Score Release FAQs for First-time and Returning Candidates

Score results will be released by December 31 each year. Monitor our Score Release page for the exact date of score release.

We anticipate releasing scores no later than noon CST on the published official Score Release date. You’ll receive an email when your scores are available.

Score results will be released via your personal National Board account. After logging in, select Score Reports from the left-hand navigation menu to access your score report and individual transcripts

Please take the following actions in advance of score release:

1. Log in to your National Board account to ensure you recall your username and password. If necessary, you can reset your password on the account log in page. If you have forgotten your username, you will need to contact Customer Support by phone for assistance.
2. Verify your preferred contact information (address, telephone number and email address), and school district information is accurate and up to date.
3. Familiarize yourself with the scoring and reporting procedures by reviewing the Scoring Guide.

To achieve certification, you must meet three score requirements and all eligibility requirements as detailed in the Guide to National Board Certification. World Languages candidates must also meet the language proficiency requirement detailed in the Guide to National Board Certification.

The three score requirements to meet to achieve National Board Certification are:

1. You must earn a minimum unweighted average score of at least 1.75 on Component 1 (i.e., the assessment center section). The minimum score requirement on this section is based on unweighted rubric scores, not weighted scores.
2. You must earn a minimum unweighted average score of at least 1.75 on Components 2 through 4 (i.e., the portfolio section). The minimum score requirement on this section is based on unweighted rubric scores, not weighted scores.
3. You must earn a total weighted score of at least 110.

For more details, see the Scoring Guide.

Your official National Board score report will include your status, whether or not you met each certification requirement, important next steps, and your scores. We encourage you to review the sample score report in the Scoring Guide and Understanding Your Score Report to help answer questions you may have.

Your official National Board Score Report will display your highest scores (if you are a retake candidate) on each component you have completed along with any associated feedback statements for portfolio components. Your score report will include your unweighted scores, your weighted scaled scores, your assessment center and portfolio section averages, and your total weighted scaled score based on the highest scores you earned.

Your Score Transcript, which can be accessed from the Scores page of your National Board account, displays all of your component scores by assessment cycle (year).

Your total weighted score and/or weighted section scores will not be computed until you have attempted/submitted all four components. If you have not attempted one or more of the Components or if you have received an “NS” for any component, your Total Weighted Scaled Score will display “N/A.”

Assessors assign feedback statements to guide you in the main areas in which you might want to reevaluate your performance and target areas for improvement. Feedback statements appear on your score report if your score is less than 3.75 on a portfolio component. For instructions on how to use feedback statements, review the Scoring Guide and watch Understand your Score and Feedback Statements.

The National Board will automatically bank your component scores as you work toward completing all components for certification. Note that your highest scores—whether it is the initial attempt score or a retake score—are used to compute your total weighted scaled score. Please be aware of the following rules and information:

• You must attempt each of the four components within the first three years of your candidacy.
• Every candidate has a five-year window to achieve certification. If you do not achieve certification within the five-year window, you may start the entire certification process again as a first-time candidate.
• There is no minimum or maximum score requirement to retake a component.
• You have up to two retake attempts for each component.
• For Component 1, you can elect to retake one or more of the three constructed response items/exercises and/or the selected response item part. Candidates have up to two retakes for each of the four parts of Component 1 at any time during the five-year window.
  • You can retake at any time during the five-year window and retake years do not have to be consecutive.
  • You can have a year when you take or retake no components; however, keep in mind you only have a three-year window to initially attempt each of the four components and a five-year window within which certification can be achieved.
• The highest numeric score from all attempts of an individual component will be used for total score calculation.

Highly trained assessors, many of whom are National Board Certified Teachers themselves, have scored your responses on the Component 1 constructed response items and all portfolio components (Components 2, 3, and 4). The National Board uses a 12-point rubric score scale for all constructed response items and portfolio components. The rubric score scale is based on four primary levels of performance (Levels 4, 3, 2, and 1), with plus (+) and minus (-) variations at each level. See Scoring Guide for detail.

