Kansas City Metro Area Teachers Achieve National Board Certification for Second Time

by Terri Kaiser

Emporia, KS (12/05/2019) — Four educators from the Kansas City area recently found out they had again achieved the highest credential available to American educators as a National Board Certified Teacher through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS).

They were:

• Susie Helwig, North Kansas City Schools (MO), biology teacher at Staley High School; certificate area: early adolescence through young adulthood/ science.
• William Smithyman, Blue Valley USD 229, English/language arts teacher at Blue Valley Northwest High School; certificate area: early adolescence through young adulthood /English language arts.
• Brenda Stolle, teacher of English language learners at Park Hill School District's LEAD Innovation Studio and at the Adult Education and Literacy Center in the North Kansas City School District. Her certificate area is in early adolescence/ social studies-history.
• Carlene Stueve, Gardner Edgerton USD 231, senior English teacher at Gardner-Edgerton High School; certificate area: early adolescence/ social studies-history.

"This process of board certification is similar to how a doctor becomes certified in a special area," said Alvin Peters, director of Emporia State University's program which assists teachers working toward national certification. "This is voluntary - no state, school district, or program requires they go through this process."

While state licensing systems set the basic requirements to teach in each state, NBCTs have demonstrated advanced teaching knowledge, skills and practices. National certification takes from one to three years to complete. Once a teacher achieves certification, the certificate lasts for 10 years, at which point the teacher can choose to renew his/her certificate.

For most of these teachers, they went through the challenging year-long process of becoming a National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT). For Stueve, this was the second time she renewed her certification, so the third time she had to work through the process.

These educators were among the 13 educators from across the state who went through the challenging process of renewing their certificates in 2018-19.

Emporia State's Great Plains Center for National Teacher Certification maintains a 99.5% renewal rate with candidates achieving recertification on their first attempt since 2005.

The process of national board certification is often misunderstood to mean a teacher passed a test or was nominated for the award. Peters adds, "National Board certification is a different kind of honor. Teachers must submit extensive documentation of their instruction, including videos of their students at work in the classroom."

The accomplishment of national board certification benefits the teachers, the schools they work in, and studies have shown NBCTs improve student learning. Guidance for the candidates comes from Emporia State's Great Plains Center for National Teacher Certification. More information about the program can be found at www.emporia.edu/gpcntc.

Is your teacher board certified?

They are among the best teachers in the profession, undergoing a rigorous process taking at least one year to complete. They are told to expect a 400-hour time commitment, and less than half will achieve certification on their first try.

NBCTs represent less than 1% of all educators in Kansas. The voluntary process is the equivalent of national board certification for physicians and other health professions. There are 452 teachers in Kansas who are NBCTs.

To see a list of NBCTs, go to www.nbpts.org/nbct-search.

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