The National Board Certification process is voluntary and is open to public and private school teachers from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Teachers wishing to apply for National Board Certification in this certificate field during the 2000-2001 school year must submit a completed application by December 1, 2000. The assessment center portion of the assessment will be administered during the summer of 2001. Assessing Student Work - Teachers demonstrate how they collect evidence about student progress, analyze and evaluate student progress, and communicate with students about their work.
Teachers submit a written commentary and student artifacts in response to assessments.
In addition, teachers will be asked to show how they use information gathered through assessment to inform their own practice. Probing Student Understanding - Teachers submit a videotape and written analytic and reflective commentary to demonstrate how they use classroom discourse and questioning to engage students in discussion at the beginning of an instructional sequence. They will discuss how they elicit students' initial conceptions of an important idea in science and use students' understanding to influence instruction toward deeper understandings of the scientific idea. Featuring students in small group or whole class discussions, teachers will reflect on how they help students make sense of data, draw conclusions, and engage in scientific inquiry. I - Teachers submit descriptions and documentation of those activities and accomplishments that illustrate their commitment to their students' families and the communities of their students.