MOC Q&A
This page provides answers to commonly asked questions about Maintenance of Certification.
Last Updated: October 2024
What is Maintenance of Certification (MOC)?
A: The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards’ MOC is a process that allows a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) to extend her/his certificate for five years. The process is designed to recognize that a Board-certified teacher is growing professionally and maintaining a positive impact on student learning. MOC is consistent with our goal to make the Board certification process more affordable, flexible, and accessible to teachers. MOC is a Board-certified teacher’s pathway for keeping their certification active.
For initial certification, an NBCT demonstrated multiple performance-based teaching practices that met the National Board Standards of accomplished teaching and Five Core Propositions. Maintaining certification is not the same as re-certification or going through the certification process again. The MOC process focuses on how you, as an NBCT, have continued to grow in your professional practice and positively impacted student growth. While the evaluation of your MOC evidence is based on the Standards and Five Core Propositions as with certification, MOC has fewer parts and will take less preparation time than initial certification.
Q: What is the foundation of the MOC process?
A: The Five Core Propositions, the Architecture of Accomplished Teaching, and the National Board Standards in your certificate area are the basis on which MOC was designed and against which MOC evidence will be evaluated. The MOC process is based on parts of the previous Renewal process. NBCTs are required to demonstrate that their practices are consistent with the high standards that Board certification represents.
Q: What are the requirements of MOC?
A: Consult the MOC instructions for a complete description of the MOC requirements you will have to meet to extend your certificate for five years. The following chart illustrates the MOC requirements at a glance.
MOC Component 2 Video Guidance
Whether you currently teach in your original certificate area, you now teach at a different developmental level and/or in a different content area than your original certificate, or you currently practice in a position outside of the classroom (e.g., administrator, mentor, consultant, itinerant teacher, retiree), you can complete the video recording.
The lesson you design and the students with whom you work in the video recording must match your original certificate area (content area and developmental level). At least 51% of the students in the class or group of students you use in Component 2 must be within the stated age range for your certificate area, and the lesson needs to take place in a pre-K–12 setting. In addition, the students must be rostered, although you do not need to be the teacher of record.
You should select the class or group of students that will best allow you to demonstrate your positive impact on student learning. This can be done in several ways other than teaching your own class. For example, you could team-teach or partner on a special project that meets the needs of the student population, while allowing you to showcase an area of your professional growth. You could also integrate content from your original certification area in a meaningful and relevant way into a lesson you are currently teaching, if the students are at the same developmental level as your certificate area. Another way would be to guest teach in a colleague’s classroom that meets the developmental level and content area requirements.
Rubric
Overall, your MOC submission must demonstrate that your professional growth continues to align with the Five Core Propositions, the current National Board Standards for your area of certification, and the Architecture of Accomplished Teaching. The MOC submission provides sufficient evidence that the candidate:
Identifies and addresses significant needs of students, communities supporting students, and/or the candidate;
Acquires and/or deepens certificate-specific content knowledge and/or pedagogical practice and/or knowledge;
Effectively integrates appropriate technology to directly and/or indirectly impact student learning;
Involves others in Professional Growth Experiences;
Practices National Board Standards–based, relevant, and meaningful instruction in the candidate’s certificate area;
Ensures fairness and equity of access and promotes appreciation of diversity in the candidate’s instructional practice;
Has a meaningful, positive, direct and/or indirect impact on student learning;
Has ongoing and varied professional experiences; and
Uses reflection to analyze the connections and patterns in his or her continuing professional growth.
Together, the two components present sufficient evidence of professional growth that has evolved since certification, renewal, or last successful MOC completion, detailing milestones reached and accomplished goals. Although there may be unevenness in the level of evidence of professional growth presented, overall, there is sufficient evidence of professional growth that continues to align with the Five Core Propositions, the current National Board Standards for the candidate’s area of certification, and the Architecture of Accomplished Teaching.
Q: Am I eligible for MOC?
A: If you are a current NBCT with a certificate that expires on or after December 31, 2024, you are eligible to extend your certificate for five years through the MOC process if:
- Your initial or renewal certificate is valid.
- Your teaching license is current and unencumbered – e.g., not suspended or revoked (this requirement may be waived if you currently teach in a private/charter school that does not require you to hold a teaching license).
- You are about to enter the year before or the year that your current certificate expires. See the MOC Calendar.
