Alleghany ranks 5th in certified teachers

Alleghany County Schools ranks fifth in its region for the percentage of National Board Certified Teachers, according to information released by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

The information, broken into eight regions, places Alleghany County and 19 other school systems in Region 7. Along with the surrounding school systems of Ashe, Elkin City, and Surry and Wilkes counties, other school systems included Mooresville City, Mount Airy City, Yadkin County, Burke County and Newton Conover City schools.

While 15.04 percent (accounting for 20 teachers) of Alleghany teachers are National Board Certified, Watauga County Schools lead the region with 73 National Board certified teachers, accounting for 19.78 percent. Neighboring Ashe County Schools ranked third with 45— or 18.15 percent—of its teachers National Board certified.

Ranked 11th through 13th respectively were Elkin City (11 teachers, 11.7 percent), Wilkes County (77 teachers, 11.51 percent) and Surry County (68 teachers, 11.09 percent).

Commenting on the local results, Superintendent Jeff Cox said, "I'm proud of our teachers who have gone through this process; it is a rigorous and challenging process to go through. I'm pleased to see we're ranked fifth of the 19 (school systems) in our region." With a smile, he added his goal for Alleghany is to be ranked first in the state for the percentage of teachers who are National Board Certified.

Cox continued, "Those who have gone through it (the board certification process) have commented it was one of the best professional development experience they've had. I want to encourage all of our teachers to go through the process."

Making mention of the process that teachers are required to go through to make application for National Board Certification— including making a teaching portfolio and analyses to demonstrate the teacher's classroom teaching—Cox noted the process resulted in "a lot of self-reflection" on the part of teachers, which in turn helps them evaluate their teaching skills.

National Board Certification

National Board Certification, which is dubbed the "highest credential in the teaching profession" requires performance-based assessments from teaching portfolios, student work samples and video tapes to analyses that demonstrate the candidate's classroom teaching and student learning.

According to information in a release from the Governor's Office, "Teachers also complete a series of written exercises that probe the depth of their subject matter knowledge, as well as their understanding of how to teach those subjects to their students."

State Information

With about 15 percent of teachers in the state (12,770) National Board certified, North Carolina leads the nation in the number of teachers who have earned certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Of the top 20 schools districts by cumulative total of National Board certified teachers, Wake County is second among school districts in the nation with 1,259 and Charlotte-Mecklenburg ranked fourth with 1,049. Also making the top 20 were Guilford County, which ranked 11th with 465; and Forsyth County, which ranked 18th with 332.

 

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