The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) Process: Who Applies and What Factors Are Associated with NBPTS Certification?

National Board Certification represents one of the most significant reform efforts in the area of teacher quality in the last two decades. Since the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certified its first round of teachers in 1995, approximately 32,000 teachers have become certified at a cost to the country of well over $300 million, yet no large-scale quantitative research exists on the candidates of the program. In this article, we describe the results of a study of teachers in North Carolina assessing the factors associated with the decision to apply to NBPTS and those associated with certification of candidates. We find that, all else equal, teachers who are African-American, female, score higher on standardized tests, and/or are younger are more likely to apply for certification. Among applicants, we find that African-American and male teachers are less likely to be certified, and teachers who score higher on standardized tests are far more likely to be certified.