Eighteen years ago, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NPBTS) set out to improve teaching in America's schools by providing a vehicle for honoring the best teachers. Two new articles take a critical look at the National Board's impact on teacher performance and student achievement.

Reflecting the editors' longstanding distaste for the National Board, the Spring issue of Education Next includes an article by William Boyd, editor of the American Journal of Education and doctoral student Jillian Reese, who renew some oft-heard criticisms of the National Board.

While they credit the National Board for making some reforms like merit pay and teaching standards more palatable to the education establishment, they question (as others have) the program's price tag.

There's no question the price is high, though that's more a matter of states' excessive largesse than of the program's inherent expense. After the requisite $2,300 application fee is paid (often by states and school districts on behalf of an individual teacher), districts grant unconditional salary rewards of up to $6,000 annually, or bumps as much as 12% on the salary schedule. Boyd and Reese argue that districts are rewarding teachers for a credential that may or may not translate into greater performance gains depending on what study you're reading (learn more here and here).

On a similarly critical note, but from a less likely source, education professors Gary Sykes (Michigan State) and David Lustick (University of Massachusetts) argue that National Board does indeed benefit instruction, but its quantitative impact on student achievement remains an open question. Many teachers report that the year-long application process provides some of the best professional development of their careers. While National Board certification may offer teachers potentially valuable professional development, Sykes and Lustick argue that too much of the professional development is defined by teachers' self-evaluation and the absence of student achievement data. They note that teachers evaluate their own practice in "light of objective, external standards," but that those standards are based on how teachers feel their National Board Certification helped them rather than its actual effect on student performance. And it's not too hard why teachers are feeling so good--they've gotten a handsome raise.