More Maryland teachers are working this year to attain national board certification and secure the $10,000 salary increase guaranteed by the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.
But teachers say the national process is confusing and time-consuming. Hood College in Frederick is trying to change that.
The school has been offering a national board certification course to guide teachers through the process for the past four years. This year, the program is split into four different one-to-two-credit parts to mimic the four components of the national assessment.
“Initially it was a single course; it was three and a half months long,” said April Boulton, dean of Hood’s graduate school. “Now, teachers can pick and choose a la carte which areas they feel like they really need extra support with.”
Boulton said most teachers wind up taking all four courses.
As of last December, Maryland had more new teachers achieve the certification than any other state in the country. All teachers must have a state license to be in the classroom. National board approval, which represents an extra step-up in skill and development, can take up to three years.
Joe Hawkins has seven years of teaching social studies at Linganore High School in Frederick under his belt. He just learned about national board certification a couple years back — because of the Blueprint.
“I honestly think that if I had not taken the Hood classes, I probably would have given up already,” Hawkins told WYPR. “The national board certification requirements are no joke. There's a reason why very few people do it.”
Hawkins said none of the 200 teachers at his high school are nationally certified. That’s not uncommon. In the entire Baltimore City district, less than 100 teachers have earned the credential.
To become certified, teachers have to submit a variety of materials, from extensive essay questions to a 20-minute unedited video of a classroom lesson.
“If I had just looked at this without any outside resources, I would have been overwhelmed,” Hawkins said. But the Hood College professors split these hefty tasks into more doable parts.
“And we'll get practice and feedback on what we need to do,” Hawkins said. “So when we go to submit in the spring, it won't be some rough draft. And then hopefully, I'll put together something that is going to be strong enough to score well.”
Hawkins said Frederick County Public Schools covered most of the cost for the Hood courses he’s taken so far — one over the summer, and a second one ongoing. Usually, a three-credit course comes with a $1,500 price tag.
“Now it’s costing me about $100, and FCPS is paying for the rest,” Hawkins said. “I don't know about other counties in the state, if they offer the same tuition benefits, but at least Frederick County Public Schools, they have a direct bill arrangement with Hood.”
Hawkins said the district does limit the number of teachers it pays for to take the national board classes. And he said leaders haven’t announced reimbursement plans yet for this year.
But he’s not sure he’ll be taking another course this year anyway. Hawkins coaches two sports in addition to teaching through the spring and winter.
“And so adding a class on top of all that and trying to get all these submissions in might be too much,” he said. “I might just have to wait one more year to do the second part of this.”
The national board course restructuring is part of a larger “Skill Accelerator” project at Hood College launched in January. Under the new program, working professionals can take three-to-six-week condensed virtual classes to earn a badge that showcases their skills for future job applications.
Marcy Taylor, coordinator of the program, said those who take the courses will also earn college credit that can eventually be applied towards a “master's degree that’s perfectly fit for their career goals.”
“Our intention is to be able to stack badges so after they earn a certain number of badges, they can be issued a degree,” Taylor said. “The beauty of that is, it doesn't have to be in like a silo stack. It can also be across disciplines.”
Taylor and Boulton have developed 14 different microcredential courses, ranging in topic from AI in business to data analytics. But the national board option is by far the most popular, they said.
“We want to address professionals who might be an entrepreneur, a biotech professional at a hospital, a teacher in a pre-K through 12 classroom, who are wanting to engage with relevant, cutting edge content, but not sign up for a full degree,” Boulton said.
