receive this subsidy. Next school year, this grant money is going to be reallocated to other areas and will NOT be available. Check the National Board website, as well as your state department of education and district office, to find out if other assistance is available.
In Hillsborough County, FL: The Hillsborough Education Foundation has agreed to fund a matching grant of up to $500 to help any Hillsborough teacher with the application fee. Additionally, Hillsborough’s Superintendent, MaryEllen Elia, established The Superintendent’s Recognition Fund that provides a reimbursement for a portion of the fee for those teachers who earn NB certification. For teachers in Title 1 schools, and particularly for teachers in Hillsborough County, Florida, there may be no better year to apply. Potential candidates can also contact Sue Creekmore, Global Educational Consultant at [email protected] for more information for the specifics of applying in the 2012-2013 school year.
Imagine a world in which the halls of our schools are filled with professionals who are constantly reflecting and improving our practice. However, to make my imaginary world a reality, we need help from political officials to provide support and financial incentives that teachers would need to make this important professional step, a step that would make students the ultimate winners.
Click here to see the original published piece in Transform Ed.
Imagine a world where every child has a master teacher from pre-school through high school. Imagine a world where educators are able to have rich academic dialogue with every teaching colleague. Imagine a world where every teacher is considered a teacher-leader, who can provide support and willingly accept support from others. Imagine a world where every parent is able to smile proudly and proclaim, “My child has the best teacher ever!” year after year. In my imaginary world, this could happen if every teacher becomes a National Board Certified Teacher.
National Board Certification is a professional growth adventure. It is not a means of just showing what you know or do. It is a means to develop what you grow and do to its highest level. It is a time of study, practice, reflections, revised practice, and then more reflections.
My school system, Hillsborough County Public Schools, in central Florida, is entering the third year of the historic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grant which funds the Empowering Effective Teachers peer evaluation and new teacher mentoring program. The first year of data on teacher scores indicates that Hillsborough’s National Board Certified Teachers outperformed non-National Board Certified Teachers. The comparisons were made for all teachers, and then broken down by teachers with bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, specialist of education degrees, and doctorate degrees.
The numbers are statistically significant.
When you look at the total evaluation score–that is comprised of a peer score, the principal score, and the value-add (tests) score, NBCT’s rank almost one full standard deviation higher than non-NBCTs. Caution should be taken, since this is only one year of results, but as an NBCT, I believe we will see this as a trend-line from year to year as we progress through the seven-year grant funded initiative. The results of the initial year are congruent with several other studies carried out by theNational Board for Professional Teaching Standards and other research groups, such as theNational Research Council.
Financially accessibility may be the biggest obstacle to making my imaginary world a reality. Teacher pay continues to lag when compared to other professions with similar education and credentials. The application fee for National Board certification can be prohibitive, particularly for younger teachers who are also providing for growing families. For the 2012-2013 school year, there is a path available to ease the financial burden for teachers in Title 1 schools to apply for National Board Certification. This path will be gone next school year, so this is a limited time opportunity.
Nationwide: Teachers in Title 1 schools can receive a federal subsidy which pays half of the application fee. There is no additional application process. For this year, the National Board is going to make sure that any teacher in a Title 1 school who applies will receive this subsidy. Next school year, this grant money is going to be reallocated to other areas and will NOT be available. Check the National Board website, as well as your state department of education and district office, to find out if other assistance is available.
In Hillsborough County, FL: The Hillsborough Education Foundation has agreed to fund a matching grant of up to $500 to help any Hillsborough teacher with the application fee. Additionally, Hillsborough’s Superintendent, MaryEllen Elia, established The Superintendent’s Recognition Fund that provides a reimbursement for a portion of the fee for those teachers who earn NB certification. For teachers in Title 1 schools, and particularly for teachers in Hillsborough County, Florida, there may be no better year to apply. Potential candidates can also contact Sue Creekmore, Global Educational Consultant at [email protected] for more information for the specifics of applying in the 2012-2013 school year.
Imagine a world in which the halls of our schools are filled with professionals who are constantly reflecting and improving our practice. However, to make my imaginary world a reality, we need help from political officials to provide support and financial incentives that teachers would need to make this important professional step, a step that would make students the ultimate winners.
Click here to see the original published piece in Transform Ed.
Funding for NBCTs in Hillsborough!
Below is a letter from the President of the Hillsborough Education Foundation, Phil Jones. A big thank you to the Hillsborough Education Foundation for being a huge supporter of amazing and personalized professional development, becoming a National Board Certified Teacher.
