First-Time Candidates

A potential candidate must:

• Possess a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution.

• Have completed three years of successful teaching in one or more early childhood, elementary, middle, or secondary school(s). Note that applicants for ECYA/School Counseling must have completed three years successfully serving as a school counselor in one or more early childhood, elementary, middle, or secondary school(s) to meet the employment eligibility prerequisite.

• Hold a valid state teaching license (or meet the licensure requirements established by your state for a "school counselor" and hold that valid license if you applied for the ECYA/School Counseling certificate) for each of the three years of employment you verify. Employment under an intern or similar teaching license does not meet the licensure prerequisite.  

Teachers who have taught part time are eligible in any certificate area except ECYA/School Counseling, provided that they have teaching employment that is the equivalent of three years of full-time teaching. Formulas for calculating part-time teaching experience can be found on the back of the Candidate Eligibility Verification Form and the Candidate Employment Verification Form. Substitute teachers may count teaching time spent in long-term assignments toward the three years; substitute teaching that consisted of short-term or on-call assignments does NOT accrue toward the three years. Long-term assignments are defined as a minimum of half a school year, as defined by the district where the employment occurred.

No, your three years of teaching experience do not have to be consecutive years. However, please provide a complete breakdown of your employment on the Employment Verification Form. List the individual dates of employment as they relate to each different teaching facility where you taught.

Successful teaching or school counseling, at a minimum, means that your teaching or school counseling license was unencumbered (e.g., not suspended or revoked) during the period of employment.

Teaching experience from a private school is acceptable provided documentation is submitted that the private school was recognized and approved to operate by the state. A copy of the appropriate state license by your state (or by one of the recognized regional accrediting agencies if it is an institution outside of the United States) must be attached to the Candidate Workplace Verification Form.

School Counselors who have served as a school counselor part time are eligible to pursue the ECYA/School Counseling certificate provided that they have school counseling employment that is the equivalent of three years of full-time school counseling.

No, time spent as a student teacher or intern may not be applied towards the three years teaching requirement. Each state has different requirements for their emergency credential. Often the emergency certification does not provide you with your state’s “Teaching License” free and clear. Candidates should be advised that their state requirements may not align to meet NBPTS requirements for candidacy due to time constraints associated with when your actual teaching is unencumbered. Candidates must document all eligibility requirements on the verification forms which will be shipped upon receipt of the $500 nonrefundable initial fee prior to submitting their application.

Yes, as long as you meet the eligibility prerequisites, you may apply for any certificate area for which you feel you can demonstrate accomplished teaching. Remember, you will need to have access to students in the appropriate age range and content area for the certificate for which you are applying.

If at any time during the 12-month period immediately preceding the portfolio deadline 51 percent of your students meet the age parameter for your certificate area, it is acceptable to use that class.

No, time spent in student teaching or school counseling internships may not be applied towards the three years school counseling requirement. Candidates must document all eligibility requirements on the verification forms which will be shipped upon receipt of the $500 nonrefundable initial fee.

National Board Certification is designed for teachers who teach PreK-12 (18+). The 18+ does not apply to college students, the "+" applies to those students in school who do not graduate when they are 18. There are some college professors who have completed the certification, but they have "borrowed" a PreK-12 class on which to base their portfolio.

Teachers of students at all levels have exceptional needs students in their classrooms and must teach the students enrolled in their classes. Featuring your practice with a student with disabilities is not a disadvantage. You are given an opportunity to provide your instructional context in each classroom portfolio entry. If you read the questions for the Written Commentary Section 1: Instructional Context, you will find that you are asked if there are exceptional needs students in your class and you are asked to describe the needs of those students.Featuring work with a student with exceptionalities can provide fertile material for discussion of how you involve the student in the class, how you use knowledge of the student to provide instruction appropriate to the individual needs of that student, etc. Assessors evaluate the evidence you submit. If you make strong connections between what you write and what assessors see, it can make a very compelling case for your responsiveness to diverse learners. Depending on the entry, it may be the best of choices to feature work with a student with disabilities, especially since increasing numbers of students with disabilities are included in the general education classroom. Remember, it is your actions, analysis and reflection on your teaching, and not the performance of the student, that is assessed.

University transcripts that feature the official seal of the institution conferring the degree along with the actual date the degree was granted may be submitted provided the transcripts are accompanied by a Candidate Education Verification Form with the information that must be completed by the candidate on the top part of the form. The candidate's signature is mandatory on the form.

National Board Certification is designed to assess a teacher's performance in a wide range of classroom settings. We encourage teachers to use more than one class in completing the portfolio in order to demonstrate the broadest range of their teaching practice. Therefore, teachers who have multiple classes that meet the age and content requirements should take advantage of the availability of these different classes when completing the classroom-based entries. However, if a teacher has access to only one class that meets the age and content requirements for their certificate area, it is permissible to use a single class for all three of the classroom-based portfolio entries. Please keep in mind that all three classroom-based portfolio entries must come from different units and that work samples and artifacts must feature different students.

