Dive Brief:

• Two recent studies found students had higher test scores if they were taught by board certified teachers.
• Board-certified teachers, there are currently 110,000 of them, must take a number of tests (about content and pedagogy) and submit videos of themselves teaching — it's a process that can take up to 400 hours and cost nearly $2,000.
• The NBPTS has been working to cut the costs and time involved to get certification in order to get more teachers to become certified.

Dive Insight:

Finding ways to professionalize teaching has been a struggle and a point of debate for many surrounding the education world. And one study suggested attaching the certification to "teacher-quality structures" such as tenure.

Both studies (one funded by NBPTS focused on test scores at large and the Center for Education Data & Research study looked at getting certified teachers to work in low-income communities) found certification doesn't necessarily make a better teacher, but perhaps good teachers may be more likely to pursue such a path. In fact, currently teachers can retry if they fail to get certified and the studies found that those who go after it a second time do not share the same high score and skills as those who are certified first go around.