This week I had a delightful meeting with Hillsborough County school teachers Sue Creekmore and Faye Cook. They came in to talk about their passion for the National Board Certification for teachers (NBCT) program. Both Sue and Faye are members of this elite group of the very best teachers in America. In order to receive Board Certification, a teacher must have been on the job for three years and then go through a three-year process of testing in a variety of teaching disciplines. The teacher undergoes a thorough evaluation of his/her teaching style and their impact on students’ learning. Their teaching is video-taped and gruelingly examined and critiqued by a panel of experts.
Only one in three who begin this process complete the difficult program (think Army Ranger, Green Beret, or Navy Seal). The success of the Board Certification program can be measured with the test scores of the students they teach. On average, a National Board Certification Teacher’s students score higher on standardized tests. In teacher evaluations, NBCT teachers consistently are rated higher in their evaluations.
Despite their impressive results in teacher competencies, and student learning results, funding for teachers to enter the program for NBCT certification has been eliminated in the Florida education budget. Those that “howl” the most about wanting better teachers have unwittingly eliminated a good program to create great teachers. Our hats are off to the Hillsborough County Public School District which continues to reward these National Board Certified Teachers with different levels of modest bonuses. Our District provides bonuses for their teaching excellence at a little over $900,000 per year or about $1,000 for each NBCT. This represents about 1/10 or 1% of overall teacher payroll. A Renaissance school teacher, which is a teacher in the poorest schools in the county, receives the highest NBCT bonus. Currently there are 850 National Board Certified Teachers in the HCPS District.
For a teacher to receive certification, the cost of the training program and testing is about $2,500, which the teacher must pay for out of his/her own pocket. This is a lot out of a teacher’s salary.
For this reason, our Foundation is offering a new $500 match to any teacher who enters the program paying their own way. Our HCPS District also supports this important program.
What a difference a gifted teacher who is a NBCT can make in the lives of students. By the way, Sue Creekmore is retiring this August after 34 years as a school teacher. I have a special place in my heart for fourth grade teachers like Sue, because my fourth grade teacher helped change my life by turning me into a book reader. The Foundation wishes Sue the very best in her upcoming retirement and thanks her for all those years of dedication in teaching her students.
Our Foundation is committed to the next generation of teachers like Sue. Our support of the National Board Certification Teacher program for every teacher who would like to achieve this goal is one of the many ways that HEF is making our schools better.
All the best,
Phil Jones
NBCTs in the News
- Since August 2010, the Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) has partnered with 17 of Florida’s most accomplished teacher leaders to generate a set of research-driven and classroom-based solutions – that is, TeacherSolutions – for effective performance pay systems. Over the past six months, the teacher cadre participated in face-to-face meetings, virtual webinars and online discussions. They also studied the research, examined local and state policy, and debated with the experts – with an eye toward incorporating student learning, teacher learning, teacher leadership, and market incentives into a comprehensive teacher compensation model for the state of Florida. In their multimedia report, Effective Teachers and Performance Pay, the teacher team explains why “now more than ever, teachers who learn more, do more, share their expertise more, and help students learn more, should be paid more.” Their TeacherSolutions present new “third-way” thinking about these critical issues, which move past the typical “either/or” debates of defending the status quo versus "reforming" education. Megan Allen, teacher co-author and 2010 Florida Teacher of the Year encourages everyone to: “Read our work, listen to our voices, and let’s together find a performance pay system that works for our students.” To access the multimedia product with podcasts and videos, check out their report here: http://www.teachingquality.org/sites/default/files/Effective_Teachers_and_Performance_Pay_Feb11.pdf
- A poll recently completed showed the importance Tampa Bay parents placed on having NBCTs as teachers. Read the article at http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/poll-shows-tampa-bay-parents-satisfied-with-schools-teachers/1129359 and view the graphs regarding polling data on teacher qualifications, standardized assessment performance, and more at http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2010/reports/education-poll/. An impressive 52% of parents regard National Board Certification as very important...wow!
- An article in the Huffington Post recently discussed the importance of teacher voice, particularly of NBCTs, in education reform conversations. Please click below to read it and reflect on what role you could play in education reform. We must not be weary to advocate for what our heads and hearts know is best for our students. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/megan-allen
NBCT Recruitment
To find out more information on becoming a NBCT, please visit http://nbct.mysdhc.org/.
Become a Member
Any Hillsborough NBCTs are welcome to join...there is no membership fee, no secret handshake, no form to fill out! Just collaboration, networking, and problem solving. Come to our next event—we can't wait to see you there!
Contact Information
Website maintained by Megan M. Allen, NBCT, [email protected]