Selected response items are machine-scored. One point is awarded for a correct answer and zero points for an incorrect answer. The number of scorable items answered correctly will be converted to and reported as a score between 0 and 4.25 with 2.75 representing the lower bound of accomplished teaching. Raw scores (number correct) are not reported.

Your unweighted score is the rubric score that reflects your level of performance on the component. A score of 2.75 is the lowest rubric score in the range of clear evidence of accomplished teaching practice. An unweighted score has not been multiplied by a scaling weight. All unweighted scores are rounded to three decimal places.

A weighted scaled score for a component is calculated by multiplying the highest unweighted score by the component’s scaling weight. A scaling weight is a number that reflects the component’s importance, or weight, within the total assessment. All weighted scaled scores are rounded to three decimal places. More information on weighting and scaling is described in the Scoring Guide.

Your total weighted scaled score is calculated by adding together all seven weighted scaled scores (four scores from the assessment center section and three scores from the portfolio section) and rounding to the nearest integer. The total weighted scaled score has valid scores ranging from 30 to a maximum of 178. If you have not attempted one or more of the components or if you have received an “NS” (Not Scorable) for any component, your total weighted scaled score will display “N/A.”

The assessment center section average is calculated by adding together the four unweighted, or rubric, scores from Component 1: Content Knowledge, and then dividing by four. In the score report excerpt below, the candidate earned scores of 2.750, 2.500, and 2.750 on the three constructed response items/exercises and earned 2.863 on the selected response items, and (2.750 + 2.500 + 2.750 + 2.863) / 4 = 2.716.

*The following images are samples and for illustration purposes only.

The portfolio section average is calculated by adding together the three unweighted, or rubric, scores from Component 2: Differentiation in Instruction, Component 3: Teaching Practice and Learning Environment, and Component 4: Effective and Reflective Practitioner, and then dividing by three. In the score report excerpt below, the candidate earned scores of 3.125, 2.750, and 2.250 on the three portfolio components, and

(3.125 + 2.750 + 2.250) / 3 = 2.708.

The portfolio section average is calculated by adding together the three unweighted, or rubric, scores from Component 2: Differentiation in Instruction, Component 3: Teaching Practice and Learning Environment, and Component 4: Effective and Reflective Practitioner, and then dividing by three. In the score report excerpt below, the candidate earned scores of 3.125, 2.750, and 2.250 on the three portfolio components, and (3.125 + 2.750 + 2.250) / 3 = 2.708.

If the space for a score assigned to a constructed response item or a portfolio component displays a “0” (zero), then one or more of the following may apply:

• For a constructed response item, your submitted response did not meet the requirements to receive the minimum score of 0.75.
• For the portfolio components,
  • you did not submit a major piece of evidence such as the written commentaries, the student work samples, or the video recordings, or other critical materials.
  • your video recording(s) were not viewable.
  • your submission contained student work and/or video-recorded footage that was in a language other than English (and/or the target language for World Languages) and did not include an explanation or a translation.
  • your videos included edits beyond those allowed as specified in the video editing rules (see your certificate-specific Portfolio Instructions and Scoring Rubric and General Portfolio Instructions for the rules).
  • your written commentary did not describe the evidence in your video(s) or student work samples.

If the space for a score assigned to a constructed response item or a portfolio component displays the “NS” (Not Scorable) designation, then one of the following may apply:

• For the assessment center responses,
  • you did not schedule or attend your assessment center testing appointment.
  • you did not open the selected response part of the exam and did not attempt any of the items.
  • you did not open a constructed response item and did not view any prompts in the item.
  • you were suspected of plagiarism or cheating.
• For the portfolio components,
  • you did not submit a portfolio component.
  • your portfolio component submission revealed that the age range requirement was not met; i.e., the class or groups featured did not include at least 51% of students within the defined age parameters of your selected certificate area.
  • your portfolio component submission featured content that did not fall within the scope of your selected certificate.
  • your portfolio component submission featured classes and/or students and evidence that did not fall within the allowable time frame specified in the Portfolio Instructions and Scoring Rubric and General Portfolio Instructions.
  • you and your students could not be seen and heard in your video recording.
  • your retake of a portfolio component did not adhere to the retake rules in the General Portfolio Instructions.
  • you were suspected of plagiarism or cheating.