Teachers who are not currently in the classroom may "borrow" a classroom in order to complete the portfolio requirements for National Board Certification. The lesson would need to fit the content area of the certificate, as defined in the Standards. Your students must also meet the certificate area's age requirements. It must be a regularly scheduled class during the regularly scheduled school day within the school's curriculum—not an after school program or an artificial class (i.e., one that is a conglomerate of students from different classes or organizational groups or one that is fabricated or assembled for the purpose of completing the portfolio entries).

The first step in deciding which certificate is most appropriate for you is to first identify what subjects you teach and the age group of your students. This is especially important as you will be responsible for demonstrating content and pedagogical knowledge across the full age range of the certificate you pursue.

Although the NBPTS Career and Technical Education Standards may not specifically mention all career and technical education fields currently being taught in schools, this does not prohibit any teacher from pursuing this certificate if they believe it is the one most appropriate to their practice. Ultimately, however, this decision is up to the individual teacher. Our recommendation to any teacher—Career and Technical Education teachers included—is to study the Standards carefully in the certificate field, as well as the demands of the entries and exercises to determine if the entries and exercises will allow them to demonstrate their highest level of accomplished teaching practice.

If you are uncertain whether your affirmative response to the felony question on the application form will make you ineligible for National Board candidacy, we urge you to submit information to NBPTS that documents your circumstances before you submit an application or any of the candidate fee to allow NBPTS time to review your documentation and make a determination of your eligibility prior to your application. Submitting this documentation with your application and fee, without prior review, will delay the mailing of any of the required assessment materials while a review of your documentation is undertaken. In addition, if you submit an initial payment and are subsequently determined to be ineligible for candidacy, the $65 application processing charge and the $500 initial fee are nonrefundable.

Yes, provided you have worked for at least three years (or its equivalent), were required to hold a baccalaureate degree (or its equivalent), and held a teaching or "school counseling" license at this same state-supported school.

All eligibility requirements must be met prior to submitting your application.

If after review of the verification forms, NBPTS determines that you do not meet the eligibility requirements for certification at this time, you may be eligible to receive a refund of a portion of your fee payment in accordance with the NBPTS refund policy. The $500 initial fee and the $65 application processing charge will not be refunded.

An accredited institution is defined as one that is authorized or accepted by a state as fulfilling the state's educational requirement for initial teaching licensure or school counseling licensure.

Candidates applying for the Early Childhood through Young Adulthood/School Counseling certificate must meet the following eligibility requirements prior to application: you must possess a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution, you must have completed three years of successful full-time school counseling (or the equivalent) in one or more early childhood, elementary, middle, or secondary schools, and you must hold a valid state license as a school counselor for each of the three years of employment being verified. It is imperative that you understand that you must meet the licensure requirements established by your state for a "school counselor" and you must also hold that license.

Yes, candidates for Early Childhood through Young Adulthood/School Counseling must possess a state license in school counseling or an educator's license with a school counseling or guidance counseling designation. No other license will be accepted. For example, it is possible that a school counselor may hold a social work license and be employed at the school as a full-time or part-time school counselor. Although this meets the requirements of the school, this would not meet the license requirement for National Board Certification in School Counseling.

The employment eligibility requirement is equally applied to all candidates, regardless of the certificate area selected. School counseling experience and classroom teaching experience are not interchangeable. Just as school counseling candidates cannot satisfy employment eligibility requirements with years of teaching experience, teaching candidates cannot satisfy this requirement with years of school counseling experience.

To receive the National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) credential, school counselors must successfully complete the National Board Certification process for the NBPTS Early Childhood through Young Adulthood/School Counseling certificate.

Extensive conversations and meetings between NBPTS and the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) about the possibility of a joint partnership have discontinued. The National Board concluded that the arrangement as proposed by the NBCC for one component of the certificate would put assessment comparability across all NBPTS certificates at risk and would therefore not best serve the interests of the NBPTS assessment program.

In the certificate framework, the National Board did not envision Gifted and Talented as part of the Exceptional Needs Specialist category.  As a matter of licensing, some states include Gifted and Talented under special education, as does the Council for Exceptional Children.  At the time that Gifted and Talented became part of Board discussion, a compelling case was not made for Gifted and Talented in the certificates already outlined.  At a meeting of state department of education and support program representatives (the National Board Academy), a number of educators familiar with Gifted and Talented programs had the opportunity to review the Exceptional Needs Standards and an overview of the portfolio specifications.  It was their opinion that teachers in the area of Gifted and Talented would find a much better fit in the content or generalist certificates.

Our recommendation to all potential candidates is to read the Guide to National Board Certification, carefully study the Standards in the certificate field, as well as the demands of the entries and exercises, to determine if the entries and exercises will allow the teacher to demonstrate his or her level of accomplished teaching practice and the best fit based on their background or experience.

Ultimately, the certificate choice is strictly up to the individual teacher.

You are welcome to submit your Eligibility Forms in any envelope that is large enough to contain the forms required. We strongly encourage you to keep a copy of all completed forms before submitting them to the NBPTS Processing Center.