In this article from the Washington Post, a teacher from the elite Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA describes his failure to earn National Board certification.
English teacher Emmet Rosenfeld is, by all accounts, an outstanding teacher. He had students in his team-taught humanities course build a dugout canoe, for goodness sake. Nevertheless, he was ten points shy of earning a passing score.
One woman blamed his failure on the presentation of the required portfolio, while another defended the National Board’s policy of refusing to give feedback to applicants who did not pass. It all makes for enlightening reading, although one tires of hearing how the certification process pushed him “to new heights as a teacher” and gave his “lessons a boost.” He knows better.
Mr. Rosenfeld concludes,
The only problem is, I’m not sure how much more reflection I can take. Looking back, I’d be lying if I said the red tape and countless hours spent fussing with a video camera didn’t make for a hellish year. The prospect of even more lost weekends with the three-inch-thick instruction manual is daunting. And, on a more fundamental level, I wonder if I really want to be a member of a club that doesn’t get the canoe. I know in my gut that the journey my students and I took with that boat was worth it.
Regardless of the hellishness, he is going to try again. After all, if he passes, he will receive bonuses of approximately $6,000 a year for ten years.
H/T: George Leef