We encourage you to visit the Scoring Guide’s Evaluating Your Performance section and watch Understand your Score and Feedback Statements. These resources will help you understand how to use the rubric to evaluate your performance and strengthen your retake portfolio component or response to a constructed response item. You will find guiding questions to follow when evaluating your performance, information to help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your performance, and how to use your feedback statements.

Scores of 1.75 are not indicators of accomplished teaching. The unweighted rubric scores range from .75 to 4.25, and 1.75 is considered low. While the minimum unweighted score required on both sections is 1.75, this score indicates limited evidence of accomplished teaching practice. The purpose of the minimum unweighted score requirement on both sections is to ensure that candidates demonstrate –at the very least – limited evidence of what each section measures in order to be eligible for certification; however, to earn certification a candidate must earn scores in the accomplished range —scores of 2.75 or higher— of the scoring rubric.  For more information, see the Scoring Guide.

We encourage you to use the National Board’s online score calculator to measure the impact of possible new scores and to plan your strategy for retaking components. The score calculator is located online and as part of your score report.

You will not have all the information you need to definitively know whether you need to retake to achieve certification until you have completed all four components. Please consider the following:

• If you have not met the assessment center section unweighted average score requirement of at least 1.75, you will need to retake one or more parts of Component 1 in an attempt to earn a 1.75 or higher.
• If you have not met the portfolio section unweighted average score requirement of at least 1.75, you will need to retake one or more of the portfolio components. You will not know if you met the portfolio section requirement until you’ve attempted Components 2, 3, and 4.
• Meeting the section requirements of 1.75 is necessary but does not ensure you will have the scores required to meet the total weighted scaled score requirement of 110.
• You will not know whether you met the total weighted scaled score of 110 until you have attempted and received numeric scores for all four components.
• Consider how to maximize your retake opportunities for meeting or surpassing section average requirements and the performance standard of 110. Even if you have met the section average score requirements, if you do not meet the total weighted scaled score requirement of at least 110, you will need to retake one or more parts of Component 1 and/or portfolio components.
• In rare cases, it is possible to earn a total weighted scaled score of at least 110 and not meet one of the section average score requirements.

We encourage you to use the National Board’s online score calculator to measure the impact of possible new scores and to help you develop your strategy for retaking components.

Candidates can retake each part of Component 1 and Components 2-4 two times during the five-year window. A score of NS (Not Scorable) counts as an attempt. If you have not met the score requirements after the allotted retakes for a component, you cannot continue the certification process. Future attempts at certification will be as a first-time candidate.

For additional information about how to know if/what you need to retake, refer to the Scoring Guide.

The Scoring Guide has a section to guide you as you evaluate your score report and choose which portfolio components and/or parts of Component 1 to retake. Consider how likely it is that your score on a given component/part will improve and use the online score calculator to calculate how much any individual improved score(s) will affect your total weighted scaled score. You will want to consider a range of factors such as how many points you need to meet score requirements, your strengths, and personal factors. We encourage you to review sample retake scenarios located in the Scoring Guide.

Start by reviewing the general feedback statement(s) to identify main areas where clear and consistent evidence was lacking. It’s also recommended to compare the descriptors between the different levels of the particular component’s scoring rubric and focus on what is required to demonstrate evidence of accomplished practice.

Take a look at the National Board Standards for your certificate area and the ones measured in the particular component. As you review your submission, find examples of evidence where your practice demonstrates that you have met the specific standards measured by that component.

Candidates are encouraged to use the online score calculator to measure the impact of possible scores. This tool can help candidates test out various scenarios to develop a strategy for retaking components. Make sure to use only estimates of reasonable scores according to the scoring rubric. The Scoring Guide sections “Evaluating Your Performance” and “Preparing for the Next Assessment Cycle” should be helpful.

