National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Network to Transform Teaching Project
The Network to Transform Teaching (NT3) initiative of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (National Board) is funded by a three-year Supporting Effective Educator Development Grant awarded in 2013. The initiative is designed to (1) increase the number of candidates submitting their first certification component and (2) increase the percentage of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) in instructional leadership roles. The initiative aims to establish collaborative processes for continuous improvement in the partner sites that will be sustained beyond the grant period, resulting in models that will have national significance. Partner sites include two districts (San Francisco and Albuquerque) and four states (Arizona, Kentucky, New York, and Washington).
Project Summary
AIR serves as an independent evaluator of the Network to Transform Teaching at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. AIR is charged with providing a formative evaluation of program implementation and an outcomes evaluation of the instructional leadership of National Board Certified Teachers.
Research Goals
The goal of the formative evaluation of NT3 is to provide ongoing feedback to the National Board about the successes and challenges of implementation at each site and the usefulness of activities and tools available to the sites as part of the improvement network. The goal of the outcomes evaluation is to examine the relationship between the instructional leadership of NBCTs, instructional practices, and teacher effectiveness.
Research Questions
Implementation evaluation:
- To what extent do site partners successfully recruit highly effective teachers, support their certification process, and employ these teachers in high-need schools?
- To what extent do site partners successfully articulate instructional leadership roles, recruit highly effective NBCTs, support their preparation for those positions, and employ these instructional leaders in high-need schools?
- To what extent does implementation of this initiative lead to the following:
- The strengthening of systems for highly effective teachers to earn advanced certification and to become instructional leaders
- The development of cost-effective and sustainable strategies for employing and concentrating highly effective teachers and instructional leaders in high-need schools
- The creation and development of a Networked Improvement Community supporting the sustainability and continued development of the initiative’s processes and strategies
- To what extent do teachers make progress toward certification through the revised certification process?
Outcomes evaluation:
- What is the relationship between NBCTs who became instructional leaders and the following:
- Measures of teacher practice (e.g., classroom observations, evaluation scores, surveys, interviews) of the teachers whom the NBCT instructional leaders support
- Measures of teacher effectiveness (e.g., overall evaluation scores, value-added models, classroom observations, student surveys) of the teachers whom the NBCT instructional leaders support
- Measures of personal leadership capacity and professional growth for the NBCT instructional leaders themselves