Alabama NBCT Week: Alabama Statistics

This week has officially been declared Alabama NBCT Week by Governor Bentley. This week has been filled activities and events that recognize the teachers in Alabama who have earned their board certification. I found the following statistic very interesting.

• ·       There are 47,723 public school teachers in AL including 2,313 NBCTs – 4.8% of AL teachers are NBCTs.
• ·       In Alabama, 744,621 public school students are served by 47,723 teachers including 2,313 NBCTs.
• ·       Alabama ranks 15^th in the nation with its # of NBCTs. The states with the most NBCTs are NC (20,611) FL (13,637) SC (8,820) WA (8,196) and CA (6,249). MS has 3,740 NBCTs.
• Alabama has 133 school districts –
• o   School districts with highest # of NBCTs: Jefferson County - 236; Hoover City - 185; Birmingham City – 152
• o   12 Alabama school districts have 0 NBCTs – I have the school district names if we want to include that info
• o   86 Alabama school districts have 5 or less NBCTs
• o   102 Alabama school districts have 10 or less NBCTs
• ·       Research shows that students taught by NBCTs gain an extra 1 – 2 months of learning each school year. That adds up to an incredible amount of learning time for our students!
• ·       The positive impact of having an NBCT is even greater for minority and low-income students.
• ·       There are 110,428 NBCTs in the US.
• ·       Alabama NBCTs receive an annual $5000 stipend for 10 yrs and can recertify; if you are an NBCT for 20 yrs, you can earn an extra $100,000 during your career.
• ·       Over 4,100 educators nationwide achieved NB cert in 2014; in Alabama 62 educators earned their NB cert in 2014. MS had over 200 new NBCTs in 2014 and over 500 of their educators have achieved in the last 5 yrs.
• ·       The Alabama NBCT Network currently has 280 members. We would like to double that number by the end of 2015.
• Compiled by Valerie Johnson (@JohnsonValAL)

Personally, I can say that earning my certification in 2007 proved to be the most challenging and rewarding professional development that I have ever done. It helped me to sharpen my practice and become highly reflective on the choices that I make and how they positively impact student learning. NBPTS has now revamped the process, lowering the cost and extending the time frame that one has to complete the process. If you are considering board certification and you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I will be completely transparent and honest with you.