Because the Weight for Component 3 is the largest of the weights, mathematically, a score increase on Component 3, e.g., increasing from 1.75 to 2.75, will result in a larger increase in weighted scaled score than the same increase on Component 2. If you plan to retake a component(s), think carefully about which component(s) you feel you can realistically make the most improvement.

You have up to two retake attempts for each component, and you can retake at any time during the five-year window; retake years do not have to be consecutive. You can have a year when you take or retake no components; however, keep in mind you only have a three-year window to initially attempt each of the four components and a five-year window within which certification can be achieved.

Your highest numeric score—whether it is the initial attempt score or a retake score—is used to compute your total weighted scaled score. National Board will automatically bank all of your component scores during your five-year candidacy window, as you work toward certification.

To register, complete the following steps:

• Log in to your National Board account and pay the $75 nonrefundable and nontransferable registration fee. (The registration fee must be paid before you can select a component).
• Click “Purchase Component” to select the component(s) you would like to complete.
• Submit payment. Payment can be made at any time prior to the payment deadline.

Prior to registering, we encourage you to review the important dates, deadlines, and policy information contained in the Guide to National Board Certification.

Your official National Board score report will include your status, whether or not you met the three score requirements and your scores. We encourage you to review the sample score report in the Scoring Guide. You can also view Interpreting Your National Board Score Report that will help answer questions you may have.

At the top center of your score report, the “Your Status” section displays whether or not you achieved National Board Certification, or whether your certification is still in progress. In the Scoring Guide, you will find a table with the four possible statuses, what your status means, and what your next steps are.

The “Score Requirements” section of your score report will display whether or not you met all three score requirements. If there is a “Yes” displayed for all three score requirements, you achieved National Board Certification! If you have not attempted or did not earn a valid score on one or more components, N/A will be displayed.

Your official National Board Score Report will display your highest scores (if you are a retake candidate) on each component you have completed  along with any associated feedback statements for portfolio components. Your score report will include your unweighted scores, your weighted scaled scores, your assessment center and portfolio section averages, and your total weighted scaled score based on the highest scores you earned.

Your Score Transcript, which can be accessed from the Scores page of your National Board account, displays all of your component scores by assessment cycle (year).

Your total weighted score and/or weighted section scores will not be computed until you have attempted/submitted all four components. If you have not attempted one or more of the Components or if you have received an NS for any component, your Total Weighted Scaled Score will display N/A.

Feedback statements provide insight about the quality of evidence of accomplished teaching practice in your portfolio components. Feedback statements were developed to reflect the Five Core Propositions. Assessors assign feedback statements to guide you in the areas in which you might want to reevaluate your performance and target areas for improvement.

Feedback statements will help you identify the main areas that need to be strengthened in your retake submission. It’s also recommended the look at the component’s scoring rubric to compare the descriptors between the different performance levels and focus on what is required to demonstrate evidence of accomplished practice. Feedback statements appear on your score report if your score is less than 3.75 on a portfolio component. To learn more about feedback statements, review the Scoring Guide located on our Candidate Resources page.

If the space for a score assigned to a constructed response item or a portfolio component displays a “0” (zero), then one or more of the following may apply:

• For a constructed response item, your submitted response did not meet the requirements to receive the minimum score of 0.75.
• For the portfolio components,
  • you did not submit a major piece of evidence such as the written commentaries, the student work samples, or the video recordings, or other critical materials.
  • your video recording(s) were not viewable.
  • your submission contained student work and/or video-recorded footage that was in a language other than English (and/or the target language for World Languages) and did not include an explanation or a translation.
  • your videos included edits beyond those allowed as specified in the video editing rules (see your certificate-specific Portfolio Instructions and Scoring Rubric and General Portfolio Instructions for the rules).
  • your written commentary did not describe the evidence in your video(s) or student work samples.

