NYSUT celebrates 98 teachers for attaining the 'gold standard' of the teaching profession: National Board Certification

ALBANY, N.Y. Dec. 12, 2018 — New York State United Teachers today celebrated the accomplishments of 98 New York teachers who earned National Board Certification, a recognized symbol of teaching excellence that directly benefits students in the classroom.

The 98 teachers from across the state succeeded in proving to the Virginia-based National Board for Professional Teaching Standards that — through performance-based assessments, writing and videotapes demonstrating a wide range of teaching skills — they meet the very highest standards of the teaching profession.

“New York is known across the nation for its rigorous certification process and the very high quality of its teachers. Even so, these 98 have voluntarily challenged themselves and proven to an independent board that they rank among the ‘best of the best,’” said NYSUT President Andy Pallotta. “Their union is extremely proud of them and we celebrate this tremendous accomplishment with them.”

NYSUT Executive Vice President Jolene DiBrango said that, with the addition of 98 new National Board Certified Teachers, New York now has 2,016 teachers who have reached the “gold standard” of the teaching profession. In addition, 52 New York teachers learned this week that they have successfully renewed their national certification for a 10-year period.

“As New York faces a looming teacher shortage, we — as a society — must change the way we look at the teaching profession,” DiBrango said. “Just as we celebrate athletes and artistic performances with awards, we should do the same for highly accomplished classroom teachers who do the most important job on earth — educate our state’s children.”

DiBrango added, “New York’s more than 2,000 board-certified teachers are standard-bearers for all the educators working in our public schools who inspire young minds and who are helping to mold the next generation of leaders. I congratulate them on their achievement.”

About National Board Certification

Achieving national certification is extraordinarily difficult. Candidates typically spend 200-400 hours of their own time having their teaching assessed against rigorous standards through an extensive series of performance-based assessments, including teaching portfolios, student work samples, videotapes and thorough analyses and reflection of the candidate’s teaching and student learning. The process involves written exercises that probe the depth of the candidate’s subject area knowledge as well as their understanding of how to teach those subjects.

NYSUT assists national board candidates by offering awareness programs, support and advice through online discussion forums, conferences and professional development through its Education & Learning Trust. The union works with the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center and other teacher centers to support candidates through the challenging board-certification process. In addition, a state grant program helps pay the candidates’ application fees and other expenses.

New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members in education, human services and health care. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.

New York State's National Board Certified Teachers: Class of 2018