After a frustrating day in the classroom one recent afternoon, teacher Lennette Coleman reached for the spiral notebook that doubles as her journal and furiously scribbled out notes longhand.
“How do I get through to this boy? He could be the next Thurgood Marshall, his mind is so sharp and it clicks so fast!” she wrote.
But as bright as that 3rd grader may be, Coleman felt she still wasn’t reaching him. “He expresses himself well, but to put his thoughts or expressions into writing is torture,” she wrote.
As her journal reflects, Coleman is spending an unusual amount of time lately trying to figure out what might engage this pupil, and all the others in her classroom at Lincoln Elementary School in Evanston.
By spring, she will have put more than 150 hours of extra work into what she considers the toughest endurance test of her teaching career–the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification exam.
If she passes, Coleman will become part of an elite group the board calls “master teachers.” Since 1993, only 35 percent of the 1,673 teachers who have taken the test have passed. So far, just eight of those teachers are from Illinois.
The test is so rigorous and so few educators actually pass that many teachers approach it with the same level of fear as law school students preparing for the bar or medical students gearing up for board exams. Teachers will turn in their portfolios in May, take their written tests over the summer and receive the results in March 1998.
Founded in 1987, the Michigan-based national board at first drew little attention as it sought to dramatically change the way American teachers prepare for the challenges of today’s classrooms.
But the group recently has picked up a growing list of high-placed supporters, including President Clinton and many state governors who have sponsored laws granting pay raises to teachers who pass the test.
In his State of the Union address this year, Clinton said his budget would allow 100,000 teachers to seek national certification as master teachers. That would amount to $105 million in new state and federal funds over the next five years, said James Kelly, the national board’s president.
Illinois’ incentives have been modest so far, but state Superintendent of Education Joseph Spagnolo hopes to change that.
This school year, the state board is paying the $2,000 registration fee for 12 teachers, including nine from the Chicago area, and the Chicago Public Schools system is covering registration fees for four teachers.
But Spagnolo has proposed $75,000 in his budget to sponsor more teachers next school year. Some of that money will be targeted toward annual pay increases of $3,000 to all current master teachers and those who pass in the future, Spagnolo said. The state board also is revising its certification requirements for teachers, using national board standards as a model.
Spagnolo said it’s embarrassing that the state requires so little of its teachers today. Illinois, like many states, requires that college graduates pass a basic skills exam to be certified for the classroom–a test many teachers consider so easy that they spend less than a day studying for it. To renew their licenses annually, teachers simply pay a $4 fee.
Teachers also take a certification exam in their specialty area, which is considered only slightly more challenging than the basic skills test.
“I think every profession requires some re-education,” Spagnolo said. “I think that on a periodic basis, there ought to be a meaningful experience, just like doctors and lawyers have.”
The national board program differs dramatically from most traditional teacher training or education programs.
Responding to a scathing Carnegie Foundation report criticizing teacher preparation in the early 1980s, the national board formed a 63-member board of directors that includes award-winning teachers, some state governors, academics and union leaders to draft a new set of higher standards that all teachers should strive to reach.
In 1993, the board offered its first national certification exam recognizing teachers who met those standards. To qualify for national boards, teachers must have at least three years of classroom experience. They then spend nearly an entire school year preparing.
When the year is over, teachers hand in a portfolio that includes samples of student work, letters from parents and community members, a thick teacher journal and a videotape of the classroom, followed by an honest assessment of strengths and weaknesses.
Teachers then must demonstrate a thorough knowledge of their subject through a one-day written test. Afterward, they face grilling from national board judges who question their approaches to specific learning problems. Six months later, teachers find out whether they made it.
Knowing she faces such tough odds, Coleman spends every free minute jotting down notes in her journal, talking into a tape recorder about her day, or struggling over lessons that might better engage her students.
Soon, she will begin videotaping her classroom so she can observe herself in action and critique her approach.
Coleman says some colleagues think she’s crazy for going through such a process. But for the select group of teachers willing to take it on, national board certification is a chance to finally boost public respect for their work.
“If we want kids to be lifelong learners, then teachers should be lifelong learners too,” said Penny Potter, a Palatine teacher who was one of the first Illinois teachers to win national board certification.
“You wouldn’t go to a doctor who hadn’t gone to a class or taken a refresher course in the last 10 years, and you certainly need that same level of professionalism in a classroom.”
To sweeten the pot for teachers intimidated by the rigorous testing, some states have introduced lucrative incentives.
In addition to paying the registration fee for any interested teacher, North Carolina grants an annual 4 percent salary increase for teachers who pass national boards; pending legislation would boost that increase to 12 percent for the life of the certificate, which is 10 years.
Ohio also pays the registration fees and grants $2,500 annual stipends for teachers who pass. Those teachers earn 360 hours of education credits, which can put them on a higher salary schedule.
The incentives seem to pay off. There are 119 certified teachers in North Carolina, 51 in Ohio, 45 in New Mexico and 32 in Minnesota.
Even without hefty incentives, Illinois teachers seeking certification say the program is well worth it — whether they pass or not.
Debbie Erikson, a 2nd grade teacher at Fulton School in Tinley Park who won national certification last November, said that the process forced her to think harder about what works in the classroom.
Viewing 30 videotapes of herself taught Erikson that she talked too much and sometimes cut off students. “I always thought I listened well to students until I looked at that tape,” Erikson said.
Erikson, who has 18 years of teaching experience, said the teaching profession demands too little training for its veterans. Unmotivated teachers can get by with an occasional workshop, she said.
“Just look at how the world has changed with all the new technology,” she said. “Teachers have to keep up with this stuff. It’s definitely going to affect our students and we need to move along with them.”
Evanston’s Coleman said she used to dwell on excuses, but not anymore. “A lot of people (teachers) will say, `That’s a bad batch or the classes are overcrowded,’ ” she said. “There’s always some problem other than looking at yourself and saying, `What can I do differently?’ “
This year, Coleman threw out all of her old bulletin boards and lesson plans, then started from scratch.
For a language arts class, she had students read about skyscrapers, then build a model out of straws, paper cups, tape and textbooks. Students seemed excited about the assignment, and had ambitious plans for it from the start.
“The thing is we have to take the three straws standing up,” said Nathan Weiland, as he sketched out his blueprint on an overhead projector in front of the class.
“Then we attach them, using the tape,” Nathan said, while stepping away from his blueprint to show off his plans.
A moment of silence lingered in the Evanston classroom as students studied the drawing. Finally, his classmate, Ryan Curenton, chimed in.
“That’s a good idea, Nate!” he said, his eyes wide.
Coleman smiled, partly out of relief. This lesson seemed headed for success–something she doesn’t take for granted anymore.
“I know there’s no material reward except that I can know I’m a better teacher now,” she said. “I just enjoy my kids so much more.”