Q: When should I complete MOC?
A: As a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT), you must successfully meet the MOC requirements in one of the two years before the expiration of your certificate to maintain certification in your original certificate area. Once you complete your MOC, your certification is extended five years from the expiration of your current National Board certificate, regardless of whether you completed MOC in the year your certificate expires or the year before it expires. You have two opportunities to attempt MOC.
Option 1 – Register, purchase, and submit your MOC portfolio one year before your current certification expires. Submitting in the year before your certificate expires allows you the opportunity to re-register and re-submit again in the year your certificate expires if you do not meet MOC requirements on your first attempt.
Option 2 – Register, purchase, and submit your MOC portfolio the year your current certification expires. If you decide to complete your MOC in the year your current certification expires and fail to meet the MOC requirements, your certificate will expire. There is no opportunity to re-register for MOC, but you may begin National Board certification anew immediately.
Review the calendar below to determine when you are able to complete MOC.
Q: What should I be doing now to prepare for MOC?
- As an NBCT, you should verify when your National Board Certification expires because that will determine when you will complete the MOC process. Begin to reflect on your professional growth and identify professional growth experiences. The MOC process will require you to describe, analyze, and reflect on how two of your Professional Growth Experiences (PGEs), teaching practice, and collaboration in learning communities continue to align with the Five Core Propositions, the current National Board Standards for your area of certification, and the Architecture of Accomplished Teaching. These PGEs are ongoing and varied activities in which you engage, and that contribute to your positive impact on student learning. Both PGEs will require a written commentary in response to prompts and evidence that supports that commentary and demonstrates a positive impact on student learning.
- Start thinking about which of your two PGEs you could demonstrate through a video-recorded lesson with students in the content area and developmental level of your original certificate. NBCTs, no matter their current role or teaching assignment, can create the required video by guest teaching a rostered group of students in the content area and developmental level of their original certificate.
- Consult the description of MOC requirements under What are the requirements for MOC in this Q&A and review the MOC Instructions. Carefully reflect on your professional growth since becoming an NBCT or renewing your certification. Think about the PGEs you engage in. Consider which experiences have had the most significant impact on student learning and that demonstrates how you have continued to grow as a professional in various areas. Plan to select experiences that most effectively highlight your growth in certificate-specific areas that have directly or indirectly impacted student learning in your field of certification and that have been ongoing.
- You may want to contact your state or local program administrator to locate information about incentives for maintaining certification available in your state.
Q: What is the cost?
A: MOC costs $495 plus a $75 registration fee. This cost aligns with the National Board’s commitment to making all aspects of the Board certification process as flexible, affordable, and accessible as possible for the diverse range of our country’s educators.
The National Board payment plan is available to any candidate pursuing MOC and offers the following benefits:
It’s quick and easy to set up
You can spread the cost of your component(s) over six equal monthly installments (about $80 per component per month)
No interest or fees and no credit check
You will be able to initiate the payment plan through the registration deadline.
More information about the payment plan can be found here.
Q: Can I complete MOC if I am not teaching in a classroom?
A: Yes. NBCTs who do not currently teach students but serve in other roles in education are eligible to complete MOC. NBCTs often take on many roles during their careers. The design of MOC is to be supportive of the various classroom and non-classroom placements they may have in any given MOC period. Whether you are an education faculty member, administrator, retiree, work outside the classroom in a teacher leadership role or have changed the subject area and developmental level you teach, you can still maintain your National Board Certification.
Q: How were NBCTs involved in the development of MOC?
A: MOC, like National Board Certification, was developed by teachers for teachers. We worked with National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) to design and evaluate the MOC assessment framework and gathered input on factors associated with maintaining one’s certification. Questions and discussions around MOC helped NBCTs, the NBPTS Board of Directors, the Certification Council (with NBCTs serving on each), and the Technical Advisory Group move forward with MOC development and implementation. Multiple survey results and recommendations from conversations with teachers, stakeholders, and measurement experts were presented to the NBPTS Certification Council in October 2018 and the Board of Directors in November 2018. In 2019, NBCTs were recruited from all certificate areas to participate in a pilot of the MOC process. The pilot’s study purpose was to evaluate the clarity of and adjust the MOC instructions before opening registration for MOC in September 2020.
For more information, visit the Design and Development of Maintenance of Certification page.