If the space for a score assigned to a constructed response item or a portfolio component displays the “NS” (Not Scorable) designation, then one of the following may apply:

• For the assessment center responses,
  • you did not schedule or attend your assessment center testing appointment.
  • you did not open the selected response part of the exam and did not attempt any of the items.
  • you did not open a constructed response item and did not view any prompts in the item.
  • you were suspected of plagiarism or cheating.
• For the portfolio components,
  • you did not submit a portfolio component.
  • your portfolio component submission revealed that the age range requirement was not met; i.e., the class or groups featured did not include at least 51% of students within the defined age parameters of your selected certificate area.
  • your portfolio component submission featured content that did not fall within the scope of your selected certificate.
  • your portfolio component submission featured classes and/or students and evidence that did not fall within the allowable time frame specified in the Portfolio Instructions and Scoring Rubric and General Portfolio Instructions.
  • you and your students could not be seen and heard in your video recording.
  • your retake of a portfolio component did not adhere to the retake rules in the General Portfolio Instructions.
  • you were suspected of plagiarism or cheating.

National Board will automatically bank your component scores as you work toward completing all components for certification. Note that your highest scores—whether it is the initial attempt score or a retake score—are used to compute your total weighted scaled score. Please be aware of the following rules and information:

• You must attempt each of the four components within the first three years of your candidacy.
• Every candidate has a five year window to achieve certification. If you do not achieve certification within the five year window, you may start the entire certification process again as a first-time candidate.
• There is no minimum or maximum score requirement to retake a component.
• You have up to two retake attempts for each component.
• For Component 1, you can elect to retake one or more of the three constructed response items/exercises and/or the selected response item part. Candidates have up to two retakes for each of the four parts of Component 1 at any time during the five-year window.
  • You can retake at any time during the five-year window and retake years do not have to be consecutive.
  • You can have a year when you take or retake no components; however, it does not extend your three-year window to initially attempt each of the four components or the five-year window within which certification can be achieved.
• The highest numeric score from all attempts of an individual component will be used for total score calculation.

We encourage you to visit the Scoring Guide’s Evaluating Your Performance section to fully understand how to use the rubric to evaluate your performance and to understand how to potentially strengthen your retake portfolio component or response to a constructed response item. This section includes guiding questions to follow when evaluating your performance, information to help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your performance, and how to use your feedback statements.

Undoubtedly, this can be frustrating. So, let’s take a look at what floor scores mean:

First, understand that scores of 1.75 are not indicators of accomplished teaching. The unweighted rubric scores range from .75 to 4.25, so 1.75 is low on that score scale. The minimum unweighted score required (aka floor score) on both sections is 1.75 – that’s at the lowest level of the 2 score family and means there was limited (verging on little to no) evidence of accomplished practice on that section(s). The purpose of the minimum unweighted score requirement on both sections is to ensure that candidates demonstrate –at the very least – limited evidence of what each section measures in order to be eligible for certification; however, to earn certification of accomplished teaching, a candidate has to earn scores in the accomplished range —scores of 2.75 or higher— of the scoring rubric. And be careful not to confuse unweighted scores (on the scoring rubric) with weighted scores (used to calculate your total score). Carefully read both pages of “Score Requirements for Earning National Board Certification” in the Scoring Guide.

We encourage you to use the National Board’s online score calculator to measure the impact of possible new scores and to help you develop your strategy for retaking components. The score calculator is located online and as part of your score report.

For Component 1, candidates have up to two retakes for each part of Component 1 at any time during the five-year window. A score of NS (Not Scorable) counts as an attempt. If you have not met a score requirement and have attempted two retakes related to that score requirement, you will not be allowed to continue the certification process. For example, consider a candidate who has retaken all parts of Component 1 twice in the first three years of his/her candidacy, and on none of the three attempts (including the initial) has he/she met the average section score of at least 1.75. There is no possibility of achieving certification and the candidate should not continue but can start the entire certification process again as a first-time candidate.

For additional information about how to know if/what you need to retake, refer to the Scoring Guide located online on our Candidate Resources page.

Aim to earn a 2.75 on each component and each part of Component 1, and work with the online score calculator to test out how the scores you’ve earned and the scores you plan to earn affect your total weighted score.

