By Tom

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain pouring off the side of the gutter. Not an unpleasant sound, but certainly the sound of a problem that needed to be addressed. So after breakfast I walked out into the rain with my step-stool and reached up to where the gutter meets the downspout. Sure enough, there was a handful of stuff blocking the opening. I removed it, and was rewarded with the sound of water rushing out of the gutter and down the spout. Problem solved.

That’s exactly the way we like our problems: Easily recognized, and elegantly solved. Particularly – and I say this with all due respect – if you happen to be a guy. We love the idea of a Silver Bullet; a quick, elegant solution to a difficult problem.

Unfortunately, most of our biggest problems aren’t solved that way. They might be easily recognized, but they aren’t so elegantly solved.

Take education, for example. We’ve long recognized that some students do really well in the American education system and some don’t. We’ve also noticed that the better-performing students tend to come from well-educated, gainfully-employed parents. And, unfortunately, visa-versa.

That’s the problem. And that’s been the problem for at least the 27 years I’ve been teaching. The question, of course, is how to solve it.

Fortunately, we know that the biggest factor determining a student’s success is teacher quality. Getting good teachers into every classroom, then, becomes the solution. But how?

In the mid 1980s, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards was created with the goal of defining accomplished teaching, articulating that definition as a set of standards, and certifying those teachers who reach those standards. The hope was that teachers, striving for certification, would improve their practice, their schools, their districts, and so on. Eventually, National Board Certification was supposed to improve education in America; one teacher, one classroom at a time.

So did it work? Is the gutter unclogged?

No. At least not yet. The trouble with solving complicated problems like education is that it takes time. Longer than most political terms. Longer than many political careers.  And sometimes solving a problem isn’t even possible.

Take my school, for example. I teach in a mixed neighborhood, with some middle-class families, a lot of low-income families and some no-income families. We have a whole lot of recent immigrants and a lot of English language learners. We have a high free-and-reduced lunch rate.

We’re what’s known as a “high-needs school.”

We also have a lot of National Board Certified Teachers. There’s an NBCT at first grade, second grade, third, fourth, two in fifth, and one in sixth. Our music and PE teachers are both NBCTs. Four other teachers are going through the process this year.

Our school, then, should be an excellent case study on the efficacy of National Board Certification in response to the problems in America’s Schools.

So what’s the verdict?

Well, here’s the deal: National Board Certification, as you might expect, has had a huge impact on our faculty. We focus intensely on student learning. We use data to determine which kids need special assistance. Then we deliver that service and continue to monitor those kids. We also work very hard with our parent population. We have math nights, reading nights, open houses, science fairs, after-school homework assistance and even a special cultural event in the spring to celebrate the amazing diversity among our population.  We address bullying and violence in a systematic and positive manner.

We do everything National Board Certified Teachers are supposed to do. We know our students, know our curriculum, plan effective lessons, analyze our teaching, reflect on our practice, and work with families and the community. And with each other.

And our kids are certainly learning. Our test scores are high. In fact, we received a huge monetary award from the state this year because of our high Title 1 test scores. Perhaps more importantly, we also received national recognition for our work in regards to character education.

But despite all our work, we still have a huge achievement gap. I have some kids in my third grade class who can read anything and some who can’t read anything.  The same story with math. And sadly, the gap roughly corresponds to ethnic and cultural differences. As you may expect, the white kids and the Asian kids seem to be doing the best.

That doesn’t mean we don’t do anything about it. Like I said, we work very hard to study the data and help the kids who need the most help. But we also work hard with the other kids; the ones who don’t score so low. Even though that seems to compromise our efforts to close the achievement gap. Having low reading skills, you see, is different than showing up for school without a left sock; you can't just quickly do what didn't get done and call it good. It takes to time to develop phonemic awareness, word-attack skills and comprehension strategies. And meanwhile, the rest of the class is moving forward, faster and faster. It's very hard to help a student catch up with a moving target. Nevertheless, our school, like most, invests enormous amounts of time and energy on the kids with the highest needs. We make progress.

And then every September we get about fifty new kids. Five-year-old kindergartners. And lo and behold, they aren’t all the same. Some of them can read. Some can write. Some can solve hard math problems. And some can’t do any of those things.

And again, many of those differences frustratingly conform to differences in income level and family stability. And ethnicity.

We don’t talk about that very much, because it makes us uncomfortable. We don’t complain about it, either. We don’t make excuses; we just teach. We just deal with the differences we encounter within our students. We figure out which kids need extra help and we give it to them.  

And we’re doing a pretty good job of that.

Will we ever be able to get every kid at every grade level to perform at grade level in every subject? Of course not. That's never been done anywhere.

The problem of educating every kid in America is complex. 

National Board Certification is one way to solve this problem. It seems to be an effective way to increase the capacity of teachers to do their work. It seems to have a positive impact on student learning at the classroom and the school level.  National studies have shown this. So has my school.

It might not be the perfect solution. It certainly isn't a quick solution. It's not the silver bullet.

But it’s the silverest bullet we’ve got.