You will not have all the information you need to definitively know whether you need to retake to achieve certification until you have completed all four components. Please consider the following:

• A component score of 2.75 is the lowest rubric score in the range of clear evidence of accomplished teaching practice.
• If you have not met the assessment center section unweighted average score requirement of at least 1.75, you will need to retake one or more parts of Component 1 in an attempt to earn a 1.75 or higher.
• If you have not met the portfolio section unweighted average score requirement of at least 1.75, you will need to retake one or more of the portfolio components. You will not know if you met the portfolio section requirement until you’ve attempted Components 2, 3, and 4.
• Meeting the section requirements of 1.75 is necessary but does not ensure you will have the scores required to meet the total weighted scaled score requirement of 110.
• You will not know whether you met the total weighted scaled score of 110 until you have attempted and received numeric scores for all four components.
• Consider how to maximize your retake opportunities for meeting or surpassing section average requirements and the performance standard of 110. Even if you have met the section average score requirements, if you do not meet the total weighted scaled score requirement of at least 110, you will need to retake one or more parts of Component 1 and/or portfolio components.
• In rare cases, it is possible to earn a total weighted scaled score of at least 110 and not meet one of the section average score requirements.

We encourage you to use the National Board’s online score calculator to measure the impact of possible new scores and to help you develop your strategy for retaking components.

For Component 1, candidates have up to two retakes for each part of Component 1 at any time during the five-year window. A score of NS (Not Scorable) counts as an attempt. If you have not met a score requirement and have attempted two retakes related to that score requirement, you will not be allowed to continue the certification process. For example, consider a candidate who has retaken all parts of Component 1 twice in the first three years of his/her candidacy, and on none of the three attempts (including the initial) has he/she met the average section score of at least 1.75. There is no possibility of achieving certification and the candidate should not continue but can start the entire certification process again as a first-time candidate.

For additional information about how to know if/what you need to retake, refer to the Scoring Guide located online on our Candidate Resources page.

The Scoring Guide has a section to guide you as you evaluate your score report and choose which portfolio components and/or parts of Component 1 to retake. Consider how likely it is that your score on a given component/part will improve and use the online score calculator to calculate how much any individual improved score(s) will affect your total weighted scaled score. You will want to consider a range of factors such as how many points you need to meet score requirements, your strengths, and personal factors. We encourage you to review sample retake scenarios located in the Scoring Guide.

You may consider starting by reviewing the general feedback statement to identify areas where clear and consistent evidence was lacking. Feedback statements were developed to reflect the Five Core Propositions and to guide you in the general area in which you might want to re-evaluate your performance.

This will help you identify the main sections that need to be strengthened in your retake submission. It’s also recommended to compare the descriptors between the different levels of the particular component’s scoring rubric and focus on what is required to demonstrate evidence of accomplished practice.

Take a look at the National Board Standards for your certificate area and the ones measured in the particular component. As you review your submission, find examples of evidence where your practice demonstrates that you have met the specific standards measured by that component.

Candidates are encouraged to use the online score calculator to measure the impact of possible scores. This hands-on tool can help candidates test out various scenarios to develop a strategy for retaking components. Make sure to use only estimates of reasonable scores according to the scoring rubric. The Scoring Guide section “Evaluating Your Performance” and “Preparing for the Next Assessment Cycle” should be helpful.

Because the Weight for Component 3 is the largest of the weights, mathematically, a score increase on Component 3, e.g., increasing from 1.75 to 2.75, will result in a larger increase in weighted scaled score than the same increase on Component 2. If you plan to retake a component(s), think carefully about which component(s) you feel you can realistically make the most improvement.

You have up to two retake attempts for each component, and you can retake at any time during the five-year window; retake years do not have to be consecutive. You can have a year when you take or retake no components; however, it does not extend your three-year window to initially attempt each of the four components or the five-year window within which certification can be achieved.

To register, complete the following steps:

• Log in to your National Board account and pay the $75 nonrefundable and nontransferable registration fee. (The registration fee must be paid before you can select a component).
• Click “Purchase Component” to select the component(s) you would like to complete.
• Submit payment. Payment can be made at any time prior to the payment deadline.

Prior to registering, we encourage you to review the important dates, deadlines, and policy information contained in the Guide to National Board Certification, located on our Candidate Resources page.